WE: After school shooting in Connecticut, Piers Morgan blasts America’s ‘gun madness’

[autoidiodyssey]

And, as is often ignored in these debates, the majority of people realize it is somewhere in the middle and believe we can try to make appropriate changes in more than one place.

Middle! What is this Middle of which you speak? Blasphemy! How dare you bring that into a political discussion. Don't you know that the Middle has no place in American politics anymore?

[Painkiller]

I thought you did pretty well with the top part, but the last two seemed more like pushing a personal agenda with talking points rather than a real discussion/informed points

Thanks. The last two are personal "pet peaves" of mine. No agenda, just pointing out how I feel. Perhaps our experiences in those areas are different.

---------- Post added December-15th-2012 at 05:33 PM ----------

Middle! What is this Middle of which you speak? Blasphemy! How dare you bring that into a political discussion. Don't you know that the Middle has no place in American politics anymore?

Well, let's take two individual types of people. Just two random people plucked out of the "United States of America"

One is male. Raised in a single parent household. Is an atheist as were his parents. Happens to be gay. Born and raised in New York City. Likes recreational drug use. College

The other is female. Lives in small town Missouri. Raised in a two parent Baptist household. Is straight. Has 5 kids. A homemaker. Thinks drugs and alcohol are the works of Satan.

Find me a leader that can get these two people to find a middle ground?

[autoidiodyssey]

Well, let's take two individual types of people. Just two random people plucked out of the "United States of America"

One is male. Raised in a single parent household. Is an atheist as were his parents. Happens to be gay. Born and raised in New York City. Likes recreational drug use. College

The other is female. Lives in small town Missouri. Raised in a two parent Baptist household. Is straight. Has 5 kids. A homemaker. Thinks drugs and alcohol are the works of Satan.

Find me a leader that can get these two people to find a middle ground?

I agree, not much middle ground to be found between those two. But for every one of those there are probably two men or women living in suburban Here or There USA. Had both parents involved, if not both living under the same roof. Believe in God but only go to church for weddings,funerals, or holidays(if they go at all). Have a kid or two. Will have a drink at happy hour or during a game on Sunday. They watch the news and get frustrated because everything is Red vs. Blue and they feel pretty Purple.

[Painkiller]

I agree, not much middle ground to be found between those two. But for every one of those there are probably two men or women living in suburban Here or There USA. Had both parents involved, if not both living under the same roof. Believe in God but only go to church for weddings,funerals, or holidays(if they go at all). Have a kid or two. Will have a drink at happy hour or during a game on Sunday. They watch the news and get frustrated because everything is Red vs. Blue and they feel pretty Purple.

No argument there. These people get drowned out by the "left and right" "conservative and liberal" "democrat and republican" "You must pick a side" crowd that only enjoys when their side "wins" as opposed to the country winning, and everybody prospering. Each side thinks the other is full of idiots and morons.

[RansomthePasserby]

There is a kid one neighborhood over from me who has asbergers

He is a raging psychopath. His parents cannot (and more importantly dont have the will) to control him. He is 10 years old and constantly has meltdowns and fits of rate. He hurts other kids and is a danger to everyone around him.

It is obvious his parents are COMPLETELY out of their league. I've often wondered how long it is until he really hurts someone or worse. From many of the comments I've seen already from people who knew this Lanze kid, looks like they felt the same about him

This obviously is not an indictment of children with Asbergers. But, I do think there just aren't enough resources in this country to deal with this illness. Not by a long shot. We can't afford it, we've got middle easterners to bomb.

But it's also because as a kid you probably played outside with other kids which means you had to learn to resolve conflicts and probably got hurt sword fighting with sticks. The problem with video games is that they are realistic looking, but it's a one way street... Kids get to kill a destroy, but when they are killed there is no pain or difficulty because its virtual. Threats to them are fake.

Again, a small part of the puzzle, but a part nonetheless

I think both of these posts emphasize the major problem: parenting.

If your kid has mental problems and you're complete out of your league, GET PROFESSIONAL HELP.

Further, kids SHOULD NOT be playing games like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and even Halo. These extremely violent video games are rated M, 17+, which means they are FOR ADULTS ONLY. In fact, at most stores, you have to show ID proving you're over 18 to buy an M rated game. That means the parents are buying these violent games for their kids.

Heck, I don't even play GTA because I like playing as a good guy. If there's violence in a video game, I want it to be justified. Violence for the sake of violence against innocent people and cops isn't appealing to me. I like video games, even violent video games, but I wouldn't mind if these gangster shooters weren't made.

Anyway, the point is, video games aren't to blame for kids being desensitized, bad parenting is.

[Stadium-Armory]

I've seen a good number of folks suggest that we need to have an armed population to guard against tyranny from the government. I think its hogwash and would like to hear from someone who really believes this is true.

First off, "the government" is you and me. Our parents, our neighbors, our friends and family. Who is this 'government' that will come and take away our freedom?

Second, look at Egypt and Tunisia. Those people didn't have guns but they overthrew their governments anyway. And we can do it at the ballot box.

[Prosperity]

If your kid has mental problems and you're complete out of your league, GET PROFESSIONAL HELP.

mental healthcare like ALL healthcare is expensive as hell, and just like other healthcare, when people can't get it, there are costs that EVERYBODY inevitably pays.

[John224]

Real stern Disiplin has been outlawed by the government. Untill stern disiplin is allowed, kids will continue to act out unspeakable deeds.

For example, Everyone will agree the WW2 generation is by far the greatest generation we will ever see. So why are we forced to disiplin our children in the total opposite fashion?

Instead, soft disiplin has slowly created generations upon generations of childrens who are out of control.

The government says people can't disiplin and then when the kid is out of control, its the parents fault.

[alexey]

Real stern Disiplin has been outlawed by the government. Untill stern disiplin is allowed, kids will continue to act out unspeakable deeds.

For example, Everyone will agree the WW2 generation is by far the greatest generation we will ever see. So why are we forced to disiplin our children in the total opposite fashion?

Instead, soft disiplin has slowly created generations upon generations of childrens who are out of control.

Are you suggesting that beating a mentally troubled child is an effective parenting approach?

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Morgan Freeman's interesting and very pertinent take on yesterday's horrific tragedy: http://www.examiner.com/article/morg...-hook-shooting

"You want to know why {these shootings keep happening}. This may sound cynical, but here’s why.It’s because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he’ll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN’s article says that if the body count “holds up”, this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer’s face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer’s identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don’t sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."

Hail.

[twa]

Second, look at Egypt and Tunisia. Those people didn't have guns but they overthrew their governments anyway. And we can do it at the ballot box.

because the military(people with guns) remained neutral or protected them

The Freeman post is spot on,as others have already mentioned

remember the heroes and victims, piss on the scum

[Painkiller]

Are you suggesting that beating a mentally troubled child is an effective parenting approach?

well to be fair "timeouts" and "postive reinforcement" aren't exactly working either. The evidence is all around us. NO, beating a mentally challenged child who can't understand the reason for the beating isn't the answer. There is nothing wrong with corporal punishment for a child that understands right and wrong though. We have too many kids walking around who were allowed to run their households, and they think the whole ****ing world revolves around them.

[John224]

Alexey,

No but a regular child can take a beating. All of my WW2 friends are the nicest people I have ever met and they took serious beatings as children and turned out to be great men. The same men beat their own children as well when the children were young. I took my share of beatings and am one of the more self diciplined people I know as a result.

I took beatings for very serious issues and hated my parents at the time but now looking back I am glad I took some beatings throughout my adolescent years. I definetly learned my lesson and refused to repeat my mistakes in later years.

---------- Post added December-15th-2012 at 09:52 PM ----------

---------- Post added December-15th-2012 at 09:52 PM ----------

Piers talks about people in Aus handing over their guns and that is fine but its not that simple here in America. Our government is hopelessly outgunned. If it were possible to disarm the American people it would have been done already.

Some estimates below:

800,000 guns in American are occupied by law inforcement.

3,000,000 plus guns are occupied by our military.

200,000,000 guns are occupied by the American people.

The American people are the only force on this planet capable of defeating this government/military and the government knows it. Otherwise this gun problem would have been solved long ago. Even with technology, the US military could not defeat hundreds of millions of armed Americans.

[Destino]

Have independent individual mass murderers ever been found to have a common link that connected a vast majority of them? Seems like they are so few in number that things like how children are disciplined by society in general wouldn't really matter. They are outliers by nature and they've popped up in different nations and in different generations.

Everytime an incident happens its viewed as a statement on society and perhaps that isn't the right approach. Maybe it's not us and it really is them?

[AsburySkinsFan]

Well, let's take two individual types of people. Just two random people plucked out of the "United States of America"

One is male. Raised in a single parent household. Is an atheist as were his parents. Happens to be gay. Born and raised in New York City. Likes recreational drug use. College

The other is female. Lives in small town Missouri. Raised in a two parent Baptist household. Is straight. Has 5 kids. A homemaker. Thinks drugs and alcohol are the works of Satan.

And your choices only serve to perpetuate the extremes and ignore the reality that there are an almost infinite degree variables between the two people you describe. The media loves to play the extremes against each other, and in doing so many people are duped into the belief that there are only two sides to each argument, as such they live in black and white while there are a lot of hues in between.