Sandy Hook Elementary. Has the World Gone Mad ?

I just wish we could wait til all the facts are in and verified before we go scrambling to place blame. I just wish we could have reverence for these families for now, there's plenty of time for hindsight.

:(

I agree that this calls for better mental health care, not stricter gun control. Remember the Virginia Tech shootings? The shooter there had mental health issues, and had even seen a doctor, but was not treated appropriately.

I blame the person killing the trigger to. We've outlawed drugs and people still use those. Not seeing where stricter gun control would have worked here. Just b/c its illegal to have a gun would not have stopped this monster from getting O..

I agree with Theresa N. . . .

All I know is my heart breaks for these families. If I had a kindergartener die this way I think I would die myself.

Oh my gosh, I can't even bear to think of the horror that went on at that school.

Please God be with these families.

This is definietly a case for more control of those with mental health problems... 30 years ago we had psych hospitals where people who were a danger to others or to themselves were kept. The ACLU decided the civil rights of the mentally ill were begin violated and the courts agreed. It is much, much, much more difficult to keep a mentally ill person inpatient. The threshold has been set much higher and hospital staff and outpaitnet cousnelors have to fight to get someone committed if they won't say to the admitting physician that they want to harm others or themselves. My sister was a psych nurse at a large NY state psych hospital for more than 30 years - so I know what I'm talkng about.

It's not about gun control - it's about stupidity and mental illness control. If soemone in that school had a gun maybe all those little cildren woudn't have died. What a horror for a family to deal with anytime - let alone a week before Christmas. It's proof that there's evil in the world. Let's just carry those families to God in prayer that they would be conforted in their grief.

So so sad.

What makes me sad is that this is NOT the first, second, third, forth, fifth, or whatever time this has happened. It continues to happen. The news glorifies it in the most awful way, instead of letting families grieve in peace and privacy. How many mentally ill people get ideas from the overwhelming amount of news coverage on events like this?

This also has nothing to do with gun control. If someone wants a gun, they'll get it. If you want an example, look at Canada...more guns per capita in Canada than in any other country in the WORLD, yet as far as I know they do not have these mass shootings. And if they do, what's the difference? They don't plaster it all over the news like entertainment.

I'm more disgusted that people seem to get something out of all this. I know if it were my child, I wouldn't want it on the news.

Prayers to all the families involved in this today, and prayers for every parents with children in school that they may keep a sense of safety. This world is so harsh, I sometimes want to cry.

We have plenty of gun laws.
They need to be enforced.
And of course people who are going to break the law don't care about any of that anyway.
Why is there never a call for better mental health care?
It seems many people flip out for who knows what reasons.
And we're okay with that as long as they are not armed?
How many of the homeless are mentally unstable but as long as they are not a danger to themselves or others it's okay (and less expensive) for them to wander the streets?
The violence isn't always gun related.
I just read an article where a father (a cardiologist in Canada) who stabbed his 2 kids (46 times) to death was released from a psychiatric institution in less that 4 years - he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Laws passed as knee jerk reactions are not addressing the source of the problem.
Mental health (or lack thereof) is not an easy problem to tackle, but it is the problem we need to face.

I agree, NOT THE TIME FOR POLITICS. We can all sit around and play "if only" but the sad fact is, 26 sets of families have been completely destroyed today. And, how are we ever going to begin to explain this atrocity to our children? And, think of all those that saw and heard the devastation and war that went on in that classroom today.

I say we band together, lift up prayers of support, strength and love to all of those families because by God, they are going to need it. I cannot imagine losing a child, but then to lose O. in this way is beyond understanding. And, our children are not going to be able to get away from hearing about it, so we need to be ready for the questions, comments and anxiety they will be experiencing.

God bless those babies and their teachers and caregivers that are now angels in heaven. And may the families find the strength to carry on . . .

I was watching tv when the show cut off for breaking news.
I know I'm in TX but I got such rush of anxiety when I saw it that I had to go get my oldest daughter from school (5th grade); I know it was impulsive but I needed her home.
While I waited for her in the lobby a whole 2nd grade class walked in front of me following their teacher, all the children were very happy talking about cupcakes and waved bye when they saw me, I cried all the way home.
I cannot believe someone would do something like this, all those little kids...I cannot imagine what their families must be going through.

Illinois has the strictest gun laws in the Country yet we have the most murders, highest crimes....go figure

When a drunk driver kills a family by driving down the wrong side of the street, should we ban cars or alcohol?

I am not going to make a political statement. I'm just, sort of, quietly freaking out right now.

Gun argument aside. It is taking all my will power not to go up to the school and pick up my son right now. I'll pick him up in a few hours. I'll be able to hug his neck, kiss him and tell him I love him. I am so grateful for that. I can only imagine the pain that school, the teachers, the families and the kids are experiencing. My heart goes out to them.

ABC news just said "this is the type of scene you see in a television drama"...that comment disturbs me...maybe we should take a look at violence as entertainment (tv, movies, video games)...

My heart and prayers go out to this whole community. The families of the victims, and the children who witnessed pure evil today. No child deserves to see that - ever.

I'm so upset right now. I can't even think what to write.

Somehow gun control and mental health need to be linked. I have absolutely no problem with a responsible person owning a gun, but seriously, the problems we keep seeing are people that should not have had access and they did. It's just so tragic.

We need to properly deal with the people behind the trigger...before they pull it.

Not sure how to address this huge issue. Mental illness is a huge problem today. I personally feel the breakdown of the family has an overarching affect on society also.

Not sure how I feel about stricter gun laws without putting emotion into it right now.

Almost 2 weeks ago we lost a dear friend in No. Carolina who's husband shot her then himself. 3 kids left orphans.

Sad..sad stuff going on.

I am taking our oldest to see "The Hobbit" this evening with friends. It is pathetic that my thought automatically turns to hoping and praying that a crazy shooter will not barge in on opening day to take down defenseless movie goers.

I will hold my kids even tighter today..and look in their eyes and tell them I love them.

This literally made me nauseus when I saw the headlines and I'm still in tears over it. Eighteen little kids, gone. Just like that. I can't imagine how the survivors will ever get over this. God bless the families of the victims and witnesses. My heart breaks for such a hideous loss.

Unfortunately just like drugs there is a thing called the black market, purchase on the streets. People will find guns to use. Stricter gun control? What exactly will that entail? What exactly more should be done? I'm not saying don't...I'm just saying I don't think that is the answer to these tragic events.

Not everyone with access to a gun is a crazy lunatic. Who is going to go out and do these types of things.

Gun control is not the issue, the issues is identifying imbalances and understanding the red flags prior to these tragic events.

Gun control doesn't help avert these tragedies (as people from controlled countries can attest). The only people these laws affect are people who WOULDN'T do such a thing. They lower ACCIDENTAL shootings. Not intentional ones. Criminals always have access to firepower.

Bombs & Fire are the preferred weapons of the average joe who has a mental break (can of petrol / gasoline & a lighter would -and has- been used in similar scenarios in the UK, and in parts of eastern EU). A pipe bomb takes 5 minutes and $20 to make. If that. Metal detectors don't pick them up (PVC). Bleach & Ammonia is another nightmare. All of those are common in the UK, as are more advanced bombs. But the average sicko just has to pop down to the home repair shop. No waiting period or background check required.

I can only thank God, that we have 'guns' so stuck in our cultural minds stateside.

My heart goes out to those families. I just can't imagine someone telling me my little tyke was killed in school. We think our schools are safe.

Blame? I blame the low life scrum bucket who pulled the trigger and killed those innocent children and adults. How would gun control have kept these weapons out of his hands? Before we start jumping on that, lets grieve the loss of these citizens. Lets lift the families up and pray for their loss because I don't know, as a parent, I would be able to get through this. Yes, I blame the person pulling the trigger.

My prayers go out to all those parents. I just called my son's school here in Indiana and talked to the secretary, who sounded still in shock. I am counting down the minutes until my little O. is here.
I've been tossing back and forth with the idea of grabbing my son out of school right now.

I agree with Jo W. and others that we need to have stronger mental health care. It's not that I'm against gun control, it's just that there are other factors involved that weigh heavier on the scale of importance.

I've known how to shoot, break down, clean, and reassemble a gun since I was 12. Do I currently own any? No. I abhor guns. I learned much of it from family members, and became better at it on a Marine Corps. firing range. Although I didn't get into the Corps. due to Asthma, they taught me proper care and respect of what is clearly a "WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION"(Thank God for the Drill Instructors and Gunny that hammered that into every soldier they trained).

I have handled idiots breaking into my rental(of which I moved out of as fast as possible) without a gun(even though my ex's guns were within easy reach and assembly). Truth is, the kid(who happened to be armed and very unlucky) got seriously injured without me needing a gun.

I've lived with the memory of a former member of my church who in the midst of a bitter court battle, lost faith and shot his daughter and then himself while mass was going on. I lost a friend that day, and people that KNEW HE WAS UNSTABLE never said a @#$%ing word until they were dead. Reading the news these days it's more of the same, and the families saying the shooter, "was such a nice person". A nice person doesn't pull a @#$%ing gun and shoots up folks.

I'm so sick of hearing about how expensive it is to take care of the mentally ill. I'm so sick of the government spending all the money that could be spent helping people to pass inane laws that don't help anyone.

Am I the only O.?

I'm gonna go light a stick or 20 of incense for those poor children, then Iom gonna hug my son's teddy bear until he gets home.

God bless you all. Go hug your children with all the love you have, and forgive them whatever stupid thing they do today, okay?

Not sure if this has been said but the drudge report says they identified the shooter as O. of the teachers sons. Security wouldn't do much for someone they would think would be ok to enter the school

Its so sad that there are sick people like this out in the world. It makes me sick to my stomach. I keep thinking about how many were Kindergartners...mainly because I think most Kindergartners are towards the front of the school. My daughters class is the second O. down the hallway. I get teary eyed thinking about this. So VERY sad!

I read a very incomplete article on this a little while ago. Hopefully more info will come out soon.

Of course again the shooter commited suicide so we get no answers from him just a lot of speculation from the news media. I don't know the answer but maybe getting rid of violent video games would help.

i honestly dont know what will help. seems sick people get the guns no matter what.
all i know is that lives are shattered. they are saying that it may have been the father of a student.
i feel sick. heartbreaking for sure

I almost wish I had seen this post first.

I'm really shocked by how low you have gone.KIDS WERE KILLED and you want to use this to lobby for gun laws. I don't think it's the world that as gone mad, I think it's people who want to use this horrible tragedy to make a political stance. Have some respect for the families fr God's sake.

gun control isn't the root of the problem. The problem is mental health care. First off many people do not have access to affordable health care in general. And even then we do annual physicals (maybe) but not so much mental. Many of the warning signs are in hindsight but not something we can necessairly see. Although in some cases warning signs are apparent. In most if not all of these cases there has been mental illness as a major factor. A girl at my work said "apparently this guy knew what he was doing." I told her that I had to disagree. It is not apparent he knew what he was doing. he is dead so no O. can question him or observe him. We can only find out things about his past. and not being present to see how he was acting and really not knowing anything about him nothing is apparent or obvious.

Gun control and mental health care. It is true that many of these people use stolen guns to commit these types of crimes, but if there weren't so many guns available to be stolen, and the people who legally owned guns had to take measures to ensure guns didn't wind up in the hands of criminals or mentally ill people it would be a good start.

The guns were a glock and a sig-sauer (spelling?) and they were both semi-automatic (which means that they will fire as fast as you can pull the trigger) with easily available extended magazines (cartridges that hold the bullets). Just giving info on the guns. I'm not going to comment on gun control because I have mixed feelings about it.

I would like to point out that a man in china stabbed 30 elementary children today also.

So yes the world is mad ... but it always has been. We're just much much much more aware of just HOW mad with today's technology.

Stricter gun control won't help. People that want a gun will get a gun. Good law abiding. Citizens will follow the rules to get a gun. Madmen do not follow rules. They will get them on the black market. And yes the world has gone mad.

This is so tragic and becoming almost common to have mass shootings. The depravity of shooting little innocent children is beyond me. It does make me want to home school my child. I almost wonder if the day isn't coming where there will be locked and alarmed guns with the fire extenguishers in all publi buildings for emergencies like this. :( I know this sounds ludicrous but I just wish today someone in the building other than the shooter had a gun...

I had to turn the tv off. I have a child in kindergarten. I just couldn't stop crying. Those poor babies. Those poor families. I cannot imagine.

This a complicated problem, with an equally complicated solution. I can only hope that as a nation we can channel all the anger and sadness we are feeling into some conversations that bring about the change we need. At some point, we will have to stop putting it off, stop pretending that doing so is the proper, respectful thing. It’s not either. It’s cowardice.

Yes stricter gun control would decrease the number of guns available to criminals like this but it will not stop them. I still believe we need stricter gun control. Making drugs illegal decreased the amount of use and made it harder for people to get however it did not stop them. Even with laws people will find guns. Violence on TV or in movies contributes to violent behavior and yet the violence on these programs and movies have increased over the last two decades dramatically. Yes limiting this violent viewing will decrease violent behavior but again won't stop it. People's tolerance of inappropriate behavior our societies change in personal relations has caused distance between people and an attitude of non-involvement. People used to be kind and helpful to strangers, now we mistrust everyone. People mistrust before thinking of kindness and it has caused a loss of intimacy. So now we are not as likely to know when people are having problems or issues. Then we have taken religion out of everything. What happened to religious tolerance? Including tolerance for those without religion, but mostly now for those with it? People have distanced themselves for each other and do not rely on each other like they used to and that bonding is no longer alive in our society. So basically yes the world has gone mad. What can we do about it? Personally I try to live a better life, try to be an example to others. Try to help when I can try to be involved, or get involved. It isn't easy and I fail often. I homeschool my kids and am grateful for that. And I know they are at risk too as they spend more time in the community than most kids, we spend our days going from activity to activity, and take solace that for most of those I am present, but I drop my daughter(2nd grade) off at activities a few times a week, my son(K) is with me or I am present at his activities. But I still know anyone could walk into any of those buildings, even with me there, something could happen. You can't stop something like that. Even if the teacher had a gun and was trained to use it there is a good probability that he/she wouldn't have had time and even if they did get to it, it is likely they wouldn't have hit the target in the correct location before being shot themselves. He had a bulletproof vest on, he was making sure he did what he wanted and was in control of even taking his own life. I think we personally need to begin to make the change in our own lives, become more involved with others, try to live a better life, be a better example, etc. It won't stop the crazies who do this, but maybe we can be more aware more responsible. I don't have high hopes of this happening but I can still live my life that way. People can change others lives, I remember watching the movie pay it forward and since have tried to live my life that way. Doing what I can when i can, and asking only to pay it forward. Life is too short we need to be more loving and kind. I can't imagine the pain those families are suffering, I have cried for them all and hope they can find a way to go with their lives. For each of those 27 lives taken there are multiple members of each family who are grieving this affected hundreds of close family members and many, many more extended family and friends. A horrible tragedy. I am going to make some sort of memorial with my kids today.