School shooting in Conn. - Part 2

[Ultimatehero]

Now this New Mexico kid was 15 and killed his family, then wanted to go to Wal-Mart to kill others and hoped he would die in a shootout.

I seriously hate that these things get on the news. STOP MAKING SHOOTERS INTO CELEBRITIES! Think back to school shootings - we know the shooters, do you know any of the names of the victims? Just one? Has the news ever focused on the story of a victim or a hero? And if it has, hasn't it always been over shadowed by the story of the killer? All news is telling people right now is "shoot somebody, you'll be famous." Psychopaths don't need that message.



"The media can be a powerful ally."
"Oh yeah? Guess again."

Just everything that's been going on and all of this news coverage really brought that film to mind.

To me the main thing to blame here is how the news portrays these events. Most killers now are just pathetic people craving for attention any way they know how and they know that the news will give that to them ten-fold. And the news gives that because that's what people are constantly going after. You want to take away their lingering presence - you have to take away the response they get. Focus on the victim, a survivor, or the cop. Don't create copy-cats.

 

[Fading]

I don't call that a school shooting.

I call that a shooting at a school.


That sounds like an argument that got ugly, and some others got hurt as well. Could have happened anywhere. In fact, it probably does happen everyday outside of bars.

A school shooting is someone going to a school with the intent to shoot the place and people up.


Not trying to diminish the importance of the story, but the headline calling it a school shooting is just trying to draw in readers by making them think another 20 kids had been shot.

IMO that's just playing semantics. I get that headlines are often inflamitory to draw in ratings. However it doesn't matter if it was pre-meditated, or a spontaneous argument. 3 people still ended up shot outside a school. If anything, this kind of story can be used just as effectively by gun control advocates. Normally we're talking psychopaths with tons of planning, using a family members poorly secured guns.

This can be seen as equally scary to someone anti-gun as it's 2 legal gun owners getting into an altercation in public, and wounded uninvolved innocents in front of a school in their shoot out. Not that I'm arguing gun bans over it. However it's an incident that shows gun violence in America isn't just mentally challenged people over looked by society. You have to include all sources of the problem when trying to find a solution.

Heavy gun control advocates want to point to Sandyhook, and just say ban everything. Which is unfair to responsible gun owners. However pro gun is trying to argue the fault lies solely on mental health, and say guns shouldn't be touched. I'm seeing people with, and without mental health issues shooting people in public, in and outside of schools, and thinking we shouldn't toss anything out in coming up with a solution. This shows simply arming everyone is NOT the solution as this shooting was over a random argument. Nor is simply banning all guns, or focusing just on mental health. None of those single minded solutions would have stopped this incident, if anything if all the bystanders were armed we'd have more casualties. A multi-faceted approach however could.

 

[Spider-Who?]

It's not okay as long as fewer people get hurt or die, but it's obviously better. No law or ban will usher in a utopian society. And I agree that mental illness needs to be addressed more forcefully. But does that mean we can only address one thing? Guns designed for things other than hunting and self-defense should not be legal. Assault weapons like the AR-15 (and I'm speaking generally, not specifically referring to the most recent shooting) has no place in civilized society. We can protect the 2nd amendment without needing to protect the right to shoot hundreds of rounds per minute.

We've already banned guns that can do that. Did that a loooong time ago.

The AR-15 is just a semi-automatic hunting rifle, similar to countless other hunting rifles. In fact, the AR-15 is considered a varmint rifle - its for shooting small animals. The difference between an AR and other rifles is that the AR-15 LOOKS like an assault rifle (re: fully automatic).

The only way you can "shoot hundreds of rounds per minute" with a semi-automatic anything is if you illegally modify the gun. And the ability to modify a gun is present in all firearms in one fashion or another, its not exclusive to this flavor of the month. The reason why AR-15s are seen in these situations is not because its overly powered or more deadly (it's not by far), but because it's one of the most popular rifles. Are we seriously going to ban things based on popularity?

 

[Fading]

http://news.yahoo.com/teen-planned-attack-walmart-killing-family-154951568--abc-news-topstories.html

Now this New Mexico kid was 15 and killed his family, then wanted to go to Wal-Mart to kill others and hoped he would die in a shootout.

That's awful. My thoughts, and prayers go out to the family. As bad as I feel for those who died, especially the children, I feel like this is another senseless tragedy that could have been avoided. It said he was planning it for some time, and was becoming increasingly frustrated with his mom. I'm sure he had to have shown some warning signs during that time. His parents should have gotten him help beforehand, or made the guns far harder for him to obtain. I just have a hard time accepting that a 15 yr old who would show his brother their mom's head, shoot him for being upset, and then shoot his 5 & 2 yr old sisters because they were crying didn't set off some kind of warning signs.

 

[Matt Mortem]

We've already banned guns that can do that. Did that a loooong time ago.

The AR-15 is just a semi-automatic hunting rifle, similar to countless other hunting rifles. In fact, the AR-15 is considered a varmint rifle - its for shooting small animals. The difference between an AR and other rifles is that the AR-15 LOOKS like an assault rifle (re: fully automatic).

The only way you can "shoot hundreds of rounds per minute" with a semi-automatic anything is if you illegally modify the gun. And the ability to modify a gun is present in all firearms in one fashion or another, its not exclusive to this flavor of the month. The reason why AR-15s are seen in these situations is not because its overly powered or more deadly (it's not by far), but because it's one of the most popular rifles. Are we seriously going to ban things based on popularity?

That may long last be the cure to Bieber fever