Another East Coast Mass Shooting Incident

[Anne]

A horrible thing, my heart goes out to the families of the ones who were killed. I can't imagine why anyone would do that.

[me]

That is so sad.  I had such a good day and then to find out something like this happened makes me want to cry.     My heart goes out to the friends and families of those involved.

[Henry Hawk]

And for the record, this is breaking my heart in two. 20 families lost a child today, and 20 lives that this morning held the promise, hopes, and dreams of a long future were snuffed just a few hours later.

I hate the world this day.

yet another thing we have in common, despite many that we don't..........my heart honestly aches....and not that there is ever a "good" time for such a tragedy....but it being this close to Christmas, when these beautiful young children are so excited about the holiday season...these families will have to deal with a funeral.

The first thing I did this evening was hug my 12 year old twins.......we spent a long time this evening talking about it. 

[Henry Hawk]

ironically, - A knife-wielding man slashed 22 children and an adult at an elementary school in central China.....our whole world has gone mad!  

[The Troll]

ironically, - A knife-wielding man slashed 22 children and an adult at an elementary school in central China.....our whole world has gone mad!

  I agree all of the mass killing are terrible.  Men, women and children.  But and it is a big but, I think the new media is causing a lot of it.   

  Since the shooting took place today, on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC has had over 28 hours of straight news coverage on this shooting.  Milking it for every bit of grief, sadness, moaning, groaning and speculation on what happened.   

  Over and over and over and over again.     Now, we have to get the guns, the killing guns.      Giving all of the nut out there information on how and where to do the crime, what to wear and what type of gun to use.     All in the name of sensual and gripping news coverage.   

  Some nut with low esteem, depression, wants to commit suicide and some way to get even with society.  After watching this beat, beat, beat, beat of the drums of the corporate media.  The mass murders say, hey, I can go down in history, I'll be famous, everyone will see what I did all by myself.  I will go out in a blaze of glory.  WOW!  Let's find a easy target where there will be no one else with a gun, no protection and I will kill and kill and kill and show the damn world how I hate it.   

  The cops are just a bad, getting up before the cameras, say that the gunman had be neutralized.  When in fact they found him in a corner with his brains blown out by the same gun he killed all of the people.   

  But the mass murder has to be the gun's fault.     A person who wanted to commit suicide, could take a suitcase with 5 gallons of gasoline under high pressure in to a theater, a mall, a subway or a train station set of the gasoline spray, then set the gasoline fumes off and kill a lot more people.   

  People are not all perfect, not all people are going to think straight and there are going to people  that are completely nuts.  I have heard this statement many times, God is perfect.  Well, God isn't perfect, because a lot of his creations are not perfect, for some are stone cold killers.

  The national news should not report all of these killing and give all of the graphic information in such dramatic and tear jerking way over the airwaves.  BECAUSE WE CAN'T STOP PEOPLE FROM GOING CRAZY.  And we don't need to tell them what to do and where to go and what type of gun and ammunition to use to make they a great person in their own mind 

  May all of the victims rest in peace.  Definitely a rainy day in America.     

[The Troll]

   Got up this Saturday morning and turned on the television.  I when to the cable news channels and guess what was on?    Why it was the shooting at the school.  Yep, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC were talking all morning about it, full hour by hour by hour in an endless news coverage of the Massacre.   

   Just asking some copycat killer to go find something to kill people with.     Priming the pump for more killing.   Endless talking heads now priming the pump for taking guns away.      I has to be only the guns, bad guns, killing guns.  Got to stop guns.  And it's mostly bullshit.   

  But there is one question in my mind, How many people are killed by the cops using guns.  I bet it would suprise the American people how the protective police department kill citizens of America.   But they say that they don't keep records of the cop shooting and cop suicides.   
  They know, but it a secret, a closely guarded secret.   Shootings by cops    I'll bet there are more killings by cops than the crazy insane killers kill every year.   

  Another thing that burns my ass.  The corporate news media are saying this.  20 CHILDREN  and 6 adults were killed.  20 CHILDREN POOR INOCENNT CHILDREN and 6 other people.  Like the older people where just kill in a passing way.  The 6 adult men and women were just a valuable and as important as the CHILDREN.  I guess the CHILDREN are more tear jerking and provoking than the old teachers and old people.  Give me a break. 

[Palehorse]

Here's some of the stuff being spewed in the media. Truth or not?

20 children aged 6 and 7 years old. 12 of them girls, 8 boys.

Shooters mother took the boys target shooting often.

Shooter tried to buy a firearm 3 days prior to event. The system worked and he was denied.

Shooter attempted to obtain entry to school previous day but was denied by 4 women that work there; 3 of whom he killed the next day.

Shooter broke into the school and was not allowed access.

Shooters mother did NOT work at the school and was NOT a teacher.

Shooter was autistic .

[libby]

 

The following is from today's Washington Post.   
Wonder what the boy's father and brother would have to say if they chose to speak up. 

Newtown School Shooter's Mother Collected Guns, Was Loath To Let People Inside Home

By Peter Hermann and Michael S. Rosenwald, Saturday, December 15, 2012, 8:19 PM

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Adam Lanza lived among guns.

His mother, Nancy, collected them. She showed them off to her landscaper.

"Guns were her hobby," said Dan Holmes, the landscaper of Nancy Lanza's sprawling yard here on the edge of town. "She told me she liked the single-mindedness of shooting."

Holmes said she even spoke of taking her son to the firing range to practice his aim.

As details of her son's troubled life trickled out Saturday, the day after he gunned down 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School and his mother at their home, the portrait emerging is one of a detached killer who knew his way around a trigger and of a family that feared outsiders in the home.

Holmes said Nancy Lanza, who was divorced and had reportedly worked in finance, never invited him inside. She would pay him in the yard. The landscaper never laid eyes on Adam Lanza, a skinny, withdrawn, socially awkward 20-year-old who excelled in academics but apparently not in forming deep friendships.

"I would ring the bell on the front door, and she would come out the side and meet me," he said. "It was a little weird. It's stranger now thinking back on what happened."

When she wanted to show Holmes an antique rifle, she proudly brought the gun — in its case — outside. How many guns Nancy had is not clear, though authorities say several were registered to her, including the ones used in the massacre.

Her former sister-in law, Marsha Lanza, told the Chicago Sun-Times outside her home in Crystal Lake, Ill., that Nancy Lanza wanted guns for protection. "She prepared for the worst," Marsha Lanza told the newspaper. "I didn't know that they [the guns] would be used on her."

Members of Nancy Lanza's regular neighborhood dice game never got inside her home, either — not in 15 years of regular games. Rhonda Collens, a frequent player in the game, said that while the group's weekly get-togethers moved from house to house, Nancy Lanza's was always skipped. She never met Adam Lanza, and Nancy never spoke of her children. Adam has an older brother, Ryan Lanza, who lives in New Jersey and works for the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Asked about Nancy Lanza's guns, Collens said, "I had no idea she liked that stuff," adding, "she was a nice lady, very pleasant."

Adam Lanza's acquaintances continued coming forward with what they knew about a young man who to many seemed unknowable. They described him as a loner, shy, brilliant, interested in gaming and computers, though seemingly without a digital footprint on social networks. It was not known whether he had a job.

Kate Leen, 21, attended seventh and eighth grade with Lanza and remembers him as very shy.

"You would say 'hi,' and he would say 'hi' back, but he didn't give you a lot to work with," said Leen, who now attends Hofstra University in New York.

In high school he dressed in khaki shorts and pants and wore oversize button-down shirts. He carried a briefcase instead of a backpack.

"He wasn't exactly extra welcoming," Leen said.

Marsha Moskowitz, his middle-school bus driver, didn't remember Adam Lanza having any friends. on the bus. "He was very, very quiet, reserved, shy, kept to himself," she said. "He'd say hello and goodbye, and that was about it."

Although private, the family wasn't isolated.

Acquaintances recall that Nancy Lanza was a regular presence at My Place, the town watering hole and eatery. She liked craft beers, Holmes said.

"I guess now we'll all be looking a little bit closer at things," Holmes said, "though she seemed a normal, everyday lady."


Rosenwald reported from Washington. Eli Saslow, Jennifer Jenkins and Alice Crites contributed to this report.


© The Washington Post Company

[Locutus]

 

Below is the list of the victims' names released by the chief medical examiner's office.

Children:

    Charlotte Bacon, 6
    Daniel Barden, 7
    Olivia Engel, 6
    Josephine Gay, 7
    Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6
    Dylan Hockley, 6
    Madeleine F. Hsu, 6
    Catherine V. Hubbard, 6
    Chase Kowalski, 7
    Jesse Lewis, 6
    James Mattioli, 6
    Grace McDonnell, 7
    Emilie Parker, 6
    Jack Pinto, 6
    Noah Pozner, 6
    Caroline Previdi, 6
    Jessica Rekos, 6
    Aviele Richman, 6
    Benjamin Wheeler, 6
    Allison N. Wyatt, 6

Adults:

    Dawn Hochsprung, 47
    Rachel Davino, 29
    Anne Marie Murphy, 52
    Lauren Rousseau, 30
    Mary Sherlach, 56
    Victoria Soto, 27

[Locutus]

The medical examiner also said that most of the victims were shot multiple times and that the weapon employed was the Bushmaster rifle.  If you recall, that's the same weapon employed by Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad (the Beltway Snipers).

[Locutus]

The full press conference held by the chief medical examiner for those who may have missed it:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

[Palehorse]

The following is from today's Washington Post.   
Wonder what the boy's father and brother would have to say if they chose to speak up. 

Newtown School Shooter's Mother Collected Guns, Was Loath To Let People Inside Home

By Peter Hermann and Michael S. Rosenwald, Saturday, December 15, 2012, 8:19 PM

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Adam Lanza lived among guns.

His mother, Nancy, collected them. She showed them off to her landscaper.

"Guns were her hobby," said Dan Holmes, the landscaper of Nancy Lanza's sprawling yard here on the edge of town. "She told me she liked the single-mindedness of shooting."

Holmes said she even spoke of taking her son to the firing range to practice his aim.

As details of her son's troubled life trickled out Saturday, the day after he gunned down 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School and his mother at their home, the portrait emerging is one of a detached killer who knew his way around a trigger and of a family that feared outsiders in the home.

Holmes said Nancy Lanza, who was divorced and had reportedly worked in finance, never invited him inside. She would pay him in the yard. The landscaper never laid eyes on Adam Lanza, a skinny, withdrawn, socially awkward 20-year-old who excelled in academics but apparently not in forming deep friendships.

"I would ring the bell on the front door, and she would come out the side and meet me," he said. "It was a little weird. It's stranger now thinking back on what happened."

When she wanted to show Holmes an antique rifle, she proudly brought the gun — in its case — outside. How many guns Nancy had is not clear, though authorities say several were registered to her, including the ones used in the massacre.

Her former sister-in law, Marsha Lanza, told the Chicago Sun-Times outside her home in Crystal Lake, Ill., that Nancy Lanza wanted guns for protection. "She prepared for the worst," Marsha Lanza told the newspaper. "I didn't know that they [the guns] would be used on her."

Members of Nancy Lanza's regular neighborhood dice game never got inside her home, either — not in 15 years of regular games. Rhonda Collens, a frequent player in the game, said that while the group's weekly get-togethers moved from house to house, Nancy Lanza's was always skipped. She never met Adam Lanza, and Nancy never spoke of her children. Adam has an older brother, Ryan Lanza, who lives in New Jersey and works for the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Asked about Nancy Lanza's guns, Collens said, "I had no idea she liked that stuff," adding, "she was a nice lady, very pleasant."

Adam Lanza's acquaintances continued coming forward with what they knew about a young man who to many seemed unknowable. They described him as a loner, shy, brilliant, interested in gaming and computers, though seemingly without a digital footprint on social networks. It was not known whether he had a job.

Kate Leen, 21, attended seventh and eighth grade with Lanza and remembers him as very shy.

"You would say 'hi,' and he would say 'hi' back, but he didn't give you a lot to work with," said Leen, who now attends Hofstra University in New York.

In high school he dressed in khaki shorts and pants and wore oversize button-down shirts. He carried a briefcase instead of a backpack.

"He wasn't exactly extra welcoming," Leen said.

Marsha Moskowitz, his middle-school bus driver, didn't remember Adam Lanza having any friends. on the bus. "He was very, very quiet, reserved, shy, kept to himself," she said. "He'd say hello and goodbye, and that was about it."

Although private, the family wasn't isolated.

Acquaintances recall that Nancy Lanza was a regular presence at My Place, the town watering hole and eatery. She liked craft beers, Holmes said.

"I guess now we'll all be looking a little bit closer at things," Holmes said, "though she seemed a normal, everyday lady."


Rosenwald reported from Washington. Eli Saslow, Jennifer Jenkins and Alice Crites contributed to this report.


© The Washington Post Company

I find it so maddeningly nauseating to read how so many "suddenly" have insights into the lives of others once a family member goes gonzo. People who wouldn't spit on them if they were on fire pre-incident, suddenly have this epiphany that provides some crystal ball moment to them. Give me a freaking break!

They lived in the same community, or went to school, or rode the bus, (etc.) with this person, or said "hi" to them, and suddenly they know more than Dr Phil about them.

The truth is they are attention whores themselves, and they are riding the coat-tails of an individual who committed a heinous act of murder; and then exacerbated it by taking  his own life, thereby robbing the entire community of not only the precious lives and the promises they once held, but the maddeningly short "sense of justice" the laws of humankind attempt to proved them once they are violated.

And the media feeds these miscreants by shining their lights on them and allowing them to pontificate on an international stage simply because they ived in the same community, or went to school, or rode the bus, (etc.) with this person, or said "hi" to them once in awhile. And why? Because despite the much ballyhooed "death of journalism" the old standard of said profession lives on; "if it bleeds it leads" and the media will prostitute itself to anyone or anything that serves to provide "color" to the bleeding.

Sorry Libby, this is not directed at you. I just am over-dosing on the sensationalistic prostitution of the media surrounding this incident. And for an encore I fully expect both sides of the political aisle to take full advantage of the incident to further their respective party platform's latest views surrounding how to make all this magically go away via the legislation of humanity.

The reality is it will never go away. A small group of terrorists killed thousands on 9/11/2001 with nothing more than a couple of utility knives. Shall we legislate those things as well? All our political piggies will do is drum up a way to generate more revenue via increased legislation, and in the end it will have zero impact upon those who scoff at the law today, and will tomorrow.

I would stipulate that every single one of the individuals around the world, who have committed heinous acts such as the one that transpired Friday are not right in the head. They are sick, twisted, and perhaps in ways that someone SHOULD have known, should have seen, or should have noticed, but no one did. Not a single human being did. But there is no shortage of people who step in front of the camera to say they did post incident.

If all of the things they have said, or even half of them are true, then why aren't we fixing the root cause of the whole damned mess; mental illness. Instead we are legislating cuts to the programs and institutions that provide the help mentally challenged human beings need. Instead we attach a social stigma to its very existence, treating it like a rotten family secret to be buried in the cellar and never be spoken of again.

What have learned from all of these mass killings? Not a damn thing, but they keep happening and an argument can be made that they are happening more frequently. Well of course they are! When you consider that the only thing rising in this country, and around the world for that matter, are homelessness, job losses, and a movement by the "global 1%ers" to increase the chasm between those with and those without.

Take away the firearms and they'll use knives. Take away the knives and they'll use sticks. Take away the sticks and they'll use rocks. Yes. It is the same old argument we hear anytime firearm legislation is spoken about. But, what will they blame when they have totally disarmed the civilian population, except for those who pay no attention to the laws already in place?

So the late Ms Lanza owned firearms. What's the big deal? Suddenly a woman who kept less than 10 weapons in her private collection is some kind of "militia member or right wing nut"? (They aren't saying it but they are damn well implying it. There are millions of women in this country just like her too, and why not? It is a constitutionally guaranteed right that each one of us holds and can take advantage of if we so chose. That in and of itself doesn't make anyone automatically sinister. If it did than I dare say a lot of our neighbors as well as members of this very forum would be classified as such.

No parent plans on having their offspring snap and turn into a mass murderer, and no parent ever obtained firearms with the intent of arming their children to commit murder. Does it happen? Well yeah it does, but lets not crucify a man/woman over what the media portrays them as, based upon the perspectives of attention whores who, if they truly did suspect something was wrong, had the social and civil duty to do something about it before the incident happened.

Most of these incidents, in hindsight, were preventable. If the perp had only obtained help, if the firearm owner only had purchased a triple-lock safe and had it bolted into the concrete foundation of their home, blah, blah, blah.

How about some legislation to put a firearm safe in every gun owner's home? NO! That would cost too much! (We'd rather create legislation to make firearms owners jump through hoops, pass drug tests, pass psych tests, and generate revenue). I have news for everybody. Even if you did that the only friggin people doing it would be those who already own firearms legally, and per the requirements set forth by the law. And when you set those requirements so high that only the affluent can afford to comply, then you make outlaws of a larger percentage of the population; not because they want to be outlaws or have some proclivity toward lawlessness, but because they have to protect themselves for it has become abundantly clear that government, at every level, is unable and unwilling to protect them.

I am no NRA member nor am I supporter of the NRA. I am no member of some militia right wingnut group. But I am a human being who pays attention to the lessons of history, world-wide, and I can state without reservation that disarming the citizens of any country, including this one, is the first step toward the demise of freedom. Period.

The fact this guy was able to get into an elementary school loaded for bear, scares the living hell out of me. It has broken my heart and makes me fearful for my grandchildren. It kept me awake last night. I don't know the solution to the problem and sincerely hope that one can be found. But the answer isn't in putting attention whores into the spotlight.

[Palehorse]

http://thebluereview.org/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother/

Exactly! Read this!

[Locutus]

http://thebluereview.org/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother/

Exactly! Read this!

How horrific!  I can't even imagine being in her situation.  That's an excellent read though, and it's indeed a conversation that needs to be had nationally.  Until we as a society try and find appropriate help for these kind of individuals, the sad massacres are going to continue. 

[Palehorse]

How horrific!  I can't even imagine being in her situation.  That's an excellent read though, and it's indeed a conversation that needs to be had nationally.  Until we as a society try and find appropriate help for these kind of individuals, the sad massacres are going to continue.

Indeed Locutus. A friend of mine pointed me to the article after reading one of my posts, and it serves as an excellent example of what I was trying to impart a couple of posts ago.

I agree that firearms control makes sense, but it is NOT the root cause of the incidents like the one that happened Friday. Mental illness is. And just like everything else dealing with the ailments of society today, it will be swept under the rug and ignored in favor of revenue generating legislation.