Connecticut Shooting Leaves 20 Children Dead

[Lolly]

http://www.theage.com.au/world/connecticut-shooting-leaves-20-children-dead-20121215-2bfw3.html

I can't comprehend this.

[Genericname2365]

I think this (satirical) article is quite relevant: http://www.theonion.com/articles/right-to-own-handheld-device-that-shoots-deadly-me,30742/

[Biceps]

I don't even get why weapons are legal in the US...

[slothpomba]

I don't even get why weapons are legal in the US...

It's quite easy to understand why they are legal ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution ), the question is whether thats right or not.

[Dejan]

I am definitely not surprised that this yet again has occurred again in America but nevertheless such a sad and tragic day for the parents and those who were killed

[enwiabe]

I like the onion but to politicise this tragedy is kinda fucked. At least give it some time before going into the gun debate

That's what the NRA has been doing for too long. Every time there's a shooting, "You can't talk about it because you're politicising a tragedy!"

That sentiment could have come straight out of the ole' Fox News.

There's no better time to discuss gun control than when, in the world's biggest superpower, someone grabs a glock, a sig sauer and 50 bullets and kills 30 people.

[Genericname2365]

I like the onion but to politicise this tragedy is kinda fucked. At least give it some time before going into the gun debate

I disagree. The issue of gun possession leading to these mass shootings is intrinsically political; arguably then this is hardly being politicised. Tragedies such as these raise important questions as to the future of gun control legislation, and the immediate aftermath is surely when people are most receptive to hearing viewpoints the issue. To 'give it some time' is to wait until the emotional impact has lessened with people (as it did with the cinema shooting a few months ago), and then once again, the issue is put on the backburner and we wait until another tragedy occurs, with absolutely no change having occurred. (Not that I'm saying change is going to be easy, anyway.)

[enwiabe]

They are also subject to emotionally charged decisions which can also end up being a net loss for people. An example is the support for the Patriot Act and other violations of rights in the name of fighting terrorism that were enacted post 9/11.

I'm not saying an immediate action isn't warranted either because some soul searching is necessary and beneficial (such as gun reform in Colorado after Columbine) but have some tact and not do it on the day it happened.

If someone I knew died in a car crash, would it be appropriate if I blurted out that they should have had a car service right there and then? There is a stark difference between my position and that of Fox News. I'm not using the reason to permanently bar tragedies from gun discourse

But it also could be that I'm not in America and unbeknownst to me, the shit slinging already started before the onion (won't be surprised if it did)

Do you understand that, on average, 30 gun homicides occur in America every day?

Do you realise that it's literally impossible to have this discussion without the wounds being fresh? 30 people were killed in connecticut shooting, but that's just a small blip on the radar. It's not even an anomaly, it's well within the expected number of killings to take place at the hands of a gun in a single day.

You seriously just do not understand the scope of gun crime in America.

"Have some tact"?

What the fuck do you think the people who are dead because of that crime would want us to do? Twiddle our thumbs? They'd want reform as soon as possible to prevent other people meeting their fate. How sick of you to say that it's somehow offensive to want to talk about ways to prevent this from happening again. It's especially pertinent right now so that this stops happening.

[ninwa]

I feel like the most appropriate thing to do at this moment is to grieve, rather than get into arguments about politics.

[Dejan]

Agree with ninwa!, give it a few days before jumping into the arguments

[appianway]

This is too close to home. 50 km away.

It's impossible to say whether this particular incident would have happened with different gun laws. But guns are so easy to find here, and I think that the prevalence of random shootings and massacres would definitely be lower with tighter controls. I feel strongly about this subject. 

[lynt.br]

I raised these issues on Facebook but I'll repeat them here:

I do question how effective gun control laws would actually be in America at the moment. Obviously it is ideal in principle to have some form of gun regulation, but I have no idea how they could effectively implement it. America has the highest gun ownership rate in the world, meaning a buy-back scheme like we did in Australia isn't economically feasible. Further, how do you encourage Americans to surrender or register their firearms when only about 50% of Americans support stricter regulation of firearms (compared with 85% of Australians during the buy-back scheme in 1996)? Not to mention that unless the flow of illegal firearms being smuggled in from South America and Mexico is somehow curtailed, firearm regulation isn't going to make much of a difference.

I think that America's gun problems are much deeper and broader than legislation can fix. Australia and almost all of the European countries that now have gun control laws still had substantially lower gun homicide rates than America before those laws were introduced. There is also a disconnect between gun ownership levels and gun homicides between European nations and the US. For example, Switzerland has relatively high gun ownership levels but still has substantially lower gun homicide rates than the US. The problem in America seems to be more of a social one than a legal one...

[rebeccab26]

most terrible thing i have ever heared or read about in my life
poor innocent beautiful angels <3 rest in peace
i didnt even know any of them and been crying other this all day and can't sleep
imagine what it's like for those who did
can't even comprehend what the parents, families, teachers and friends are going through right now
words cant do justice to how terrible this massacre is
hence why idiots should not have guns and schools should have higher levels of security

[brenden]

Schools should have higher levels of security? School seems enough like a prison as it is. Not sure how I'd feel walking passed an armed guard every time I wanted to go to the sandpit.

Edit: People should just stop killing people, like rapists should just stop raping. Not every female should be a martial artist and not every school should be an airport.

[Starlight]

Absolutely heartbreaking.