Are you saying that everybody in the other industrial countries of the world take personal responsibility, except in the United States?

Gun Deaths - 2011: Japan 48, Great Britain 8, Switzerland 34, Canada 52, Israel 58, Sweden 21, Germany 42, UNITED STATES 10,728. source NRA

No, I really don't care what the other countries are doing. If you will do some research, you will find that a lot of the gun deaths in the US are gang related and that the children killing children are gang members.

People join gangs because it gives them a "family" to relate to and rules to follow. If you don't follow the gang rules there are consequences. To bad it not the same in the "real family."

Some of us are no less emtionally affected by the tragedy than another....others may try to measure that!!??

Some of us have opinions to offer that we believe could be/may be the cause or causes or contributors to the tragedy.

Let's try to continue to express our sympathy for those who lost their most precious possessions in this tragedy. And some of us hope that by expressing our opinions abaout the cause or causes that allowed this to happen will continue. And one day as a result will lead to meaningful prevention.

And hopefully those compelled to make totally and completely insensitive categorizations will abate until a more appropriate quorum.

btk

It appears so far and not all the evidence has come to light but I suspect that the shooters mother or both parents were irresponsible gun owners by not securing unauthorized access to these weapons. I'm sure there are many more problems this family had than we will ever know. Ct. has some of the toughest gun laws in this country. I feel it is a big truth today no one takes responsibility anymore for anything. I try not to dwell on ifs or maybe's. I'm actually just so saddened by the events that unfolded yesterday I only want to focus on the lives lost.

I concur that we should focus upon the loss of lives and those affected by the tragic events in Connecticut. We all search for how and why this could have happened - we tend to find "something" to hold accountable - finding "something" is easier that finding "someone". Having said that, we must also realize that, in the United States, we live in a culture of violence - a culture which we have allowed to germinate and one which is seemingly tolerated. The violence is real and the effects are so far reaching. Somehow, we must get beyond the dialogue and cultivate a climate of personal responsbility and accountability. And, we should never forget all those who were lost in this tragedy.

Tell me why it is necessary to exercise our 2nd amendment by owning four guns and a high power rifle? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. What possible reason could there be for owning such powerful weaponry? A disaster waiting to happen.

Oh!, Billy how we've missed you
 

My only question, when would it be necessary to have a gun with rapid fire, one shot after the other in this country? I understand the right to bear arms, for protection and hunting????....Of course we don't know what was going thru Adam's mind at the time, but I understand that he had a lot of "alone time" with video games and such....some of the video games can be very violent...But when there is a will, there is a way, Could this have been avoided, really!?





TE=billethkid;594750]the guns as already stated are not the problem.
We have become, like it or not, an anything goes society....swearing is common place in public, movies, television....killing in entertainment is common place in the news, the movies and on television...ditto sex....ditto people slaughtering people.

AND GOD forbid anymore that we try to do something about and bring into action every political, special interest group, minority group (not referring to race) who MIGHT object. And as a result the now all too common place linguine spined leaders at every level who fear to offend somebody for something.

We continue to allow the degrading of core valuesthat actually punish those who do wrong.

It is not the guns....look in the mirror....we the people have become so permissive we have no idea anymore what to do when something bad happens or when someone does something bad.

GOD forbid we try to use dicipline...punishment...or law enforcement.

IT IS NOT THE GUNS.....that is a cop out, political issue that will solve absolutely nothing.

Does anyone think for one minute that gun control would have prevented the lunatic of today from employing some other means of accomplishing the need to do some killing? Of course not.

IT AIN'T THE GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

btk[/QUOTE]

:agree: I agree with you 1000% You are absolutely right on this. Excellent post and well written.

It is the type of weapon and the ease of putting them in the hands of deranged people that I am troubled with. You can acquire an assault rifle and ammo easier than you can adopt a dog in this country. I am a hunter raised on a farm and will always own guns, but I find something kinda creepy about someone that wants assault rifles and automatic pistols like the glock and a 33 round clip.

Loss for word....
 

This latest incident has me at a complete loss for words. I cannot imagine in my wildest dreams that I would send my child to school only for them never to return alive. As some of you have stated, this world has become a different place with killings, no one being held accountable for much, the "F" word is most frequently used on TV now, sex is everywhere and humans run wild with not much guidance. I believe that reform starts with each of us. If we all took just one thing we did incorrectly......not stop at a stop sign, not littering, picking up after our pets, using our signals in the cars and carts.....just the little things.....it would be a start. We need to hold ourselves and our children accountable. The world is a mess and I fear it is going to get much worse so prepare. What happened to society and treating each other with kindness and respect? Maybe everyone needs to be armed?? Perhaps they would think twice about taking the lives of others.

I totally agree that we are all emotionally effected by this tragedy. I also agree that if these children's deaths don't cause our lawmakers to act, nothing will. Time for them to get busy.

I agree with Figmo, BTK and Lark ...

It's not the gun laws that are to blame. It's the culture of violence in which we live. We need to stop exposing our children to violence on television, in the news, in video games, on the internet, at the movies. Children need to be taught AT HOME to love and respect others, and that violence isn't normal or permissable.

the issue is to determine what it is they should be acting upon.
If they are capable of acting it will not be because they know, understand the problem and are taking action(s) to be sure it does not happen again.

The government has shown time and again they will not do ANYTHING that will go against their re-election. Period!

If they cannot agree to stop spending money they do not have how in the world does any thinking person believe they will be capable of doing anything about tragedieis like the recent one in CT?

Let's just go along for a moment that all those who are against gunds and or think that gun controls will prevent such tragedies. So now all congress has to do is determine and agree on which kinds of guns should be controlled or out lawed. Auto? Semi auto? Any gun that can be fired rapidly? 20 shot magazine? 12? 10? Domestic only? Foreign ? Ammo? calibers?

If anybody thinks our congress will magically find a way to solve the problem....I am waiting to hear what that might sound like.

Guns are nothing more than another political lightning rod that will be controversial forever just like all other partisan issues....infortunately.

What I want to know is what is going to be done to root out the cause of the tragedy? What did this young man do? why? who knew? who knew and in our current society would not come forward to do something about it?

Several other posts refer to the society of today and our attitudes as the real problem. The notion of "not in my back yard"......"dare not say something for fear of offending some one".....eliminate the role political correctness (barf....happens every time I say the words).....bring back discipline. AND since none of this is going to happen....it is much easier to go after the guns. And I use the term easier.....we shall see.

As I have said and figmo bohica and others....it starts by looking in the mirror and demanding change......it is high time for our society to take a step back to a time when many of the ills of today just simply would not be allowed.

Then and only then will there be a possibility to prevent another tragedy like CT.

btk

As a Canadian, maybe you can explain what Canadians do differently that causes such a discrepancy in the number of annual gun deaths, 52 in Canada compared to 10,728 in the US is 2011?

How do Canadians not allow the culture of violence that is running wildly in this country? Canadians see the same movies, play the same video games, use the same internet? Is it all a matter of family values being different in Canada, or more discipline in the homes?

"It's not the gun laws that are to blame. It's the culture of violence in which we live. We need to stop exposing our children to violence on television, in the news, in video games, on the internet, at the movies. Children need to be taught AT HOME to love and respect others, and that violence isn't normal or permissable.

I would agree with parts of this post and disagree with other parts. First, when we were kids, we almost all had cap guns and played Cowboys and Indians with plenty of play shooting of each other and seeing each other clasp their hand over their heart and go down dying. There were all the cowboy movies and television shows with Roy, Gene, and Hoppy doing violence on the bad guys who did violence on good guys. None was graphic!!

It is the graphic violence of video games like Black Ops or World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto that is a problem (but not the whole problem). Who buys the games for the kids? Mom and Dad do and that is the problem.

The teaching of respect needs to be taught at home, school, and church.

There also is NO NEED for civilians to own high capacity magazines for their rifles or pistols. There is a need for more evaluation and treatment of people suspected of mental problems. I am sure Figmo and Ladydoc would agree with those two statements.

Will Congress do anything? Probably not - the NRA has too many Congressmen scared of not winning re-election if they vote in a reasonable (non-NRA approved) way.