Gun rampage in Ct

[Van Canna]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/ ... U120121214

(Reuters) - A heavily armed gunman opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary school on Friday, killing 26 people, including 20 children, police said, in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.

The gunman - who according to a media report carried four weapons and wore a bullet-proof vest - was dead inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, state police Lieutenant Paul Vance told a news conference.

Vance said authorities found 18 children and seven adults, including the gunman, dead at the school, and two children were pronounced dead later at a hospital. Another adult was found dead at a related crime scene in Newtown, he said, bringing the toll to 28.

The New York Times reported that the gunman, believed to be in his 20s, walked into a classroom where his mother was a teacher, shot his mother and then 18 students in the room before shooting five other adults and killing himself.

[jorvik]

Sad , and so near Christmas

[Van Canna]

Sad , and so near Christmas

Yes...it is hard to keep the faith when the devil seems to triumph constantly with so much sorrow being dealt to people in so many ways...


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/ ... 3F20121214

The New York Times reported that the gunman walked into a classroom where his mother was a teacher, shot his mother and then 20 students, most in the same classroom, b e fore shooting five other adults and killing himself. One other person was shot at the school and survived, the Times said

Now why would the shooter want to kill his mother to begin with?

The 'psychos' in our society abound at every corner of the world.

What is hard to understand is the poor security at schools...that allows entrance so easily...and no-one became suspect at what the shooter was carrying, concealing an AR-15?

As an investigator for Insurance companies, I saw the security measures taken by offices_ after several killings of claims personnel by disgruntled claimants entering wide open spaces and firing at will.

The answer was to modify office entrances so that if you wanted to go into the building to 'see' someone for any reason...you first had to open the entrance door that led into a small lobby where the receptionist was fortified behind a bullet proof glass pane.

Once your visit was verified with the person inside, you were then allowed to enter an 'ante-room' with a locked fortified door accessing the people inside at their desks or private offices.

The person you were there to see would then open and then quickly shut the fortified door and then sat with you at a table to conduct business...even if you were a family member.

[Kevin Mackie]

Experts will be debating the "why" for years. From my rank amateur perspective, he HATED his mother (shot her in the face) then went and destroyed the children that HE perceived in his sick mind that she cared about more than she did her own damaged and mentally unstable son.

What will follow now is an all out assault on the 2nd amendment.

The mother will be linked to conservatives, The NRA, (she legally owned the guns he stole to use), and all things related to the "gun nut" culture (liberal nomenclature, not mine), we have in the states.

Minor point on thread title, Mental Illness Rampage is more fitting. This guy would have used a machete or firebomb or whatever means if he hadn't been able to access his mother's weapons.

And the next questions is, she must have known her son was a mental case. Why did she have those guns not absolutely fool proof secured in a house with such a person?

[Van Canna]

Very true, Kevin and very sad all the way around.

These tragedies will continue to happen no matter what 'precautions' we take... a sick mind has no boundaries.

However it is true that people should take more responsible actions in preventing their firearms to be accessed by disturbed individuals.

Locking them, as we must by law, in Massachusetts, helps but only if in a safe...as a disturbed person at home will find a way to unlock them or 'saw' thru the trigger locks.

As you say...if a family has some kind of a 'nut' in the making ...at home...then it is best to remove the guns totally.

But this guy also had a ballistic vest...where did it come from?

And we hear that two more handguns were found on the school premises plus a rifle[assault] in a car...??

Who planted those guns??

[Kevin Mackie]

From the Franklin, MA polive chief
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/P ... C-000F8513

[Van Canna]

http://m.emergencymgmt.com/details/sand ... 01581.html

Yesterday I listed on CNN Radio to one emotional mother talk about how her six year old son survived the terrible shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She had always told him if someone comes into the school with a gun he should run away.

This advice probably saved her son's life. The shooter came into the classroom, standing at the door and shot this child's teacher. The six year old, rather than hiding in the classroom or just staring in shock, had the presence of mind to follow his mother's advice and ran for the door, running past the shooter still standing there. He and a couple of his buddies ran down the hall and out of the school where a Good Samaritan woman picked them up and took them to the town's police station.


This is exactly what needs to happen. Tell anyone, children, teens, adults that the one key survival technique in a shooting incident is to run away, even if it means running past the shooter. Your chances go way up by doing this. I say that "Repetition is the Mother of Remembering." It is not enough to give this message just once. It has to be repeated again and again. A couple of months from now repeat the message. I remember my father always saying, "Safety First" it was drilled into him and he drilled it into me.

[Van Canna]

Tell anyone, children, teens, adults that the one key survival technique in a shooting incident is to run away, even if it means running past the shooter.

???

[Van Canna]

Children who have watched their parents fight and been witness to intoxicated ranting and ravings. Children, who go without, are hungry and cold left pretty much on their own to fend for themselves.


Thanks Kevin...from the article

This is a cycle; it is not germane to any one generation.

It begins at some time in the family and becomes learned; carried on sometimes generation to generation not by deliberation or design, but this is just what was learned from watching, seeing and being victim to.

The end result is a weakness of the mind; an inability to deal with the daily stressors of life in a humane and civil way. The learned response of anger and violence becomes the way to solve the problem.

Hence it is a societal issue. One where we fail as a people. We lose care and respect for one another and those closest to us. More over we have no respect in ourselves or our lives and begin to believe that life is cheap, worth nothing.

[Van Canna]

What, if anything, are we learning from all this as martial arts practitioners?

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/1 ... newsletter

Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, state medical examiner, said at a briefing Saturday that he personally examined the bodies of seven first-graders, each dressed in “cute kids’ stuff,” and each of whom had been shot between three and 11 times.

While his peers slung backpacks over their shoulder, Lanza carried a dark briefcase through his high school halls, a row of pens neatly lined up in the pocket of his button-down shirt. His oddly formal outfit varied so little, students had wondered if he wore the same shirt every day.

People knew him as smart, an honor roll regular, a computer whiz who loved video games. One classmate described him as a genius. But they also knew he was so reclusive and painfully awkward that even well-meaning students struggled to interact with him.

[Van Canna]

Mall target practice.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/16/ca ... z2FF2ruT7B

[Van Canna]

Another nut...

http://news.yahoo.com/ind-man-47-guns-a ... 28349.html

It seems the holidays bring out these cockroaches.

[CANDANeh]

Likely there were indicators that he had potential to to be harmful to himself or others. Almost impossible to stop someone from gainingg that warped sense of fame he likely sought along with his death wish. What if he or others like him never had their names released to the public? What if all that was released by the media was "a sickly individual met his death during a cowardly act". His/her life erased from public view. Families forbidden to discuss in public the deviant they raised or knew. Would future acts be prevented? I believe many would...I for one will not allow myself to give second thought to the cowards name.

[Van Canna]

Good comments Leo, but I fear Utopic in the end.
Almost impossible to keep something like this under wraps.

[CANDANeh]

"Utopic" I do agree unfortunately. Disheartening that the lowest of cowards can cause such pain and suffering which will continue for many agonizing years. Striking such a "soft target" does and should anger everyone regardless of location and if friend or foe. He has been given a body count...a high score. Some media reports give a bad taste like a video game. We need to focus more on heroes not celebrities. Remember the victims and let the names of cowards rot.