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

[Mad Mike]

Well, if i may offer some advice.. I'm a dad who's kid has been playing many of these games for a long time. (I was a singIe dad.. it's tough to be on top of everything,, and the fact is, something that will sit him there quietly while i cook dinner is a blessing. BUT, I always ALWAYS have been in touch with him on these topics.. the way to stem desensitization is the explain that it IS only a game, and why these things in real life would be bad,.. Granted, i would not let him play GTA or other highly violent games when he was younger, but a great many games have aspects of them that could confuse a young mind.
Communication is absolutely key. Always explain WHY to your kid. explain it again and again. I use so many things during the day as a 'teaching moment"... all the time. On many topics.
My son is 16 now, and I still do that. Constantly talking with him, constantly advising... and not so much leaning on him.
I've been lucky,, in doing this i've also trusted him to make the right decisions. I'm not naive and know he'll do things he won't tell dad, but typically, the things he knows are important,, he heeds.

knock wood.

~Bang

---------- Post added December-20th-2012 at 06:41 PM ----------



I totally agree with it. My son's high school has a cop. He's great.. the school is relatively violence free,, drugs are not a major problem, it's an active, happy campus.
I think having police in the school also develops a good trusting relationship with the children of the community (who in turn become adults of the community with likely a better appreciation for the community as a whole).. so the police have a name, a face,, and a good personality.. so when these outside influences that target police or music that complains about cops or glorifies violence comes along, they associate with the good person in the school.
Helps keep things in perspective.

Most police departments do outreach programs with schools, but it's one things to meet the nice policeman in an assembly once or twice a year, it's entirely different to see the same officer every day in the school, friendly, helpful and personal.
Not only would it help protect schools from attacks like this, but I think over time it would REALLY help with the underlying problems so many people seem to have that cause these things.


I'm known as an atheist, but I believe that the lack of church has been as cause for our problem. Not because of God, but because of commnities. everyone got dressed and went to church. they knew their neighbors, knew their town.
It's much harder to be so anti-social when you know your town as people.
The same token applies here. The police interacting personally in a positive way on a daily basis with the community always results in a better community.

~Bang

---------- Post added December-20th-2012 at 06:43 PM ----------



Well, i'm thinking more that if there's 100,000 schools, hire 100,000 new cops. (employment!)
Pay their average salary at their grade, and split the cost out on a national tax.. it would be such a small amount.. we pay so much more for so much less elsewhere.

~Bang

Lots of good stuff here Bang. Hope the mods don't mind me quoting it all. Great post.

I just want to add that an engaged parent should be able to tell when their child is becoming obsessed with violent games. If a kid plays GTA or Medal of Honor every so often an has other interests, an active social life, and good parenting as you describe, he or she is probably going to be just fine.

But if your kid sits in his room playing MOH and blasting things all day, has no goals in life, no other interests, and his only friends are other gamers, you may want to start checking the house for weapons and bomb making materials.

---------- Post added December-21st-2012 at 05:31 PM ----------

This thread gets better everyday (sarcasm). The anti-gun crowd openly mocks the NRA for having a stance opposite of their own. They say that is irrational. Yet their own views are seen as irrational by pro-gun people. Why is it that one side gets to decide what is correct and openly deride the opposing view?

Emotion.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

This thread gets better everyday (sarcasm). The anti-gun crowd openly mocks the NRA for having a stance opposite of their own. They say that is irrational. Yet their own views are seen as irrational by pro-gun people. Why is it that one side gets to decide what is correct and openly deride the opposing view?

Pope, I see what you're getting at. But, "let's put an armed guard in every school" is moronic. First off, think about how many schools that is. Think about the cost. Think about screening all the armed guards to make sure they can handle a few hundred crazy kids jumping all over the halls every day. Think about the fact that some kids are bad and will know where to find the one gun in the school.

Second, now lets even put that into practice and say that you do it, an an armed gunman comes into a school and starts shooting. Is it really gonna make a difference if there's an armed guard at the other end of the building? 10 people die instead of 20? Yay. Its not like Lanza walked in with a sign around his neck that said, "I'm gonna start shooting everyone in a couple minutes."

On the other side, you have a whole lot of people that would be just find and dandy if all guns were banned in the U.S. If that happened, I wouldnt miss guns one bit. But, gun controllers aren't even asking for that. They are asking for reasonable solutions: no automatic rifles, no magazines of certain sizes, background checks no matter where you buy your gun. These are common sense requests. But they are being met by the irrational.

There is common sense here, and the NRA is not proposing it.

[MattFancy]

Another shooting today?

http://gawker.com/5970497/while-the-...ium=socialflow

But before they could finish their sentence, the counterargument made itself as news broke of a mass shooting event in Pennsylvania with multiple casualties, including state troopers.

According to local reports out of Blair County, at least four people were killed and five more were injured in a shooting spree near Altoona. The gunman is said to be among the dead, and at least two state troopers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

WPXI's Courtney Brennan says she was told by emergency officials that the shooting suspect "was 'mobile' at one point and went up and down a rural road and shot victims."

No additional information is available at this time, but a spokeswoman told the Altoona Mirror it was "a relatively large crime scene."

[endzone_dave]

NRA wants to put armed volunteers in all of the schools. What a bunch of flaming idiots.

[Tulane Skins Fan]

Not a school is it?

[MattFancy]

Not a school is it?

Doesn't sound like it

Here's the article: http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/co...id/567048.html

[Duckus]

This thread gets better everyday (sarcasm). The anti-gun crowd openly mocks the NRA for having a stance opposite of their own. They say that is irrational. Yet their own views are seen as irrational by pro-gun people. Why is it that one side gets to decide what is correct and openly deride the opposing view?

Pope, I see what you're getting at. But, "let's put an armed guard in every school" is moronic. First off, think about how many schools that is. Think about the cost. Think about screening all the armed guards to make sure they can handle a few hundred crazy kids jumping all over the halls every day. Think about the fact that some kids are bad and will know where to find the one gun in the school.

Well, also the fact that Popeman38 is complaining that folks are "openly mocking the NRA" makes me think he didn't even watch the press conference. The events was a 20 minute rambling speech in which the NRA mocks pretty much EVERYTHING. The entire first few minutes he mocks politicians laws and gun control restrictions before moving into the media. The tone of the entire speech was down right disgusting. The entire things was dripping with contempt for anyone who would even image gun control. But yea, the anti-gun crowd is mocking the poor little NRA! Oh noooos!

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

By the way, one of the things that annoys me everytime these kind of event happens, is the delusional and self-righteous people who assume that nothing like this could ever happen with their child because they are doing things the right way. (I mean, the child being the shooter, not the victim). You don't know that. I've brought this up before, but one of my best friends is a doctor with two Ivy League degrees. Her brother is a drug addict who at 44 is just beginning to put his life together. Have one friend who is a missionary and has adopted children who were orphaned by the Haitian earthquake. His brother is in prison. It's a total crapshoot with your kids - especially when it comes to mental illness and addiction.

There are certainly "bad" parents. But I find the idea that it has to be bad parenting offensive and the height of arrogance.

[rictus58]

There are certainly "bad" parents. But I find the idea that it has to be bad parenting offensive and the height of arrogance.

It's a quick and easy "Next topic!" answer, and more often than not, not worthy of a response...imo anyway.

[twa]

Of course it is. Hard to get into a school fortified with fences and razor wire. at the very least it would provide enough of a hinderance for the school to go on lockdown, and allow time for the authorities to show up.

Harder than locked doors?
W/o a perimeter alarm or constant monitoring it is just a matter of seconds delay that do not matter, even with those a 20 minute response time becomes maybe 19.....hardening the entrances might, but then you better not have windows

not near enough of a deterrent,whereas facing deadly force is for most but the totally insane

[rictus58]

Harder than locked doors?
W/o a perimeter alarm or constant monitoring it is just a matter of seconds delay that do not matter, even with those a 20 minute response time becomes maybe 19.....hardening the entrances might, but then you better not have windows

not near enough of a deterrent,whereas facing deadly force is for most but the totally insane

We all get your point. more guns in schools. Hooray more government....wait...aren't you a conservative? how's the hypocracy taste?

[Bang]

NRA wants to put armed volunteers in all of the schools. What a bunch of flaming idiots.

Please tell me that's just an exaggeration.

What the hell kind of idea is that out of adults?

Scary indeed.

~Bang

[endzone_dave]

Please tell me that's just an exaggeration.

What the hell kind of idea is that out of adults?

Scary indeed.

~Bang

I wish I had made that up. That was out of the press conference.

Our gun policy is defined by poiticians pulled on puppet strings by these people.

[Mad Mike]

You are right. If everyone was in a closet huddled together there would likely be less "misses". But I am not aware of any of the casualties actually being sustained in a closet? In the actual classroom no way a person of his level of proficiency does more damage on auto than he does on semi. It is tough to keep the front sight post on a single target while firing auto...very difficult to switch between targets. There is a reason why the military removed that option.(edit: by and large. There are still some pockets of units that have "auto" as an option.)

A whole bunch of kids and a teacher were slaughtered in a closet where they tried to hide.

And I really think you have a misconception of how much muzzle climb there is with an AR. And there are other semi-auto and full-auto weapons with little to no climb at all. In a closed space like a classroom full auto would be unbelievably devastating.

But I'm failing to see your point. You aren't suggesting full auto should be legal are you? If not, and you are suggesting that an AR is somehow more dangerous than an M16, you are simply wrong.

[twa]

We all get your point. more guns in schools. Hooray more government....wait...aren't you a conservative? how's the hypocracy taste?

How is my idea more govt?
The govt is the one stopping or regulating it.

Why are armed guards good for middle and high school but not elementary?