CT school shooting - Horrible

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Latest reports put casualties at 26 total, 18 of them children. Most of the children were Kingergartners.

Suspected shooter is dead. Reports suggest there may have been a second shooter.

Reports also say a total of 4 weapons were used including at least one high powered rifle with a high capacity clip.

I have a lot to say on this, but don't want to say too much at the moment.

For now, let me just say that I don't care how angry, upset or pissed off you are at someone or some group, it is NEVER ok to hurt or kill innocent people as a result of it.

[s_stabeler]

OK, can I just suggest we keep guns out of this one? it's not that long since we last had a thread about gun control; I doubt opinions have changed.

now, I agree, it's horrible. why somebody would shoot up a kindergarten...

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I am more concerned with what causes PEOPLE to get to this point. Where are we failing our own to the point where they feel they have no choice but to act violently?

[crashhelmet]

I haven't seen it reported yet, but I have yet to find the age of the shooter(s). Adults? Parents of one or more of the students? Teen with serious issues? I want to know and at the same time, I don't. This is a tragedy I'd love to just suppress and pretend it never happened.


EDIT
Right after I submitted this, I found:

We have just learned that the suspected shooter is 20-years-old, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN’s Susan Candiotti.

[AdminAssistant]

I heard that the shooter was the kindergarten teacher's son, but I don't know how accurate that is.

[crashhelmet]

I'm hearing the same thing. And not only that, but the classroom he attacked was his mother's class.

[Greenday]

I just can't even fathom why someone would think that this was the right thing to do. How can anyone possibly justify shooting a room full of children?

[RedRoseSpiral]

24 year old Ryan Lanza got into an argument with the principal of the school his mother works at and the proceeded to shoot up her class. A body is in his mother's house (speculated to be hers). Lanza's brother is now in custody reasons unknown (possible 2nd shooter).

[s_stabeler]

Mentally ill, then. ( I refuse to believe a sane person can decide to shoot up a class of kindergarteners over an argument with the school principal.)

best guess is that the brother is either a 2nd shooter, or the brother bought the guns.

[Gravekeeper]

OK, can I just suggest we keep guns out of this one?

That may be difficult, as this is becoming absurd in the US this year. It's obvious there's a massive failure somewhere in the system. It doesn't have so much to do with the right to bear arms, so much as the ease of access disturbed people seem to have to them. This is the second deadliest shooting in US history short of Virginia Tech, and frankly the most horrible considering the location.

This guy didn't even use the rifle he brought, he just had two pistols on him. He left the rifle in the car.

I try to be open minded about gun control as far as speaking with Americans, but its difficult when it feels like there's a major shooting or an attempt at one once a month this year.

[Greenday]

Looks like the media went ahead and plastered some poor guy's face all over the news without checking to see if it was the right Ryan Lanza.

[Gravekeeper]

Looks like the media went ahead and plastered some poor guy's face all over the news without checking to see if it was the right Ryan Lanza.

Oh for fuck sakes. I hope he sues them off the air. That kind of mistake could get someone killed.

[s_stabeler]

Oh for fuck sakes. I hope he sues them off the air. That kind of mistake could get someone killed.

whoever plastered up the photo better hope not, because that might actually give rise to criminal liability (criminally negligent manslaughter, which admittedly requires breach of a duty of care. on the other hand, it's at least arguable that failure to check you're publishing a photo of the correct bloke in a school shooting counts)

and GK, I happen to agree with you, I'm just not particularly interested in hearing another 100-odd pages of people making the exact same points over and over again, with various personal attacks included. I'd rather people stuck to talking about the actual incident.

[HEMI6point1]

At least the shooter's dead so we don't have to support his ass in prison.

I've noticed that with all these school shootings, you never hear of an "inner city" school involved in a tragedy like this. It's always the schools in the more affluent, well-to-do sections. I've always wondered why, and someone a long time ago told me this (his words, not mine):

"That's because in an inner-city school you have cops swarming the damn place, in the hallways, classrooms, everywhere. If someone is stupid enough to try something he'll have a cop taking his ass down to the ground so fast."

How was a man dressed in all black allowed to just waltz right in anyway? It seems to me that the schools like the one in CT need to beef up security to "inner-city" levels instead of being lax about it just because of the type of background of the students and faculty they usually have.

My mom told me back in her school days, no school had to worry about having cops on the grounds. How times have changed....

[Gravekeeper]

It seems to me that the schools like the one in CT need to beef up security to "inner-city" levels instead of being lax about it just because of the type of background of the students and faculty they usually have.

No school should have to beef up security to begin with. That's addressing the symptom, not the disease. Which has been a running theme in US politics for years, unfortunately.

It's always "We need to do X in case it happens again" never "We should do Y to prevent it happening in the first place" =/