Mass shooting at U.S. school

[sara1elo]

At least 27 killed, including 18 children, in mass shooting at U.S. school, law enforcement source tells CNN.

 

In one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, a gunman opened fire Friday in a Connecticut elementary school, killing nearly 30 people -- most of them children, a law enforcement official receiving information from the scene told CNN.

At least 10 of the dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School were students, a different law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said.

 

The gunman is dead, his body in a classroom, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN. A law enforcement identified the suspected shooter as Ryan Lanza, who was in his 20s.

 

Why would a 20 year old boy have a fire arm?

 

As a Early Childhood Education Student I feel so deeply sad right now, last month I'd been doing practices on a school with children from 3 to 4 years old and when I heard those news I couldn't stop thinking about the kids I take care of. OMG! How can be people so insane to do that? I mean, why would you do something like that? I, I just don't have words to express how sad it is!

 

[Viridian]

Sick. When I saw this on the news 3 hours ago I was shocked. Why do these incidents seem to happen that more often of lately? Stop shooting innocent children for your own good, please... Especially if it's a family issue :(

 

May all the victims rest in peace...

[~Xandria]

I feel so out of the loop. I usually watch the news every single morning but I didn't today for whatever reason. This is really quite sad. I'm so tired of hearing about all these shootins going on. :( Wasn't the gunman also about 20 years old or so at the shooting in the Colorado movie theater? Apparently he bought all of his weapons and ammo online! Why are people allowed to do that?

 

Ugh. This is heartbreaking.

[Mine turtle]

Ush this is just horrible::(:,I also argee with Virdain,They really need Like a checking system or something to stop these incase it was a student who did

[Emily]

This was all over Twitter when I woke up this morning. So, so sad. Even if you have problems, how on Earth can you rationalize massacring innocent people, ESPECIALLY children. Sending so much love to the victims' families, friends, and all the people involved.

 

It's things like this that shows that we really need to evaluate what's wrong with our society that things like this can happen.

[~Xandria]

I think it could be partially due to healthcare professionals not understanding/not recognizing severe mental illness like they should be. I mean... maybe it's just me but I feel like they are not putting enough empthasis on it. It's still highly misunderstood. I think the only way we could possibly hope to stop this kind of behavior in the future is to better understand why criminals act the way they do - and how they act as children, so that mental health professionals may interfere long before something like this happens. :(

[Xepha]

I'm really sad about this. :( Innocent lives, shouldn't have ended that quickly.

It reminds me of other shooting that happened in Québec over the years too. Uggh.

[Naamah D.]

I work with third graders and when I found out about this I was very upset. I don't see how anyone can kill somebody as innocent as a little kid. It's heartbreaking because I love kids,

[lilshadowdweller]

I was just informed of a co-worker of this, and I'm terribly saddened. That's never a reality that children should have to experience in a place which is usually a safe haven for kids. Not only are young kids lost, having barely lived their lives, but now children who were friends or relatives have to deal with the extreme grief of losing their loved ones and many of them. This is going to echo in their minds forever. I really hope a lot of support is given to them.

 

I also feel terrible for the teachers who desperately had to act fast to protect the children. How terrifying and strange this situation had been. How horrible to see innocent children on the floor! Especially since many of them were very young (what could kindergarteners had done to deserve this?)

 

The US needs to re-evaluate a lot of things. Forget looking at video games, and start looking at all the issues. For instance, mental health strongly needs to be addressed. Different firearm laws need to be implemented. Forget looking at things like if video games make violence, and start looking at the bigger picture. It just seems like these things keep happening and it needs to be stopped.

 

Those kids and their families as well as anyone affected by these terrible situation is in my thoughts!

[Haliaetus]

Such a terrible, terrible, senseless tragedy. I can't begin to imagine the immense pain these families are going through right now. These peoples lives will never be the same. And those poor children who witnessed this horrific crime. I am so sad for them. Their innocence has been torn away from them at such a young age. I read an article a bit ago that said the shooter's mother worked at the school and was a Kindergarten teacher, and most of the children who were killed were in her class. I don't even know how to process the thought of such young children being exposed to this. How awful. Unfortunately, I don't believe any type of gun control will help these situations occur less. People will always find a way to get them in their hands, just like they do illegal drugs. But regardless, this is an awful tragedy, and my heart goes out to all of the people who are directly/indirectly affected by this.

[gingerew]

What a tragic situation. It makes me feel so hopeless... My heart goes out to the children and their families as they try to cope with this difficult time.

[~Xandria]

After doing some research it's starting to sound like Obama will be looking at stricter gun control laws. Something that desperatley needs to be done here but will likely never get past the congress.

The US needs to re-evaluate a lot of things. Forget looking at video games, and start looking at all the issues. For instance, mental health strongly needs to be addressed. Different firearm laws need to be implemented. Forget looking at things like if video games make violence, and start looking at the bigger picture. It just seems like these things keep happening and it needs to be stopped.

I agree with you completely. I feel like we are just waiting for the next trajedy to strike and not doing anything about it. You are absolutley correct. We have not addressed mental health here like we need too. I think mental health needs to be taught to every single doctor in depth regardless of whether or not that is what they are studying for. It's vital at this day and age that people are more educated about mental illness. We need stricter firearm control but I don't see that going well with the Republicans.

[Emily]

I think it could be partially due to healthcare professionals not understanding/not recognizing severe mental illness like they should be. I mean... maybe it's just me but I feel like they are not putting enough empthasis on it. It's still highly misunderstood. I think the only way we could possibly hope to stop this kind of behavior in the future is to better understand why criminals act the way they do - and how they act as children, so that mental health professionals may interfere long before something like this happens. :(

 

If the system's anything like what's been going on in Canada over the last 20 years or so, I can understand the problem. My mom works in grouphomes and she was telling me how, years ago, the government closed a bunch of the houses for people with mental illnesses. They were supervised houses for people who weren't severely mentally ill, but enough that they had trouble with certain things (especially social disorders) that prevented them from living alone. The ones deemed severely "enough" mentally handicapped were moved to group homes, while many others were either left to the care of their families or deemed "healthy enough" to be released. Many of the people released ended up homeless because they were unable to make the transition between the supervised homes and being able to fully take care of themselves. Makes you wonder how many people actually do require treatment that aren't getting it for whatever reason.

[~Xandria]

If the system's anything like what's been going on in Canada over the last 20 years or so, I can understand the problem. My mom works in grouphomes and she was telling me how, years ago, the government closed a bunch of the houses for people with mental illnesses. They were supervised houses for people who weren't severely mentally ill, but enough that they had trouble with certain things (especially social disorders) that prevented them from living alone. The ones deemed severely "enough" mentally handicapped were moved to group homes, while many others were either left to the care of their families or deemed "healthy enough" to be released. Many of the people released ended up homeless because they were unable to make the transition between the supervised homes and being able to fully take care of themselves. Makes you wonder how many people actually do require treatment that aren't getting it for whatever reason.

Oh, gosh that is just horrible. I'd say our systems in mental health are fairly similiar from what I've heard and read. I believe someone here told me that your universal care doesn't cover mental health? Before that I always thought it did. There are not enough free programs in the U.S to help the mentally ill who cannot afford care. Last time I checked though, I belive it's about half of all people who are mentally ill never get any kind of treatment. Definitley a growing problem in our modernized world and I'm sure it's a contributer to instances like this.

 

I find it strange that we have all these commericals for cancer awareness, drunk driving awareness, texting and driving, smoking, child abuse etc. Where are all the commercials for mental health awareness?

[Sakeru_Kyori]

Yeah I saw the Special CBS Report :'( it's very sad. Obama was even chokeing up.

[~Xandria]

Apparently the death toll is still rising too. Now it's 28 who have been pronounced dead, including 20 children.

[The Bandit]

This is heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers go out to anybody involved.

 

As someone who lives in the UK, where ownership of any firearm is illegal, it does make me wonder how many more tragedies like this there will be in the US before proper gun control is introduced...

[poptart123]

I live in US and only about a 2.5 hour drive away from the school at that. This is heartbreaking news. And as a mother I can't begin to imagine the grief that all those who lost their children and loved ones are experiencing. I know everyone here and those especially in other countries want to immediately bring up gun control but I don't think that is the main issue at hand. I think it's the media glorifying the bad guy. The people who commit these type of crimes will forever be infamous, wanting to know everything about them (what was his name, what was wrong with him, who he was friends with, who his family was, what was his life like, etc.) their names remembered, history changed, the President of the United States making a speech over their acts, down the road serial killers get biographies, investigative type television shows that "let you in" on the life they had leading up to their crimes, etc. and yet the victims names never mentioned, their faces never seen, no books about them, no television shows about them and in turn almost forgotten. Until that changes, I don't think acts like this will ever stop. Whether people have guns or not.

[lilllisan]

It's sad. Still it's disturbing how this is happening more often nowadays. It should be a wakeup call for society. I highly doubt that all these people where born this way. Something happened in their life that made them change their way of thinking. They probably went through a lot of pain, bullying or a abusive parents perhaps? And we are just too blind to notice or too scared to reach out. Obviously something is not working somewhere. maybe it's the healthcare? Maybe it's the schools bullying policy? Anyway I just feel like someone in the white house should be like "Hey let's do something to prevent this in the future!".

[~Xandria]

I live in US and only about a 2.5 hour drive away from the school at that. This is heartbreaking news. And as a mother I can't begin to imagine the grief that all those who lost their children and loved ones are experiencing. I know everyone here and those especially in other countries want to immediately bring up gun control but I don't think that is the main issue at hand. I think it's the media glorifying the bad guy. The people who commit these type of crimes will forever be infamous, wanting to know everything about them (what was his name, what was wrong with him, who he was friends with, who his family was, what was his life like, etc.) their names remembered, history changed, the President of the United States making a speech over their acts, down the road serial killers get biographies, investigative type television shows that "let you in" on the life they had leading up to their crimes, etc. and yet the victims names never mentioned, their faces never seen, no books about them, no television shows about them and in turn almost forgotten. Until that changes, I don't think acts like this will ever stop. Whether people have guns or not.

I do agree with what your saying, completely. I think that making them "famous" is a huge contributer to our problem. But when I say stricter gun-control I don't mean that people shouldn't be allowed to own guns or anything like that. I just think we make it too easy for the wrong people to get there hands on guns. It should be mandatory to have a physc evaluation before you are allowed to own one.

[Anxious Zombie]

It should be mandatory to have a physc evaluation before you are allowed to own one.

It is in Japan. Everyone else calls it strange.

[Welcome Back Apathy]

The Onion actually did an excellent job of summing up my feelings on this. I would give you a link, but it contains quite a bit of profanity.

 

Regarding gun control: It's always horrifying to me how fast gun RIGHTS people jump on the issue. Before anyone even has time to say anything other than hollowly echo the sentiments of everyone else, they cry about how they are now the victim because everyone will try to take their guns away. They then claim that doesn't work, because if you take guns away, only criminals could have guns. I'm seeing it all over my facebook, and it is DISTURBING that these people could act like that in the face of such a tragedy. Disturbing that they could act like victims when they were not shot or killed in the face of guns.

 

I would love to have a gun control debate on the debate forum at some point. Now, however, in the face of this tragedy...it is not the time.

[The_Warblers]

There are always a certain amount of people whose brains work differently. So, I don't think there would be any solution to this, except for controlling the guns more strictly

[Finn the Human]

The part that makes me feel the worst is that he killed 20 kids! Killing anyone would be horrible, but really why kill children who are only 5 years old.

[Ashbash]

This is so sad. I was crying while watching the news today. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved.