I know our first instinct is "We must find a way to stop this" but (as pessimistic as this is going to sound), I don't see any way to prevent this type of incident. You can lock all the doors, place an armed guard at the door, etc. It won't stop someone from shooting that guard first, then breaking a window to get inside.

There are a lot more precautions in place than there used to be. Schools do lockdown drills regularly. There is more security in place in most places than there was before Columbine.

I looked up some statistics, and an average of six children die daily in traffic accidents. Yes, things like Columbine and Sandy Hook are tragic. My heart hurts for the parents, siblings, grandparents and especially the children. I'm not minimizing how awful this was. But it is a rare event. Thank goodness it is a rare event, but it is a rare event. And we probably can't prevent it, without turning schools into prison like environments.

I completely agree. However, if criminals knew that schools had security guards or something of the like, maybe it would stop them from trying to shoot up schools. Criminals pick security free zones to commit crimes because everyone is defenseless.

I just came across this "how to help Newtown" page on abc7. Sharing for anyone who's interested.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...rbs&id=8923497

Most of the criminals in school shootings have been active students with an ax to grind. We don't know why the Newtown shooter did this. I read that he destroyed all of the computers in the house so they have forensics specialists retrieving data to see if there is any clue to motive there. We may never know, but I suspect strongly, in this case, if there had been a security guard, the guard just would have been the first one shot.

This is pretty sombering but I found this list:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html

Thank you so much for sharing this.

The following was posted by Pema Chodron, quoting her own teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, in response to Sandy Hook:

Dear friends - I'm deeply saddened by the recent tragedy in Connecticut. My teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche expressed my own sentiments perfectly, so I'd like to share them with you:

"This is the most incomprehensible tragedy of insanity. There is no way to even begin to understand what has happened. We can only sit with the overwhelming sadness and loss of the innocent. The guardian of humanity could not have to face anything more grave than losing the young unopened buds that were on their way to bloom. We pray that some relief may come in this time of loss and to the broken hearts of the parents, family members, and our countrymen and women. This kind of tragedy is happening way too often in our country, where only a few miles away in Canada, it is a rare occurrence. I join my palms in prayer for America to find a positive resolution to this problem."

Another great article along with suggestions as to how to make it more difficult for these mass murders to occur without revoking the 2nd amendment:

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openfo...es-4125553.php

Would you be willing to tell every school in the country to trade one teacher for a security guard and just make it work?

It's not as if suddenly schools are going to get free money to make something like that happen, so such a thing would come at the cost of fewer teachers or cuts elsewhere and it's really questionable whether a security guard would be an effective deterrent.

The media is in hysterics about this thing. These sorts of shootings are actually on a very steep decline. Go look at the statistics, school shootings are about half as common as they were 20 years go.

Not much of an article really, just a BS emotional appeal from someone who was shot by a total sociopath. Of course there's not one single thing he proposed which would have prevented that crazy SOB from walking up that driveway and shooting him and his wife and his friend.

I hate that we're all still seriously talking about this "need" of reform. We don't need to do jack squat. At least not immediately. Laws made directly in the wake of emotional events typically aren't well thought out or even needed.

These types of shootings are becoming more rare, not more common and saying that the NRA has blood on its hands is just silly.

Those of you on the East and West coast probably don't really understand. You call 911 and typically, if it's a real emergency, you don't have to wait very long for the police to arrive.

Out here in the sticks, it's quite a bit different. Even if you live in a fairly dense place like Oklahoma County, if you live in an unincorporated part of the county or in a town which doesn't have the money for its own police station (we have those) a sheriff could be a good couple of hours away--more if he's otherwise occupied when you call. That's not much comfort when someone is trying to kick in your back door and your nearest neighbor is a half-mile away.

Moving away from the Gun Control debate for a moment to reflect back on the victims and survivors, and how their Greek affiliations are working to support them at this time.

Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teach at Sandy Hook, was a member of Pi Beta Phi (Connecticut Alpha chapter). A scholarship has been set up in her name through Pi Beta Phi Foundation. Donate here.

Kappa Kappa Gamma was affected in several ways. First, a Kappa lost a son in the tragedy. In addition, a surviving teacher at Sandy Hook is a Kappa. Finally, one of the teachers that was killed is the cousin of a Kappa husband. Kappa is collecting condolence cards for these families, info here.

Finally, a member of Beta Theta Pi lost his precious 6 year old daughter, Caroline. His chapter brothers are working to raise $100,000 to endow a Beta scholarship in little Caroline's name. Info here.

There may be more Greek connections than just these three, and my apologies for any unintended omissions. I learned of these through T_witter.

One of my husband's coworkers is a Newtown native. He drove home Friday night, feeling the need to be home. He shares his thoughts in today's paper: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/com...ries-1.1418060

Delta Chi alumnus Dean Pinto's son Jack was killed as well. Jack idolized NY Giant Victor Cruz who put Jack's name on his cleats and gloves: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/17/...ewtown-victim/

Press release from University of New Haven: http://www.newhaven.edu/485194/

That may be our first instinct, but it's the wrong question, I think. You're right that we can never "stop" things like this. The better question is "are we doing all we can to prevent these incidents from happening."

I don't know about that. I think history just might support the idea that sometimes those emotional events are what prompt people in power into actually doing something. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a direct catalyst for workplace safety laws. The Selma to Montgomery marches, and particularly the violence in Selma, was a catalyst for the passage of the Voting Rights Act (which LBJ sent to Congress just ten days after Selma).

I agree that haste isn't advisable. But the truth is that there is a window in which discussion are more likely to happen. Strike will the iron is hot and all.

What this means may be a matter of perspective. I agree that the evidence seems to show that mass killings overall have been in decline in recent years. But just in 2012, we've had Aurora, Oak Creek, WI, Minneapolis and now Newtown. To me, that means (1) they're not rare enough and (2) we're not doing all we can to reduce them more.

It's a matter of perspective, but comparing the Shirtwaist Factory or the incidents in the South during the civil rights era isn't a very apt comparison. Consider that while not routine, school shootings are something which have reoccurred many times going back to colonial times (of course these days, our deaths are not usually caused by marauding native war bands). While tragic, this has happened before many many times and regardless of what laws you pass, it'll happen again.

If you're going to consider new legislation, there needs to be a weighing of cost vs. benefit. There's a strong argument to be made that finding any benefit whatsoever is tricky to impossible.

Exploiting tragedy to score political points.

It's not disputable that 2012 has been an exceptionally bad year, but it is nowhere close to what we used to see 20 years ago. We passed gun legislation back then. How many deaths were prevented by the Clinton "assault weapons" ban?

Sometimes. Sometimes, it's responding to events by doing the right thing, doing what's in society's best interests. Sometimes it's saying "Enough already! We can't stop them all, but we'll stop the ones we can."

Actually, the figures I have seen put the number of incidents just a little lower than where it was 20 years ago, with the spike being about 10 years ago, and with the number of victims being about the same if not a little higher than 20 years ago.

As for the assualt weapons ban, it's true things were no better when it was in place. Was that because a ban by nature is ineffective, or was it because that ban was riddled with holes and exceptions and perhaps targeted the wrong things (the weapons themselves rather than the ammunition)? Experts can and do disagree on that.

In any event, I think most of us in this thread have been pretty clear that we don't think "banning guns" is the answer, and that the discussion and action we think needs to happen involves a whole lot more than guns.

I never quoted the Bible, a book I see as merely a nice novel with some possibly historical roots. I said "creator-given" -- because that's what our founding documents say -- "...endowed by their creator with ..." in conjunction with the Bill of Rights. -- which codify an innate right.

Yes, speculation and misinformation are still abundant. We simply do not know the specifics yet, and those of us in the general populace may never know.

First, you have it on your person - concealed or openly, in a secure holster, which means with the trigger guard covered.
Second - you teach children not to touch. Like a hot stove, or a fireplace.
And third - you may not get to it fast enough. You may see some killed before your eyes. But not dozens. (Colorado shooting was different; I'm not sure anyone could have stopped that, but then, no one had a chance to try.)
I believe that if I can stop one, or TRY to, I've done right. That takes training, mental preparation, and familiarity with the equipment.

Yes. That's what I meant by my abbreviated comments above.

Accidents happen, yes. But seldom when the rules of safety are followed. Training and practice are critical.


To all -- thank you. This is a solid, respectful dialog with little of the hate and vitriol that have been seen in previous discussions on this board. I, for one, truly appreciate it.