“Friday was a day of mourning, but the time to act is now upon us,” Larson said in a strongly worded statement issued Saturday afternoon.
“To do nothing in the face of continuous assaults on our children is to be complicit in those assaults. There may not be a single cure-all for the violence in our nation, however we must start the process and begin the deeper and longer conversations that need to take place."
“Politics be damned. Of the 12 deadliest shootings in our nation’s history, half of them have happened in the last five years. And there is not a single person in America who doesn’t fear it will happen again. It’s time we recognize the danger and address it,” Larson said.
I could not have said it better myself.
It's a damn American disgrace, I tell ya. Gun violence has been killing those in the inner cities for decades, but I knew when it hit the suburbs, America would then become alarmed.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, the Onion nails it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theonion.com/articles/nra-sets-1000-killed-in-school-shooting-as-amount,28352/
About time!!! I was beginning to think the Democrats had lost their voices.
ReplyDeleteNow if a Republican will second the motion....we are waiting......
“To do nothing in the face of continuous assaults on our children is to be complicit in those assaults."
ReplyDeleteThe Second Most Powerful Gun Lobby Is in Newtown, Connecticut
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/111148/three-miles-tragic-shooting-bastion-gun-rights#
I agree with Rep. Larson. Today I plan to write to my senators and to my representative and tell them that they have to address two issues: gun control and provision of adequate and appropriate mental health care. I think that we all should do this. Hearing from millions of constituents will have an effect.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Rep. Larson is pissed. He is so angry and so are we all. It's just heartbreaking. Those parents got their babies up that morning, dressed them in their little clothes, fixed their breakfast, gave them their lunch, and sent them off to school, and had no clue this was the last time they would see their babies alive. Just so heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteAnd please, don't tell me it was a person, not a gun, that did this. It couldn't have been done without a gun. And without the perverted encouragement to love, adore, stroke, oil, insert rods in, play with, fantasize about and fondle guns, encouraged by the NRA and by their enablers in Congress and the Senate. The New York Crank
ReplyDeletehttp://thenewyorkcrank.blogspot.com/2012/12/who-are-real-murderers-in-school-and.html
SNL Silent Night Children's Choir Opens Show
ReplyDelete"Saturday Night Live" made a rare departure from its comedic opening to pay tribute to the children and adults killed at a Connecticut elementary school.
Not known for treating anything seriously or tenderly, the show made a fitting exception during the first moments of its show Saturday. Rather than the usual comedic sketch, a children's choir appeared on camera and angelically sang "Silent Night," with the touching refrain, "Sleep in heavenly peace."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/snl-silent-night-connecticut-shooting_n_2310590.html
Gov. Malloy Sees Potential Loopholes In State Assault Weapons Bans
ReplyDeleteConnecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) said that the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was carried out with an assault weapon despite the state's "aggressive" gun laws, during an interview that aired on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. Malloy argued that manufacturers could potentially get around state assault weapon laws because of an absence of federal legislation.
"Connecticut has a pretty aggressive law -- probably of the 50 states I think we're ranked 4th most aggressive in trying to limit access to these kinds of weapons," Malloy said. "But what happens in the absence of a Brady bill, in the absence of federal legislation, people use descriptive terms to try to get around the limitations that are built into our statutes here in Connecticut, or might otherwise not happen if we had federal legislation on this issue. These are assault weapons. You don't hunt deer with these things."
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gov-malloy-sees-potential-loopholes-in-state-assault
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) delivered the news to the families of the slain victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that their loved ones had been killed, he said during an interview that aired on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.
ReplyDeleteThe families had been gathered for hours, Malloy said, and he was ultimately the one to deliver the news.
The second most powerful gun lobby in the country is located near the Newtown, CT shooting!
ReplyDeletehttp://gawker.com/5968679/the-second-most-powerful-gun-lobby-in-the-country-is-located-in-newtown-conn
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that some of his colleagues in the Senate believe that something needs to be done policy-wise in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. Blumenthal said he expected the shooting to influence the national conversation about gun violence and that he will "talk about it on the floor of the United States Senate."
ReplyDelete"I'm hearing from my colleagues in the Senate around the country, some in states like Wisconsin and Colorado, where there have been similar horrific, horrible tragedies, maybe not involving children with this kind of incomprehensible kind of circumstance, but we need to do something, at the very least, perhaps, about the high-capacity magazines that were used in this crime," Blumenthal said.
He continued: "Certainly this horrible episode and incident and crime by this deranged person possessed by demons, as you have put it, will spur and transform, I think, the national conversation. And I intend to talk about it on the floor of the United States Senate, perhaps as early as this week."
He declined to be more specific "out of respect to the families and their grief."
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/sen-blumenthal-shooting-will-transform-national-conversation
Connecticut Senator-elect Chris Murphy (D) said that "there needs to be a conversation about gun control" during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" Sunday. "We're going to be on the floor of the Senate very soon talking about where we go from here," he said.
ReplyDelete"And as I think eager as people are going to be to find some simple solution from a policy standpoint, we have to acknowledge that there is no simple solution, that, yes, there needs to be a conversation about gun control, but also about the way we treat mental illness, also about the culture of violence in this country, which may have contributed to the way in which this very disturbed young man thought," Murphy said."
"We need to talk about it, though," he continued. "The time for sort of saying that we can't talk about the policy implications of tragedies like this is over. And for us here in Connecticut, while we're going to grieve and make sure the families have everything they need, we're going to be on the floor of the Senate very soon talking about where we go from here."
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/senator-elect-murphy-there-needs-to-be-conversation
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg argued that President Obama should push for tougher gun control laws during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
ReplyDelete"He's the commander in chief as well as the consoler in chief," Bloomberg said. "This should be his No. 1 agenda. He's the president of the United States and if he does nothing during his second term something like 48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns --that is roughly the number of Americans killed in the whole Vietnam War."
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/bloomberg-gun-control-should-be-obamas-no-1
Dems To Introduce Assault Weapons Ban Bill
ReplyDeleteIn the wake of Friday's mass killing at an elementary school in Connecticut, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Sunday that she plans to introduce an assault weapons ban bill on the first day of the new Congress.
"I'm going to introduce in the Senate, and the same bill will be introduced in the House -- a bill to ban assault weapons," Feinstein said on NBC's "Meet the Press," according to a tweet from show producer Betsy Fischer Martin.
The shocking murder of 26 children and adults in Newport, Conn., on Friday has sparked a national discussion on gun control, with mostly Democratic legislators saying laws need to be tightened.
President Bill Clinton signed an assault weapons ban into law in 1994, but the measure expired a decade later. Democrats have tried several times since then to renew the ban, without success.
Feinstein called for the ban to be renewed after the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater that killed 12 people and injured 58 others.
"Who needs these military-style assault weapons? Who needs an ammunition feeding device capable of holding 100 rounds?" Feinstein wrote on her campaign website. "These weapons are not for hunting deer -- they’re for hunting people."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/dianne-feinstein-assault-weapons-ban_n_2311477.html
This guy needs to be booted for all the stupid ass things that come out of his mouth!
ReplyDelete---
In the wake of the mass killing that claimed 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary school Friday, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) made the case Sunday that the answer to preventing massacres in the U.S. is for more Americans to carry guns.
"There has been great investigation and study into this," Gohmert told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, arguing that mass killings happen where citizens tend to be unarmed. "They choose this place [because] they know no one will be armed."
Gohmert argued that the mass slaughter would have gone differently if Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung had been armed.
"Chris, I wish to god she had had an m-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out ... and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said.
The mass murder in Connecticut has renewed the national discussion about gun control, with Democrats in particular calling for a new assault weapons ban.
So far, Gohmert appears to be one of the few pro-gun rights conservatives in Congress willing to make the public case for more guns in the wake of the Connecticut shooting. "Meet the Press" producer Betsy Fischer Martin tweeted Sunday that the show extended an invitation to 31 pro-gun rights senators in the new Congress to discuss the issue on the show and found no takers.
Gohmert argued Sunday that tighter gun controls such as assault weapon bans are not the answer.
"Once you start drawing the line, where do you stop?" Gohmert said. "That's why it is important to not just look at this emotionally."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/louie-gohmert-guns_n_2311379.html
Add Bill Bennett to the list - he said the same thing on MTP.
DeleteAnd all of these COWARDS
http://www.politicususa.com/31-pro-gun-rights-senators-declined-meet-press.html
The Second Most Powerful Gun Lobby Is in Newtown, Connecticut
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/111148/three-miles-tragic-shooting-bastion-gun-rights#
Don't Tell the Kids a Damn Thing About Newtown
ReplyDelete...Here’s what we can control: as long as our children are alive, we can refuse to terrorize them with worst-case scenarios. We can decline to let a random act of violence goad us into treating Connecticut as if it were Gaza, Afghanistan, or Mali. I understand that there are parents in the world who have to teach their children about bomb shelters. But I don’t, not yet. My daughter is just five years old, and her school is as safe as we can make it without imprisoning ourselves in our own fear. My heart breaks for what happened 25 miles away; I’ve cried twice already today. But I’ve done it far from my children, who are still very young and, yes, innocent. So please: Don’t tell them a goddamned thing.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/111152/dont-tell-kids-damn-thing-about-newtown
Adam Lanza Was A 'Loner' Who Felt Little Pain: Teacher
ReplyDeleteNewtown High School Head of Security Richard Novia told the Associated Press that when Adam Lanza was a student, he was not only emotionally withdrawn, but also appeared not to experience physical pain in the same way as others.
At Newtown High School, Adam Lanza had trouble relating to fellow students and teachers, but that was only part of his problem. He seemed not to feel physical or emotional pain in the same way as classmates.
Richard Novia, the school district's head of security until 2008, who also served as adviser for the school technology club, said Lanza clearly "had some disabilities."
"If that boy would've burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically," Novia told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "It was my job to pay close attention to that."
Novia was responsible for monitoring students as they used soldering tools and other potentially dangerous electrical equipment.
He recalled meeting with school guidance counselors, administrators and with the boy's mother, Nancy Lanza, to understand his problems and find ways to ensure his safety. But there were others crises only a mother could solve.
"He would have an episode, and she'd have to return or come to the high school and deal with it," Novia said, describing how the young man would sometimes withdraw completely "from whatever he was supposed to be doing," whether it was sitting in class or reading a book.
Adam Lanza "could take flight, which I think was the big issue, and it wasn't a rebellious or defiant thing," Novia said. "It was withdrawal."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/adam-lanza-pain-loner-teacher_n_2308641.html
A Newtown, Conn. priest who accompanied police when they notified parents that they had lost their children in Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school said that some of the parents asked officials about their kids' final moments.
ReplyDelete"They were wondering, did the child know what was happening? Were they afraid? Did they see something coming?" Rev. Robert Weiss, the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, told Savannah Guthrie on Saturday's "Today" show. "And of course no one can answer those questions because there are no survivors. So these parents are left with those unanswered questions in addition to just why this had to happen? Why to their child?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/newtown-pastor-robert-weiss-sandyhook-school-shooting_n_2307866.html
A glimpse of some of those who died:
ReplyDelete"She was going to go some places in this world," Hagen told the newspaper. "This little girl could light up the room for anyone."
"She loved attention," he said. "She had perfect manners, perfect table manners. She was the teacher's pet, the line leader."
Haller said Noah loved to read and liked to figure out how things worked mechanically. For his birthday two weeks ago, he got a new Wii.
"He was just a really lively, smart kid," Haller said. "He would have become a great man, I think. He would have grown up to be a great dad."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/connecticut-shooting-victims_n_2308463.html
One day we need to also examine our militarized culture along with our gun culture. More kids are skipping college for military training.
ReplyDelete15 December 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248693/Fort-Hood-soldier-killed-shootout-Texas-police-investigating-opened-fire.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
A school to prison pipeline can't help our future generations or us in our old age.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/16/school-to-prison-pipeline-kids-arrested-for-making-adults-mad/
'I Am Adam Lanza's Mother': A Mom's Perspective On The Mental Illness Conversation In America
ReplyDelete...I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.
A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan -- they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.
That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn’t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.
We still don’t know what’s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He’s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work.
At the start of seventh grade, Michael was accepted to an accelerated program for highly gifted math and science students. His IQ is off the charts. When he’s in a good mood, he will gladly bend your ear on subjects ranging from Greek mythology to the differences between Einsteinian and Newtonian physics to Doctor Who. He’s in a good mood most of the time. But when he’s not, watch out. And it’s impossible to predict what will set him off.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-mental-illness-conversation_n_2311009.html
It is said Nancy Lanza taught her mentally ill son how to shoot her guns. Is that a normal component in America for parents with the challenges of a troubled child?
DeleteThe copy cats have started, we almost had another one....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-police-indiana-man-threatened-killings-at-elementary-school-20121216,0,6120959.story
There are so many I can't keep up. a hospital in Atlanta, Ft Hood Texas, California mall are a couple.
Deletehttp://www.mediaite.com/tv/oklahoma-teen-arrested-friday-in-school-shooting-plot-hours-before-sandy-hook-massacre/
GOP Congressman: Government Responsibility Is ‘To Deal With’ The ‘Realism’ In ‘Games And Movies’
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediaite.com/tv/gop-congressman-government-responsibility-is-to-deal-with-the-realism-in-games-and-movies/
Is this a Republican distraction from talking gun control? Not that media/game violence is not desensitizing our country and training youth to violence. Media/games are a big part of creating a culture, but I question war mongers and their timing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediaite.com/tv/c-t-sen-lieberman-video-games-movies-cause-vulnerable-young-men-to-be-more-violent/
MASS EFFECT http://www.geekosystem.com/mass-effect-blamed-for-shooting/
Gunman's 'survivalist' mother
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248983/Connecticut-school-shooting-Adam-Lanzas-survivalist-mother-obsessed-guns.html
A cute little propagandist family doing their part in everyway they can.
http://tinyurl.com/8bnfkf9
Keep in mind that buying spree of guns and ammo right after Obama was elected in 2008. All spurred on by hate radio and right wing media.
ReplyDeleteObama didn't take their guns away.
Now, it's a different story.
But you bet they'll spin it as "I told you so." And spur on another gun/ammo buying spree.
Where is the Republican equivalent? And William Bennett said on Meet the Press, paraphrased from memory, "I know I'm going to get a lot of mail, but it must be said. The principal and at least one of the other adults, lunged at the shooter. I believe if they were armed.... if we put ONE armed person in every school, this could have been avoided"
ReplyDeleteWith WHOM are we supposed to start a conversation with?, Seriously!
Crickets chirping...
He is 110% correct. Until LaPierre or his family or both are murdered by a gun related crime, nothing will happen....nothing. Same goes for clowns like Mike Huckleberry over at Arkansas Landfills! Or Louie GOOBERNUTS down in east swamp water texas where boys like him are used for gator bait !!!!!!
ReplyDelete