Newtown, Conn School Shooting

[Hillschicks]

Guns arent the problem and banning them will only hurt the innocent... Criminals will still get them if they want them, cuz they dont care what the law says... My heart goes out to those in conn, but i honestly believe if the teachers were armed and trained alot of lives could have been saved... Banning guns because of violence is like banning cars because people drink and drive... Want to get strict control over something, lets start with mental illness

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Actually, violent crime is falling on a nationwide level within the US, though there was a rise in 'simple assaults' in 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/justice/us-violent-crime/index.html Freakonomics has a rather good podcast on the subject.

Video games, movies, and monsters seem to be comforting, easy answers, but that is not an accurate picture of major forces behind crime, or of mass killings. As for the idea that violence has just sprung up suddenly, people seem to forget the tarrings, forced lobotomies, riots, and other violence found in "the good old days". There is cognative dissonance going on too that our culture is somehow both more violent and blood-crazed but also so soft and squishy that anything unpleasant crumples our younger generations into sobbing masses of overprotected snowflakey goodness. I would argue that we have a culture of willfull ignorance.

 

[redhen]

I agree Hillschicks..
The mentally ill are just pushed through the system and let back on the street time and time again..until finally they snap...then its too late.
It keeps happening..why? Why don't we have stricter mental health laws to protect them AND us from them..
I'd tell you why..but I'll get in trouble..

 

[RHRanch]

I agree Hillschicks..
The mentally ill are just pushed through the system and let back on the street time and time again..until finally they snap...then its too late.
It keeps happening..why? Why don't we have stricter mental health laws to protect them AND us from them..
I'd tell you why..but I'll get in trouble..

Number one problem with mental health treatment (or lack of) in the US: No funding. Only treatment that is really funded is in prison. This is why police often charge mentally ill people with crimes in the hopes they can get treatment. But is that the best we will do for the mentally ill in this country? Criminalize them for having a mental disorder? We need to fund treatment centers (long term residency), halfway house residence facilities and fund supervision and monitoring mental health patients.

 

[sourland]

And now some fool, attention seeker has called the Newtown Catholic church threatening to shoot everyone at mass because "My friend didn't finish the job." I can only hope that this one they can catch.

 

[redhen]

Jesus...this world is nuts.
Also heard those creeps the Westboro Baptist protestors are going to protest at the funeral.
But that hacker group "Anonymous "..hacked the church member info list and posted all the church member names and addresses..
Things are getting ugly...
But I do hope that member address list goes around ...just sayin'..

 

[Matthew3590]

And now some fool, attention seeker has called the Newtown Catholic church threatening to shoot everyone at mass because "My friend didn't finish the job." I can only hope that this one they can catch.

Hopefully that is just a prank call from some sick people.

 

[waterdog]

Maybe we wouldn't have to try to find ways to control guns or mental illness if we would not have let our society get to where its at. It is kind of hard to tell everyone that it is perfectly fine to kill unborn children everyday with abortion but it is not fine to shoot them at a school. Maybe it is a power greater than mankind telling us we are as a society VERY VERY disturbed.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

But that hacker group "Anonymous "..hacked the church member info list and posted all the church member names and addresses..
Things are getting ugly...
But I do hope that member address list goes around ...just sayin'..

Starting to like Anonymous...

 

[CluckyCharms]

Hopefully that is just a prank call from some sick people.

No offense, but it is sentiments like this that are keeping society easy targets of these psychopathic killers. A prank call is calling someone at random and farting into the receiver...or answering your own phone "Hobo's land of misfit pop cans, how can I help you?" A call saying what this person said, to the people they said it to...is not a "prank call", it's a death threat and it should be treated as such, and they should be locked up for a very long time. However, he or she will most likely get a slap on the wrist and sent about their merry way. Then, they'll open rounds 5 years from now on another (or same) elementary school...and have absolutely everybody saying "poor thing must have been mentally unstable," meanwhile the entire thing would have been in premeditation mode in their sane mind for the last 5 years...since that phone call ended in a "Bad boy, John Doe, don't do that again. Here, have a cookie."

A prohibition on guns is not the answer. Prioritizing "mental health awareness"

is not the answer. The answer is calling a spade a spade.