To the parents, i'd wager, the age doesn't make a difference. They may have more experience with age, but when I look at my child I still see my baby. What is devastating is in all these years, with all these shootings, nothing has been done and nothing will be done, because the "legal" crowd doesn't understand that it may be one of their own being featured as the suspect.

My children are 42 and 38. I still look at them as my babies.

@polarwarssz:

What is devastating is in all these years, with all these shootings, nothing has been done and nothing will be done, because the "legal" crowd doesn't understand that it may be one of their own being featured as the suspect.

what can be done? can you predict the future and prevent another school shooting from ever happening again? we literally, as people, can't do anything to ever prevent such a horrific disaster. it's literally impossible. there ARE dangerous people out there and there will always be. it is not fair for you to sit there and say these words like it can be done. the most we can do as people, and as parents or teachers, is try. try to keep our children safe the best we can. my heart goes out to all those who lost their lives and to their family memebers and staff at the school and the other students who are now terrorized by what has happened.

polarwarssz, amandajovilly has it right. You cannot, nor will you ever be able to, legislate Human behavior.

The headline is the worst. There will be some scumbag who tries to top it. I know it sounds stupid, but they all want to be the BIGGEST As. I pray for all the children.

Crystal, thanks for sharing. I think your response might be more like someone who is too involved in televised stories that can get under your skin and affect emotions and the mind (like Sept 11 video played over and over again...causing some to fear planes in the sky). You cried for half an hour? It would help to turn off the TV and put things in perspective. School shooting, though reported a lot, involving young children (below 13), is still a rare event. Guns used to shoot spouses, neighbors, friends and strangers (in a drunken brawl, road rage, argument) is still much more common and much higher. There are probably kids in foster home in your neighborhood who probably need your attention and love.

Group catastrophe, like tornados or tsunamis, create a community of mourners and grief stricken people who can share their loss and mourn together...which can be empowering. People who have been victimized alone struggle the most.

Blaming the shooter, without knowing his psychological state, is not very healthy. Lot of American parents, not knowing what the future holds, might not be able to predict how their own babies are going to turn out. Many parents, good and decent, never predicted that their kids would turn out to be mass murderers, girl-friend abusers, teacher-killers or become part of a gang. Very religious pious parents produced Ted Bundy who killed over 40 people. Ted was a soft spoken quiet suburban guy who went to bible classes...and as an adult, even when he lived in his parents' house, was killing people and then burying them in the basement. The parents were clueless.

So never assume kids from good homes don't turn out to be trouble in America. Sometimes there are serial killers, like the Kayes from Alaska, who talked about enjoying killing. His family upbringing was pretty normal. There is a great deal in his later adult life that could have screwed him up.

Columbine shooters, two of them, were very different. One had all the classic symptoms of a sociopath, the other was a naïve, lonely misfit, depressed and unhappy, who followed the other guy.

What do you think about all those children in Afghanistan or Iraq who have been traumatized by more than eight years of continuous bombing, shooting, explosions, strikes, bloodshed and death? Or...many kids in Africa who are dying of hunger? In the US people have so much that "violence is entertainment" and technology is producing a lot of undiagnosed autistic kids whose social skills, empathy and connectivity is near zero. This is not a singular problem. Put it in the context of a larger cultural issue...where there are no values than "self" and religious dogma replaces spiritual roots, meaning and purpose.

I have watched
news accounts from as many sources as I can (except one) and I began to come to
the conclusion that Newtown seems to be an amazingly stable and highly socialized
community. Everything from the initial reactions by school personnel, police
and other emergency services to acts of heroism and compassion seems to have
been exemplary. I have a feeling that these people just may also be a big part
of the hope the rest of us are looking for in the way of serious action in the
future. I say that because this community doesn't seem to subscribe to
reactionary impulse, rather, they seem more likely to make "resolve"
their driving force going forward.

This is a profoundly
sad tragedy. I have been especially disturbed by a screen shot that almost
every news agency has shown. Some have made it their background lead for every
news segment. It is a still of a group of children being led by an adult. The
kids are in single file, both hands on the shoulders of the child ahead of them
in "bunny hop" fashion. At the center is a little girl, her mouth
wide open and her face distorted by grief who is seemingly blinded by her own
tears but still clinging to the shoulders of the child ahead. After seeing it
for the umpteenth time I commented to my wife that I wished they wouldn't show
that picture again and again. It seemed unfair to take advantage of her grief
that way. But then I realized that, no, we need to see that and we need to keep
seeing her until we are inspired to act on her behalf. She reminds us of the
responsibility we all have to communicate our outrage at the inaction and
failure of our government to repeatedly refuse to act in our best interest.

As saddening as
the event has been I can't seem to bring myself to hate the perpetrator. That
is another aspect of the character of Newtown that struck me. It is the absence
of any angry or hateful outwardly communicated by anyone- even law enforcement.
I have, myself, never been able to feel anything but pity and sadness for
Laughner and Holmes and now I see this young man as yet another victim of a
very sick American culture issue. I don't hate them and rather, I see them as
people whom we as a nation, have abandoned.

We have failed
as a civilized society and recovery is going to require much, much more than
conversation. Our government is the soil in which our society grows and we are
a socially starving people. Money and political careerism can no longer be the
driving factors for our national leadership.

Brutha - We have failed as a society? Its everybodys fault? You've been watching too much TV? If you were a normal person like me you'd blame the government and have no emotional reaction. Talk about hard hearts and thick skulls!This is all intellectual balloney and apparently some people don't like it if you display any normal emotional reaction (anger, sadness) when a bunch of innocent children are savagely murdered. Hell in my neighborhood people think you must be on drugs if you're happy or say good morning to them.

If you heard this story and didn't shed a tear - you're the one with a problem. If you don't blame the shooter but yourself then the right thing to do would be to take your own life or surrender to the police immediately.

Trying to turn a tragedy into a political argument to benefit your specific worldview, or score a point for your cause, makes you almost as much of a scum as the shooter. Most of these loony-toon killers probably have a very poor diet, a liberal education, a steady stream of anti- depressant medications, and they have become hopeless while waiting for the government to save them or for American companies to provide them employment opportunities, while learning in school that good and evil are just concepts not realities, - a ridiculous idea that is proven wrong every time these type of violent acts occur. Right now those kids are in Heaven enjoying the silent and holy night that we all sing about, all is calm all is bright - while the shooter is beginning his sentence. His actions require justice and there will be hell to pay. Suicide is the most selfish act a human can commit, to combine it with the murder of children, is evil, and only done for publicity. Its probabbly nice for the shooter to fantasize about the fact that after he's killed everyone, including himself, that there will be people arguing for his forgiveness and mercy online as soon as the story hits.

There is only one possible reason to care about the shooter, he is loved by God, other than that his actions removed all further consideration - especially when he took his own life.

Unfortunately, there is no hell. Therefore, it is up to us, the living, to do something to prevent angry young fools from getting guns and doing this. Will another massacre tomorrow be the last straw? The next day? Right now, there is some young idiot with a grudge against those who love life, plotting his revenge and his moment of going out and taking someone with him.

Face it: you will not prevent a determined psychopath from wreaking havoc.

ummm i hate to be picky here but animals dont do this......he is less then scum sure.....but animal...not even close....

...or the University of Texas, where the guy was picking off people from the bell tower?

He got in the school because his mother was a teacher there. We have become more and more a Godless society. When I was young, rarely did you have this kind of violence. Our parents, schools and churches gave us a basis of learning that taught us life is sacred. That has long since ceased to exist.

Jersey Girl 1, were you in school in 1927? How godless was it "back then"?

Did you read in the article about the 38 school children murdered by a fellow named Kehoe? He blew up the school and killed some 48 people. So how does that kind of violence fit with your post that "when you were young..."

Right you are Jim. The only difference between now and back then is the mass and social media that allows for worldwide dissemination of news in a matter of minutes. Child abductions and mass murders have always been there, and guns weren't always a factor.

Europeans don't have the right to lecture Americans about ANYTHING considering that Americans have given thousands of lives to rescue Europeans from dictators in TWO World Wars AND the Cold War. If you had the balls to stand up for your own freedoms maybe we wouldn't have to constantly bail you out.

You obviously need a serious reality check when it comes to the issue of gun ownership - I'm happy to oblige:

1) Every year firearms owned by law-abiding citizens prevent between 2.5 and 4.5 MILLION violent crimes. []

If you take guns away from the law-abiding citizens and you don't take them away from the criminals the rate of crime will INCREASE significantly.

2) Since Britain BANNED guns the rate of violent crime has skyrocketed: []

The same thing is true in Australia []

You are now six times more likely to be mugged in London than in New York City.

3) Switzerland REQUIRES fully automatic weapons in every home but the incidence of gun crime is SO LOW that they don't bother to record it.

4) In Israel civilians carry fully automatic weapons everywhere - even to the beach: [] That doesn't automatically turn Israel into the Wild West.

5) BANNING guns WILL NOT end gun crime - it will INCREASE it. Would it be better if we didn't need guns? Perhaps - but that is NOT the situation that we are in. I would rather have the gun and not need it than need it and not have it.

Now go back to your gay marriage, your six week vacations, your failing economy and your chronically high unemployment. you disgusting, cheese-eating, surrender-monkeys...

NameLocationDateYearDeath tollNotes

2012 Brindisi school bombing
Brindisi, Italy
May 19
2012
1
^{[citation needed]}

2012 Midi-Pyrénées shootings
Toulouse, France
March 19
2012
4
^{[citation needed]}

Kanebogen elementary school shooting
Harstad, Norway
April 28
2009
0
Nine-year-old pupil fires shotgun in schoolyard; nobody is injured.^[98]

OAED Vocational College shooting
Athens, Greece
April 10
2009
1
^{[citation needed]}

University of Pécs shooting
Pécs, Hungary
November 26
2009
1
23-year-old student entered the building of the university's biophysics research institute and opened fire in the classroom.One man died in the shooting. Earlier two people were reported to be in a critical condition, a third in serious condition.^{[citation needed]}

Winnenden school shooting
Winnenden, Germany
March 11
2009
16
Former 17-year-old student kills 16, injuring nine others.^{[citation needed]}

Kauhajoki school shooting
Kauhajoki, Finland
September 23
2008
11
^{[citation needed]}

Jokela school shooting
Tuusula, Finland
November 7
2007
9
The incident resulted in the deaths of nine people: five male students (ages 16–18) and one female adult student (age 25) the school principal, Helena Kalmi (age 61); the school nurse (age 43); and the gunman, Auvinen, himself, who was also one of the school's students. One other person suffered gunshot wounds, and eleven people were injured by shattering glass while escaping from the school building. The day before the incident, Auvinen posted a video on YouTube predicting the massacre at the school.^{[citation needed]}

Geschwister Scholl School attack
Emsdetten, Germany
November 20
2006
1
Bastian Bosse, an 18-year-old male, and former student, had fired shots with a front loader and a sawed-off shotgun on campus, threw a molotow cocktail outside the school, and lid a pipe bomb upon arrival of the police. The incident ended with 37 people injured, including 19 students (three girls and a boys suffered gunshot wounds), one teachers, 16 police officers (most suffering from smoke inhalation), and the custodian who was shot in the abdomen inside the school. The shooter took his own life. A total of 13 pipe/smoke bombs and four shot guns where found (five smoke bombs in a backpack near the body of the student, four in the car, three where strapped to the body, one was set off by police while on school grounds).^{[citation needed]}

Grund- und Hauptschule von Rötz shooting
Rötz (Oberpfalz), Germany
March 7
2005
0
After being ordered to leave the classroom a 14-year-old student returns with a gun threatening the life of the 35-year-old class teacher. During a struggle the weapon is fired, the weapon is removed from the student. Investigators' findings state that the student did not intend to kill the teacher, but himself. No one was injured.^{[citation needed]}

Beslan school hostage crisis
Beslan, Russia
September 1
2004
385
Attack purpertrated by Chechen Rebels, 31 of which died and 1 was captured.^{[citation needed]}

Terra College
The Hague, Netherlands
January
2004
1
Principal (H. van Wieren) shot in the head by a student.^{[citation needed]}

Coburg shooting
Coburg, Germany
July 3
2003
1
16-year-old student shoots two of his teachers before taking his own life.^{[citation needed]}

Erfurt massacre
Erfurt, Germany
April 26
2002
17
The Erfurt massacre was a school shooting that occurred on April 26, 2002, at the Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany. Sixteen people were killed before the perpetrator committed suicide. The victims comprised 13 school staff (12 teachers and one administrator), two students and one police officer. In addition, seven people were injured.^{[citation needed]}

ROC de Leijgraaf
Veghel, Netherlands
December 7
1999
0 killed, 5 wounded
^[96][97]

Dunblane massacre
Dunblane, United Kingdom
March 13
1996
18
The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on March 13, 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed, in addition to the attacker, who committed suicide. It remains the deadliest attack on children in United Kingdom history.^{[citation needed]}

Aarhus University Shooting
Aarhus, Denmark
April 5
1994
3
University student shoots and kills three and wounds two others before taking his own life.^{[citation needed]}

Raumanmeri school shooting
Rauma, Finland
January 24
1989
2
Two students were fatally shot by a 14-year-old student at the Raumanmeri secondary school. The shooter had claimed to be a victim of bullying.

Eppstein school shooting
Eppstein, Germany
June 3
1983
6

Cologne school massacre
Cologne, Germany
June 11
1964
10

Kungälv school Shooting
Kungälv, Sweden
March 4
1961
1
A 17-year-old fires 15 bullets into a crowd at a school dance at Kungälvs Läroverk (a/k/a Thorildskolan), killing one student and wounding six others.

Bremen school shooting
Bremen, Germany
June 20
1913
5

Hello,

I am going to ignore your superlatives expletives "$%#@&" :)) But you are right that "people don't hunt for food in the US that much...though they may occasionally eat what they hunt. They mostly hunt for sports and recreation".

Guns for security has shown that in only one of out ten (one out of ten!) cases of home robbery, attack or rape has the victim been able to stop the crime, scare the attacker or immobilize or disable the criminal successfully with the help of a gun. Most of the time gun is not accessible to the victim while under attack, or it is used by the attacker to hurt or harm the victim further, or it is discharged inappropriately causing self death or death of an innocent person.

There are people who feel psychologically safe with a gun. Like wearing their watch they wear their gun to feel safe and powerful. For others there is a political reason...no security and no hunting. But they will not admit that down South. They are entitled to it...and they fear the government, dislike it or want to overthrow it.

US gun ownership is unique. Even Switzerland, which has no official army, has a different reason for its 100% gun ownership. For them it is to defend against foreign invasion as they have no army. US is different. You might find some of this strange as I do...but it is a different psychology. Northeast and the South do share a lot on some of these issues surprisingly.

Kindly share views from different European countries. Americans might like to learn. No expletives please!

Good job defending guns, I'm sure the parents of those children genuinely agree the meaningless death of their child is worth your law.

(Also please don't go to the "he didn't need a gun to kill, it could've been a bomb" part. The @!$%#er is dead, we don't know what he would've done or whether he was at all capable of making a bomb)

I'm not lecturing you as some european. I'm lecturing as someone who knows how stupid your gun-laws are (like I said, try freaking pepperspray. it's actually faster than getting your gun out of a safe).

Every part of the world is @!$%#ed up, and that is why I objectively choose to be a complete shutin and work at home.

But seriously, like I said your gun-laws are just idiotic. Think about it, stress in society is going up and every John Doe has the ability to acquire a gun, a device that has actually been created (or atleast to be used as) to wage war and take lives.

There are more ways to fight crime than giving every random civilian a gun, but America doesn't really seem to care about that.

And I'd rather get mugged in London 6 times than shot in the head once in New York.

Not that I'll ever have that issue here in Holland. The mugger would give me back my remaining cash after he was done spending most of it on weed.

Addie, because your posts have annoyed me so much, I find the thought of you aiming pepper spray at a gunman intent on killing you somewhat amusing. I'm not saying I want it to happen; just that if it did, I wouldn't mind placing a wager. It's a safe bet that the bullet would beat the spray, don't you think?

(No, seriously, don't you think?)

In the Unites States, a well armed citizenry is part of the balance of power between the government and the citizenry. In Europe, your citizenry will simply have to surrender to whoever is in power after the next coup, which is sure to happen if economic conditions continue their downward spiral.

I suspect the Germans would have thought twice about marching into Poland or France if they suspected the citizenry was heavily possessed of semi and automatic weapons. When the next coup or invasion comes, you will go like lambs to the slaughter.

More sensible than waging war on guns would be waging war on Hollywood and the video game industry. Both have coarsened our culture and made violence and killing banal. It is no accident that these killers are predominantly young men who are outcasts and losers with little, if any, contact with the real world, looking for a quick and easy way out of their mental problems. Those of us who have actually had to deal not only with dead comrades but even dead enemies, understand the fundamental ugliness of the violent end to life.

We have had free access to guns throughut American history. Why is it that no one stops to think about what has changed recently and made these massacres, especially at schools, commonplace?

machspeeddemon, Cause your chances of survival are so much higher when he's pointing a gun at you and you have to get the gun out of your safe, right? besides, I don't see how a crime (as I mentioned it) is automatically an armed robbery.

wooddragon, thanks for pointing our own history out to me. I'd rather surrender to a leader than wage war which will leave nothing but chaos. Whether you believe it or not, you are NOT independent, People NEED a leader. And I still find it disgusting this is a valid reason for you to allow anyone to carry a gun. It has a large role in things like these school shootings.

Cincinnati, everything you've said is valid. We should not be fed with violence through media entertainment every day. But it is happening, it won't stop due to the insane cashflow that goes through entertainment and the real thing that makes the killings happen are still the guns.

Somehow to me it just seems like most of you are actually gun owners, most likely with a hobby surrounding guns aswell. It's normal and fine that you're defending what you stand for/like but you're obviously going to have to face facts. What you have now is the same as allowing everyone to drive a car, regardless of license.

How is it unreasonable to bind a few rules to the ownership of guns? atleast the @!$%#er who shot 20 innocent children wouldn't have had a gun that day if those rules existed.

You guys have had a cool history with freedom and stuff, but that stuff is bringing you down now. Like I said, you're not independent and having a gun in your home when a leader steps up to take over your throne will not help you. If Americans were to stand up for their right with the guns in their home there'd be nothing but chaos.

it could not, if not guns it would have been something else!!! This guy was hell bent on killing, we don't know why they kids but his brother claims he had mental issues. Time may explain but he had issues with his mother, and probably the time she gave to other peoples kids.....

More gun laws will not fix these type of incidents!

So if you do the math how does 4.5 million people tell 300,000,000 hundred million people how things are going to be run? I think you're roach is burning your fingers man.

The purpose behind the Second Amendment had nothing to do with hunting or sport. It reflected the lesson that it was only a VERY well armed populace that allowed the colonies to shake the yoke of an oppressive central government. It is well that the government fear the people rather than the people fear the government.

I'm sure that George III would have warmly approved of all manner of controlling guns and even a government monopoly. Fortunately, he did not have it his way. The progressive government we have today, muscling its way into every aspect of our lives, makes George III look like a novice.

And, no, I am not now nor ever have been an NRA member. So you can stick that canard where the sun doesn't shine.

We The People have had enough of the NRA and there supporters and here in Colorado we are preparing to pass the toughest gun laws in this country ! Watch Colorado lead the way for the nation !

You want gun laws in Colorado, then start by taking them away from the law enforcement, then the criminals will know that they do not need guns to protect themselves from the government.

You can't have trained people on school grounds. That would make them the first target then provide extra fire power. Why not be sensible and require all parents to provide body armor for the kids who go to free fire zone schools, where the crimal know there are no guns to protect the children. Or is that gun free zone, they mean the same thing, just the one is honest and the other just fools every law abiding target.

I like the idea of armed guards at schools. If they become the first target - at least it wasn't a student. If there had been armed officers on campus at each of these shootings when they first broke out, lives would have been saved, and it is quite possible that rather than being seen as an extra target, their very presence would have been enough of a deterrence to keep the event from ever happening in the first place.

It is known here as "The Bath School Disaster". My parents had some friends who were survivors, I think the survivors stayed connected as a group, meeting from time to time throughout their lives.