Breaking: We Have Lost Our Minds

Filed in National by on December 14, 2012

Via TPM:

Police are responding to reports of a shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, the Hartford Courant reported Friday morning.

Police are reporting a number of injured parties. The nature of their injuries is not clear.

Follow live updates at @hartfordcourant.

10:20 AM – 14 Dec 12 · Details

#Newtown groups of students, some crying being escorted away from the school

10:15 AM – 14 Dec 12 · Details

Police are reporting a number of injured parties. The nature of their injuries is not clear. #newtown

Newtown school officials confirm police are responding to a report of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School #breakingnews

Didn’t post on the Oregon Mall shooting – Hard to keep up with all these responsible gun owners.  If only those 5th graders had been armed.

I’m so sick of this.

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

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  1. pandora says:

    Sam Stein ‏@samsteinhp

    Local CBS “Children were advised to run past the office with their eyes closed”

    Heartbreaking. Is this really the price we continue to pay for freedom?

  2. Delaware Dem says:

    A hearty fuck you to the NRA.

  3. socialistic ben says:

    we deserve to be wiped out next week.

  4. Delaware Dem says:

    Gun lovers: what’s more sacred? The life of a child, or a self-serving misinterpretation of the 2nd amendment? (Don’t bother answering).

  5. pandora says:

    Hartford Courant ‏@hartfordcourant

    children among victims in #Newtown school shooting, sources confirmed #SandyHookElementary

    I can’t even imagine…

  6. Delaware Dem says:

    Conservatives say it isn’t time to talk about gun control right after a shooting… Seems like we’re always right after a mass-shooting now.

  7. Mrs.XStryker says:

    Prayers please, my friend’s nephew goes to that school.

  8. pandora says:

    AP reporting: Official: Gunman killed in shooting at elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

  9. pandora says:

    My thoughts are with you and your friend, Mrs. Xstryker. I can’t even imagine.

  10. Delaware Dem says:

    Since we know we can never ever talk about gun control because, you know, freedom, the media in this blood soaked country should stop reporting mass shootings as breaking news. It is now common place and expected in our society that, every day, you will have a madman off untold dozens of people any where at any time.

    We should stop being so shocked at this.

  11. Mrs.XStryker says:

    Thanks Pandora. Just heard from my friend, her nephew is okay! 🙂 I hope he doesn’t suffer any long term effects.

  12. pandora says:

    NEWTOWN

    “Multiple people have been killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dickinson Drive.

    Police said some of the shooting victims are children but it is not clear if they are among the dead. They were still searching the school at 11 a.m., and police dogs had been brought in.”

    (I am reporting breaking news. Given the nature of these events, take everything with a grain of salt.)

  13. pandora says:

    Please, please make this not true:

    Hartford Courant ‏@hartfordcourant

    CONFIRMED: sources say children are among the dead #newtown

  14. Liberal Elite says:

    The NRA is the enemy of America. This isn’t freedom, and they represent a truly terrible vision of the future.

  15. Jason330 says:

    I agree. The NRA’s bleak vision for America is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  16. Geezer says:

    Perhaps if we started calling these incidents “terrorist attacks,” we could get Congress to take them more seriously.

    Hell, I’d be happy if they could even explain why I should be afraid of foreign Muslims. The data clearly indicates we should be more afraid of our gun-toting fellow Americans.

  17. pandora says:

    ABC Reporting: 12:26 a.m.: More than a dozen persons, including children shot and killed at Newtown, Conn., elementary school, federal, and state law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

    Hartford Courant ‏reporting: at least 20 shot, multiple dead at Sandy Hook Elementary shooting

    I am in tears

  18. Delaware Dem says:

    The NRA is a terrorist organization and should be dealt with accordingly.

  19. pandora says:

    Hartford Courant: “The number of dead is unclear, but there are at least 20 shooting victims. Many of the shootings took place in a kindergarten classroom, sources said.

    One entire classrom is unaccounted for outside the school, sources said.”

  20. Delaware Dem says:

    27 are dead. Most of them children.

  21. pandora says:

    CBS News confirms: 27 people are dead in Connecticut school shooting. 14 are children.

  22. pandora says:

    I can’t stop crying. This is who we are America. How’s that freedom working out for ya?

    I am furious. Where are my rights to not be around guns?

  23. Delaware Dem says:

    The gun nuts are awfully fucking silent today. Maybe they are busy washing the blood off their hands.

  24. John Young says:

    This is insane. I cannot bear to watch it anymore. I just turned off the TV. Any news agency transmitting live parental grief upon finding out the worst news ever, should be shut down. I pray that does not happen.

  25. Delaware Dem says:

    I totally disagree. Broadcast the shit out of it. Make all gun nuts watch it.

  26. pandora says:

    My stomach is in knots. If these numbers are correct and only three people were taken to the hospital… I can’t even finish that sentence.

  27. pandora says:

    I agree, DD. Everyone should watch every second of this. Maybe then we can actually discuss this.

  28. John Young says:

    I’m not a gun nut, so I don’t need any part of watching parental grief like this.

  29. Geezer says:

    Any bets on how long before the first Second Amendment Warrior says, “If the principal had been armed, those kids would still be alive”?

  30. pandora says:

    Got it, John. Not your concern. I’m really hoping you didn’t mean to come across as flippant, because it doesn’t seem like you.

  31. John Young says:

    No, I really do not want the grief of parents on live display. I meant that. My stomach is too weak for this. This situation concerns me deeply. I just cannot imagine being a parent in that situation and how I would feel, but am fairly certain I would not want to be on live TV.

    All schools in America will be getting a blow by blow and do a security review in the days ahead, count on it.

  32. pandora says:

    Part of the problem is that we are far too quick to look away, turn off the TV and forget. We need to make ourselves watch and feel if we hope to change this.

  33. John Young says:

    I don’t need to watch to feel. I can read and process grief without live TV.

    I totally understand that watching helps other feel.

  34. Jason330 says:

    Geezer – It is all too sad and predictable.

  35. j marie says:

    Looks like they caught the 2nd shooter alive. They should charge him with domestic terrorism. Isn’t that what they did afterall.

  36. Jason330 says:

    If the 2nd amendment is really the sticking point for gun nuts, if those words are really why we need to put up with this, then we need a national campaign to change or eliminate the 2nd amendment.

    It would be tough, but the constitution has been changed in the past.

  37. Liberal Elite says:

    On an average day in the US, 50 gun lovers put a gun to head and pull the trigger.

    I’ll bet today, that number is double or triple. This tragedy spills far and wide.

    @JY “All schools in America will be getting a blow by blow and do a security review in the days ahead, count on it.”

    And what good will that do? Virtually every school is America is totally exposed to this sort of attack.

  38. John Young says:

    LE, I don’t disagree with you one bit.

  39. pandora says:

    In Michigan, schools and day cares would open the door to armed people:

    Changes to the concealed weapons law passed the state House on Thursday evening, allowing highly trained gun owners to carry their concealed weapons in formerly verboten places, such as schools, day care centers, stadiums and churches.

  40. pandora says:

    Eyewitness to WCBS-TV: “There are 20 parents who were just told that their children are dead.”

  41. auntie dem says:

    These horrific events keep happening and NOTHING is being done to control assault rifles and the sorts of guns that are used for this carnage. NOTHING! I’m sick to my stomach. As DD says, fuck you NRA. And the manufacturers who enable you.

  42. Jason330 says:

    I agree with the person who said that the NRA needs be on the domestic terrorist list.

  43. meatball says:

    The report I heard on CBS said that the terrorist used two handguns to commit this carnage and grief.

  44. V says:

    Breaking: we live in a shithole of horror.

  45. Jason330 says:

    Meatball, I’m in. I’ll never use ‘gunman’ or ‘shooter’ always terrorist.

  46. pandora says:

    AP reporting that shooters girlfriend and friend are missing

  47. V says:

    The “ryan lanza” that all the news outlets circulated updated his facebook saying it wasn’t him (before it disappeared). A NJ paper apparently talked to him on the phone and he is alive. He said someone may have stolen his id to get into the school.

    the hell?

  48. Jason330 says:

    AP reporting that the terrorist’s girlfriend and friend are missing

  49. pandora says:

    Better. Thanks, J!

  50. meatball says:

    Also, CT gun laws appear to be much tougher than Delaware gun laws. They require the same level of background check for a simple possession permit as we require for a concealed carry permit. This includes finger printing submitting photograghs, and 8 hours of course work, plus you must first submit the application to the local police authority before the state will even consider your application. All of this prior to even purchasing a handgun. Of course he could have purchased thrm illegally, I suppose.

  51. Mrs.XStryker says:

    The guy lives in NJ, not CT.

  52. AQC says:

    I am just sick. And, angry.

  53. DEvoter302 says:

    NJ gun laws are strict as well, especially for “assault” rifles. One who commits violence or deprives one of property is the threat to life and freedom. It seems even worse when it happens to kids because of their innocence.

    I was watching CNN coverage around 2pm and 2 parents over the phone at separate times were asked by Wolf Blitzer what they would like to see done to protect schools from violence. One straight out said they think more people should carry guns, and the other alluded to it. Blitzer quickly cut them off.

  54. meatball says:

    Nj is essentially the same except no class is required for a permit to own. They do have magazine capacity limitations though and I believe hollow point ammunition is illegal, but I can’t confirm that. I think you have to be 21 to possess even handgun ammunition NJ.

  55. Pencadermom says:

    “A hearty fuck you to the NRA.” – ditto.
    That, and I no longer know what to say to my kids to make them feel safe. They’re not. I can’t stop crying either. My heart is breaking for these families and everyone in the school. How will these little kids be able to go back to school, ever?

  56. Joanne Christian says:

    I am truly physically ill over this. In trying to console my bereaved elem. ed. teacher/ daughter who has bawled all day–because guns and swat teams are so a part of her school culture (relax-not here in Delaware)–I can’t go there with guns yet. Because this is about mental illness–and the very lack in this nation of not only SERVICES—especially for children and young adults–but the LAWS surrounding everything around those services, access, meds etc.. I know, I know–the guns killed. But if it wasn’t guns, it would be bombs, or fires, or vehicular devastation. Intent will find it’s way. Please address the mental health crisis and lack of funding , access, and LAWS, and take a deep breath. Because guns are meant to protect, defend, and provide unless they fall into ill-intentioned hands. I am no gun enthusiast, but I think more positive traction gets made if we would examine the mental health issues, and not blow the anti-gun dogwhistle. It’s no help to demand a “stand down” of whatever gun issue, when the triggerman gets to change his weapon of assault. Just sayin’.

  57. meatball says:

    I agree Joanne psychiatric care in this nation is abysmal if it exists at all.

  58. Jim Westhoff says:

    I just sent letters to my federal elected officials, calling on them to write, or support, laws that will reduce these types of shootings.

    I’m mad as hell that this keeps happening, and no one has the guts to use some common damn sense to enact laws that will make it less easy for lone gunman to kill dozens of people.

  59. Pencadermom says:

    Joanne, true. My dad was just telling me about someone who bombed a school, he thinks it was in the 40’s, killing about 50 people. But guns are so easy to get and make it so easy. Schools should all be locked with a buzzer to let people in. Many are. They all should be. Wouldn’t be a save all but could help.
    Mental health care is still taboo and we see way too many stories of families of these shooters saying the person had been getting some help but not enough.

  60. Dana Garrett says:

    If someone murdered one of my children with an assault weapon, I’d seek to get revenge on the NRA. Anyone who thinks the NRA doesn’t share responsibility for these heinous acts is an ass.

  61. Jim Westhoff says:

    If we ban the sale or trade of any magazine that holds 10 or more rounds, it would make mass shootings by a lone gunman nearly impossible.

    This is common sense.

  62. Jim Westhoff says:

    You’re right Dana.

  63. X Stryker says:

    I’m for restricting high capacity magazines and assault rifles, but more than anything, Joanne is right. We have a mental health crisis in this country. The urgency could never be more clear – we need to learn to stop these ticking time bombs before they go off. If Adam Lanza had murdered only a single child, using his bare hands, it would still be absolutely unacceptable. We need fewer murderers, moreso than fewer murders per murderer.

  64. Dana Garrett says:

    Interesting logic X. Math doesn’t matter to you when children die. 20 children dying is no more tragic than one child dying (even though it seems like there are 19 more tragedies). Why, by your logic, 1,000 children could have died today and 999 of those deaths would have been just a trifle given that 1 had died.

  65. DEvoter302 says:

    @Joanne,
    I agree with you and am comforted by your rationalism. You’re analyzing the true problem.

    @Dana Garrett
    I don’t think X was saying that. His point seems to allude to Dana’s same conclusion: that the act of the man is the problem, not the medium in which he chose to act with.

  66. kavips says:

    Deldem said…. Conservatives say it isn’t time to talk about gun control right after a shooting… Seems like we’re always right after a mass-shooting now…..

    So how long did Romney wait to blame Benghazi on Obama?…..

    Conservatives as usual, say one thing, but always do another…. Fuck them. Raise their tax rates to 60% or even higher……

  67. puck says:

    Okay, tighter gun control, sure. But mostly it’s time to look at all the shooters as a group and make a fearless assessment of root causes without regard to the fallout. Remember when NASA investigated the Challenger disaster and found the problem lay in its own culture?

    Why the hell do we have so many alienated freaks running around with no grounding in humanity? Who don’t get flagged? Sure, I don’t want a society that catches you in a butterfly net if you are a little introverted. But there has to be some answer.

    Do the mass shootings correspond to mass unemployment? Remember “going postal?”

  68. mynym says:

    With respect to techniques to limit the damage after the most important events in the world take place (in consciousness, which the mind invents tools to chase after), the best technique would probably be to have more citizens/police trained with guns or some other nonlethal technique/weapon. That way they wouldn’t show up later in their SWAT teams and so on to wander around with well “controlled guns” too late… invariably, too late. If you’re going to view the wreckage of consciousness that broken families and communities often give birth to as merely a matter of technique and technology, then at least propose techniques that do not amount to useless rituals or political theatrics that don’t matter in reality.
    It would be simpler if people tried to mind the golden rule (just another technique, but it leads back to a better form of consciousness) and tried to love each other. With respect to loving yourself and thinking that your feelings or victimization and so on is the be all end all of everything, that’s just an illusion anyway.

  69. meatball says:

    I don’t really see this as a new phenomenon. History is rife with those who would inflict mass killing of innocents all the way back to the bible.

  70. Dana says:

    There will be more stories coming out about the murderer, but at least from the initial information, the weapons were legally owned not by him, but by his mother, who was one of the people he killed. The murderer was 20 years old, legally an adult. His mother, the owner of the weapons used, lived in “a hilly, affluent neighborhood in the east end of town,” and ” a children- and family-friendly place.” Under any gun-control regime imaginable, other than one which simply banned private ownership of weapons, the murder’s mother would have been one of the people who would have been allowed to own firearms.

    Is that what you would do, ban all private ownership of firearms?

  71. Dana,

    Thanks for including a web site when you posted.

    From a recent post on the site you linked:

    Editor:
    Now, we could return to the point at which white men could support their families with their jobs alone, but it would require:

    Bombing the other industrial producers to the point at which the US had 45% of the entire world’s industrial capacity again;
    Seizing the petroleum-producing nations, and taking their oil for our own, to replace the fact we were the world’s largest oil exporter;
    Repealing all of the civil rights laws, and seriously restriction the ability of women and blacks (and today, Hispanics) to work in any other than a restricted number of jobs; and
    Return societal norms to the 1960 mode, where sex outside of marriage was condemned, requiring men to get married in order to get laid, and concomitantly restoring the societal condemnation of divorce.
    Hey, I’m good with all of that!

    Garbage like that lets us know where your head is.

  72. Dave says:

    “the murder’s mother would have been one of the people who would have been allowed to own firearms.”

    And she took her son to shoot those firearms at the range, making sure he knew how to use the weapons. There are also some reports that he may have had Aspergers. Who knows? Perhaps his mother thought he was a well adjusted young man who had a life filled with promise and was going out in the world to achieve great things. Perhaps, she may have ignored some signs, figuring he was just going through a phase. Maybe she did not feel the need to have a gun safe to secure the weapons. By some accounts she was gun enthusiast (or whatever term you want to use). In any event, the guns were apparently readily available for her son to access. Does she sound like someone who should have allowed to have firearms?

    Additionally, while the handguns the shooter had could have killed just as many, in what world does it make sense for someone to own a Bushmaster AR-15? There are an estimated 270,000,000 firearms in the US. Just like the impossibility of trying to deport all illegal immigrants, eliminating firearms is equally impossible. But the national arms race is lunacy. Is there really anyone who believes that is not part of the problem?

  73. geezer says:

    Dana: Tell the liberals to give up their gun myths right after you give up yours.

    For example, this dispels the ridiculous notion that guns make you safer. That didn’t work out too well for his mother, did it? If she weren’t an “avid gun collector,” he wouldn’t have had access to firearms. In fact he tried to buy a gun a few days ago but was foiled by Connecticut’s waiting period.

  74. Dana Garrett says:

    Poor, Dana (I really wish he’d use a different name) tells us that this mother would have still owned these guns under any gun control laws imaginable short of an absolute ban on owning them. There are two problems with this claim. The furor now about lax gun control isn’t merely about the murders in CT. It’s cumulative and encompasses all of the mass killings that have happened recently. The murders in CT are merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. Secondly, Dana’s claim is untrue. One could prohibit people from owning guns who either are mentally ill in such a way that they pose a risk to society and/or have someone who is mentally ill as just defined in residing in their home. That hardly constitutes an absolute ban on gun ownership.

  75. Dana Garrett-

    My ex voluntarily committed herself to a mental institution when she was having suicidal thoughts. One of the conditions of her release was that there were no guns in the home. As a result, my sole firearm has been locked in a friend’s gun safe for more than 10 years.

    We haven’t lived in the same home for nearly 3 years & were divorced this year. I like target shooting, but I’ve felt no need to retrieve the rifle from my friend.

  76. reality check says:

    Dana (the “asshole” one–not Garrett) Yes, ban all private ownership of guns as long as there is even the slightest chance of a gun being in the possession of a low IQ sociopath like you who believes that the Sandinista are marching up through Mexico to take over or Castro sailing over from Cuba to invade or that “Red Dawn” is a documentary or, heaven forbid, those black-op helicopters of the UN are descending upon us and only you and your deranged NRA psychopathic friends can keep America safe. Please sleep peacefully with your loaded gun under your pillow but make sure the safety’s off if you have a hair-trigger, maybe you’ll do the world a favor and toss and turn.

  77. Liberal Elite says:

    Obama is considering tying an assault weapons ban to the fiscal cliff negotiation.

    This could get interesting…

  78. Dana says:

    Mr Garrett wrote:

    Poor, Dana (I really wish he’d use a different name)

    You’ll have to take your complaint to my dear mother, who gave me my first name.

    tells us that this mother would have still owned these guns under any gun control laws imaginable short of an absolute ban on owning them. There are two problems with this claim. The furor now about lax gun control isn’t merely about the murders in CT. It’s cumulative and encompasses all of the mass killings that have happened recently. The murders in CT are merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. Secondly, Dana’s claim is untrue. One could prohibit people from owning guns who either are mentally ill in such a way that they pose a risk to society and/or have someone who is mentally ill as just defined in residing in their home. That hardly constitutes an absolute ban on gun ownership.

    How, one wonders, could any gun control law which was not an absolute prohibition, have prevented the killer’s mother from owning firearms? She wasn’t mentally ill (at least, not that we know), and her son was not diagnosed as being mentally ill.

    Remember the Virginia Tech shootings? There, the killer had some contact with mental health professionals, but, due to privacy rights, his records couldn’t just be reported to law enforcement. Perhaps you wish to eliminate the rights to privacy?

  79. Dana says:

    Geezer wrote:

    Dana: Tell the liberals to give up their gun myths right after you give up yours.

    For example, this dispels the ridiculous notion that guns make you safer. That didn’t work out too well for his mother, did it? If she weren’t an “avid gun collector,” he wouldn’t have had access to firearms. In fact he tried to buy a gun a few days ago but was foiled by Connecticut’s waiting period.

    Please point out where I have said that guns make one safer. That has never been my argument.

    Rather, my argument is that we have the right to keep and bear arms, a right under natural law, and codified in the Constitution. If you don’t like that, change the Constitution; the Framers were foresighted enough to provide a procedure for amending that document.

  80. socialistic ben says:

    there really is no answer. There are already way too many guns out there. The only way would be to make the RedNeck’s nightmares come true and really go house-to-house taking their guns.

  81. jason330 says:

    There is no answer. Stricter gun control would not have prevented this tragedy. There is nothing we can do. People would get guns anyway. This is the kind of country we’ve chosen. It will always be soaked in blood. This is bigger than us. We are powerless.

    Giving up. It is the American way.

  82. Dana Garrett says:

    Dana, why do you keep basing your arguments on factually incorrect assertions? The shooter HAD BEEN diagnosed as mentally ill. So, you are either wrong about the facts or you are deliberately misleading us to try win the argument.

    You also say we have a natural right to own guns. Let me me see if I can understand how that works. Somehow natural selection anticipated the existence of guns and, long before they existed, wrote into human nature a right to own them. Is that how it worked? Why stop there? Why not also baldly claim that evolution wrote into our nature a right to own bazookas and grenades?

  83. pandora says:

    Exactly, Jason. You know, the first step should be to stop acting like these shootings are like natural disasters beyond out control.

    If bridges started collapsing all over the country killing people in the same numbers guns do we, as a nation, would be working nonstop on a solution. We would instantly declare bridges collapsing and killing people as unacceptable – an outrage. And yet when twenty children are murdered we shrug and say… That’s the price of freedom.

    Whose freedom? Certainly not those killed on Friday. Their freedom, their right of domestic tranquility and general welfare, as well as the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, was trumped by the right to bear arms.

    And there it is. The second amendment has turned into the most important of all rights, trumping all others.

  84. AQC says:

    I’ve heard he had Apergers Syndrome or Autism. These are not mental illness, they are pervasive developmental disorders and not at all consistent with this type of behavior. He may have had a mental illness in addition, but I hope people don’t spread misinformation about these disorders.

  85. geezer says:

    “Please point out where I have said that guns make one safer. That has never been my argument.”

    It is the gun industry’s argument. Do you agree it is false?

    “Rather, my argument is that we have the right to keep and bear arms, a right under natural law,”

    The phrase “natural law” appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution.

    “and codified in the Constitution.”

    As being necessary because a militia is necessary. The precise meaning has been adjudicated but remains in dispute. As we have seen over the years, even SCOTUS decisions can be changed by a future SCOTUS.

    “If you don’t like that, change the Constitution; the Framers were foresighted enough to provide a procedure for amending that document.”

    Indeed they were. And I see no logic in changing the Constitution any more than I see the logic in an ever-increasing tower of unenforceable gun laws.

    My point was that both sides have their myths. You only want liberals to give up theirs, while you cling to yours — “natural law” guaranteeing your rights, for example.

    The Second Amendment includes no ban on common-sense government-mandated responsibility. I want exactly the restrictions on gun ownership and use that we place on automobile ownership and use:
    registration upon purchase, periodic testing of the owner for competence, and periodic testing of the equipment for safety.

    Hardly a ban on gun ownership or use, merely a requirement to raise the level of personal responsibility involved. Are you against personal responsibility?

  86. cassandra_m says:

    The second amendment has turned into the most important of all rights, trumping all others.

    And it is only the second half of the second amendment that gets any attention. The business of a “well-regulated militia” is the inconvenient bit that is utterly ignored.

  87. heragain says:

    Love this quote: I don’t really see this as a new phenomenon. History is rife with those who would inflict mass killing of innocents all the way back to the bible.

    Totally agree. When I study my history from the Bible, I remain indifferent to the numerous reports of sad women turning into pillars of salt.

    And the natural rights in the Constitution, well, they have no bigger fan than I am. If God and the Founders had wanted black folks to vote He’d have made them more than 3/5ths of a person. And I can’t see why we’d want direct election of Senators, when our state legislatures are so freaking AWESOME.

    In coverage of the Connecticut shootings, one paragraph stood out for me.

    From USA Today: For most American children, school is one of safest places they can be. National statistics show that deaths from school shootings have been down since the 1990s.

    Well, isn’t that awesome. I mean, thank God we have journalists to parse this stuff for us. Because, really, our kids are killed at home, and on the street and stuff, anyway, and the number of kids gunned down just because, compelled by law to be somewhere, they encounter someone who wants to shoot them (with perfectly safe and legal and Constitutional guns, ) is MUCH smaller now than it used to be. Because, like, freedom.

    Don’t you feel better, already?

  88. Dana Garrett says:

    How did an amendment regarding a “well regulated militia” become a barely regulated right of the populace? All the sophistry notwithstanding, even by the SCOTUS, the amendment written for citizen volunteers of state militias has about much relevance today as the amendment about no one being compelled to quarter soldiers in their home.

  89. socialistic ben says:

    im not shrugging, but im seriously considering buying a bullet proof vest. Never a gun. I will never own a gun. But a vest sends a message. wear it over my cloths and let everyone know i consider them a threat to my life.

  90. puck says:

    Mass shooting incidents are popping up all over in the last few days that are barely registering in the media: A hospital in Alabama, a mall in California, a hotel in Las Vegas, two different school shootings thwarted in Oklahoma and Indiana.