Another Mass Shooting

[livius drusus]

This time at an elementary school in Connecticut. It's still chaos right now, but the AP says 27 dead, 18 of them children. A kindergarten class appears to have been a particular target. The shooter is dead.

[ChuckF]

liv pls delete my duplicative thread

[livius drusus]

Done, although I kind of wanted to merge mine into yours just because you said you don't usually start breaking news thread.

[The Man]

In b4 this could have been prevented if the students had guns.

On a serious note, my condolences to all the victims' families.

[livius drusus]

Authorities just gave a press briefing. They will release no info on the number of dead or any specifics until the notifications are done. CNN has been interviewing some of the kids who made it out. It's creepy and I wish they'd stop.

[Stephen Maturin]

CBS is reporting that there may have been two shooters and that one may have been a parent of a student, but none of that is confirmed.

[Ari]

Sad
It sounds like the shooter was an angry father of a student and shot a whole class including the principal and probably his kid. I wonder if he went there to shoot his kid or the staff.
I'm guessing he will have a history of violence or threats.

[wei yau]

Oh, what the fuck?

A fucking elementary school?

[livius drusus]

Kindergarten through 4th Grade.

According to NBC news, the shooter's mother was a teacher found dead at the school.

[wei yau]

I can't even...

[ImGod]

I was at a gun store today. I hunt and target shoot small caliber stuff. I've been looking for a .22 caliber rifle for shooting tagets.

While there, a sales guy was helping out someone looking for a handgun. They were discussing stopping power, home defense, if the US collapses/SHTF prepper stuff. The sales guy ended up recommending and talking the guy into buying a 9mm with 1000 rounds of ammunition. You have to buy lots of ammunition because the price will go up in January once Obama is sworn in again. Plus, 9mm ammunition is used by lots of police, military, and private citizens. Which means it will be easier to find after the pending apocolypse (or has he put it "worst case scenario, if you know what I mean").

I was all like WTF! There is a large and growing number of scared shitless people in this country. I almost told the guy if he finds the need to defend the homefront use a 12 gauge shotgun with rabbit/squirrel load. It probably won't penetrate the walls and hurt other people if you miss. If it's a 3 shot pump, load a deer slug in last if needed. A .69 caliber slug is a metric buttload of stopping power.

I don't see reasonable gun control in this country until our next civil war breaks out and these guys all get killed off with the rest of us. If we can stomach 20,000+ killings, 20,000+ suicides, 1,000+ military dying each year this way, it will take 1,000,000+/year to snap us out of it. Like WWII did to Europe.

I didn't buy a .22lr as the store has jacked up pricing and is staffed by people using fear of death as a selling tool. Might stick to pellet guns for plinking targets. I have some almost as powerful as a little .22, but they are slower and a pain to load.

[Ari]

I would be surprised if there was a second shooter, and even more surprised if they had no family connection. This has the feeling of a family dispute.

When investigated I expect there will be a long chain of problems leading up to this, but will be ignored for something sensational like video games, or guns, or video game controlled guns! Which will ultimately break down into a conservative vs liberal poo match. Yay news!

Even if the school had ceiling mounted autoguns with AI targeting, if everyone is allowed to carry a weapon, the shooter would still have to kill people before being targeted and being killed doesn't seem to be a deterrent. More guns is clearly not the answer. I'm sure whatever the answer is, the gov will cut school funding to finance the commission to investigate it.

[livius drusus]

The shooter's black clothing seems to be a point they're harping on. Also lots of "you'd never expect it to happen here." IOW, Columbine all over again.

[ChuckF]

CNN's correspondent just reported that the police are executing a search warrant on the suspect's home, and that they will be examining any computers there, also noting that "so many of us have computers these days."

[ImGod]

There was a school shooting down the street from here a year or so ago. The kid left at lunch, came back and shot the principal and vice-principal (killing her), then left and shot himself later. He used his dad's police service weapon. Dad is/was a policeman working the night shift. I never made the national news because it was low volume.

There was a school bond issue that included security upgrades for the schools, but it was rejected because it included $25 million for artificial turf for all the school football fields.

The newer schools lock down automatically after the bell rings and all people have to go through a single double door system where you are buzzed in by staff watching you by camera. In this case, they would have alerted the school police officer, and depending on the glass used, possibly buzzed the guy into the double door area and locked him in there.

Cameras everywhere. The elementary schools only have a single door buzz in camera system. But you can't even see anyone to shoot at until you get through buzzed in. The whole system still wouldn't work well for a concelled handgun.

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

CNN's correspondent just reported that the police are executing a search warrant on the suspect's home, and that they will be examining any computers there, also noting that "so many of us have computers these days."

Yeah, CNN has gone beyond useless and out the other side a long time ago.

[livius drusus]

Wow, Obama almost lost it. He was straight up crying.

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Wow, Obama almost lost it. He was straight up crying.

Not the time to talk about gun control. Pray for everyone instead.

[livius drusus]

State police confirm 6 adults and 18 children were found dead at the scene. Two more children died at the hospital.

[Kashmir]

Maybe this will get the gun-control momentum finally going. We need to progress to the machete sprees that China has.

[Stephen Maturin]

This report says the shooter was the son of a teacher at the school. Again, nothing's confirmed.

[koan]

It used to be that a parent could be sure their kids were safe when they were at school and the rest of the day was the worry. Now school seems to be the most dangerous place they can be.

We used to have practice earthquake drills, now they have practice shooter drills. It's a world gone crazy.

[The Man]

Fuck Everything, Nation Reports | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

What Happened in the Newtown School Shooting | Mother Jones

[The Man]

Right To Own Handheld Device That Shoots Deadly Metal Pellets At High Speed Worth All Of This | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

I do think, though, that gun control (which I actually have a rather moderate stance on) is a lesser issue than the elephant in the room, which no one seems willing to address: Our dismal mental health care system. It's actually not true that the mentally ill are more likely to attack others (they're also more likely to be attacked than they are to attack others, by a fairly substantial margin). But the simple fact is that well-adjusted people do not generally go on killing sprees, and if we actually did a good job getting people the help they needed when they needed it, things like this would probably be a much less frequent occurrence.

More to come later, possibly; I have to leave for dinner right now.

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by The Man

In b4 this could have been prevented if the students had guns.

Not before it was in on Free Republic.

Also this could have been prevented if the staff hadn't been mostly women.

Also this could have been prevented if life wasn't devalued by the pro-choice left.

Also this could have been prevented if the shooter hadn't maybe smoked pot.

Also this could have been prevented if the poster had been there, because of what he would have done.

Also this proves that Obama wants to take our guns.

Also, also, also.