Rachel Maddow makes the case that it IS the appropriate time to talk about gun control. In fact it is well past the appropriate time. Update!

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Rachel makes some extremely good points in this segment, and also shares some startling facts that should make many Americans simply sick to their stomachs.

Of course it is time to talk about doing something about making guns far less accessible and keeping certain guns off of the streets altogether.

And it CAN be done.

Americans may bristle at the notion of doing anything as aggressive as what was done in Scotland, but how many parents out there would gladly trade away their right to own certain guns for the chance to feel that their children wee safe in their schools? Or in the malls? Or simply walking down the street?

And as for the NRA, well right now at least they seem unsure of their control of the gun control issue.

Salon pointed out yesterday that the official NRA Twitter account has gone silent, as so far today that remains true. Their last tweet was over 24 hours ago.

10 Days of NRA Giveaways - Enter today for a chance to win an auto emergency tool! tinyurl.com/8ufn35h twitter.com/NRA/status/279…
— NRA (@NRA) December 14, 2012

I imagine that they are as shocked as many of the rest of us, and simply do not know what they should say, or when they should say it. At any rate they are in no position to fight back against the idea of addressing gun control in this country.

P.S. I am going to go a little off topic in my own post to share a little breaking news about the shooter's mother and some assumptions that were made that were apparently false.

As many of you know much of the information that we all got originally turned out to be incorrect, including the shooter's name, the death of his father, and where his mother was killed.

And now we have this: 

A former school board official in Newtown called into question earlier reports that Nancy Lanza had been connected to Sandy Hook Elementary School, possibly as part of the teaching staff. 

“No one has heard of her,” said Lillian Bittman, who served on the local school board until 2011. “Teachers don’t know her.”

The belief that the mother was a kindergarten teacher is apparently partly explained here:

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said investigators believe Lanza attended the school several years ago but appeared to have no recent connection to the place. 

At least one parent said Lanza’s mother was a substitute teacher there. But her name did not appear on a staff list. And the law enforcement official said investigators were unable to establish any connection so far between her and the school.

Yesterday may have been one of the most confusing information gathering days that I can remember since 9-11, and what once seemed to fit together no longer does.

But what we DO know is that these children were killed with hand guns that are simply TOO readily accessible in this country. And that is a problem that we CAN start to work on right now, before the next terrible incident has us again asking "when IS the right time to talk about gun control?"

Update: New information has emerged that might explain WHY Adam Lanza chose to target this school. This from Mediaite:

Attempting to answer the question of why Lanza may have chosen this particular school, Williams stated that it has been confirmed now that Lanza’s mother did not work full-time at the school, despite previous reports. 

However, officials told NBC that on Thursday, December 13, Lanza was involved in an “altercation” at the school which involved himself and four other staff members. Of the four, three were murdered in yesterday’s shooting spree and the fourth is currently being interviewed by federal and state investigators.

That is all we know thus far it appears.