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

[KDawg]

KDawg, 4 were shot....2 dead. per Fox news.

I know. All too well.

Best thing I've seen all day was this quote from the Webster police chief: ""The threat has been eliminated."

[endzone_dave]

So now we need armed guards at all of our schools AND armed guards protecting our firemen. Let not control guns more than we are now - what a wonderful world, thanks NRA.

[AsburySkinsFan]

So now we need armed guards at all of our schools AND armed guards protecting our firemen. Let not control guns more than we are now - what a wonderful world, thanks NRA.

My thoughts exactly. This is a crazy person problem AND a gun problem.

[MartinC]

Texas Shoots back (not about twa )

http://news.msn.com/us/thousands-sig...t-piers-morgan

Thousands sign US petition to deport Piers Morgan



I admit, I have only seen a few random and brief segments of Morgan's interviews, but from what I saw, he would be one of approximate 280,000,000 people in America I'd deport if possible.

Merry Christmas!

Well we don't want him back here thank you very much. You are more than welcome to him and Simon Cowell for another ....

---------- Post added December-24th-2012 at 03:00 PM ----------

My thoughts exactly. This is a crazy person problem AND a gun problem.

The combination is not a good one is it.

We have had similar incidents in the UK where kids or adolescents have set traps for emergency services, they throw rocks or stones at them. That's unpleasant and deeply irresponsible not to say stupid but its not resulted in anybody being killed as yet.

[Special K]

Correlation does not imply causation. And the NRA and Joe Manchin basically put the blame STRAIGHT on violent video games. Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman also believe the same.

They play no role. The world plays violent video games, yet most of the incidents are centralized in America. If it were a video game issue, wouldn't the rest of the world have rampant issues with violent games too?

First, no, that is not what Hillary Clinton believes...or else she wouldn't be such an ardent supporter of laws like the Brady Bill, which her husband signed into law in the 90's.

Second, to completely disregard legitimate, peer-reviewed studies indicating a correlation between viewing violent shows and video games and an increased level of aggression and saying "well it doesn't directly say causation" is...well, not very smart and shows you are not open to any type of reasonable discussion regarding violent video games and television. No one out there is saying media violence is THE single cause of anything. People are saying it's a factor that may need to be addressed when looking at causative agents of this alarming trend of mass shootings in our country.

Third, it is also unwise to compare two different cultures ad societies and base a black/white, yes/no opinion off of something you "think" about another society (e.g. I highly doubt you follow all the news regarding violence in these other countries you are comparing our society to). There are a multitude of factors that make our society unique, and one of those factors is the glorification of violence as seen in movies produced by Hollywood and even the increasing popularity of physical violence occuring in reality television shows (e.g "Bad Girls Club," fights in the "Ultimate Fighter" household, fights on "Housewives of <insert city>," and a plethora of other reality tv shows). So, comparing countries with very different cultures and cultural outlook on violence is extremely short-sighted as far as I'm concerned...

The notions of video games influencing behavior is totally ridiculous.

Clearly there is no reasoning with you since you won't even acknowledge legitimate research studies that unequivocally prove you wrong

One of the reasons I don't like it is the gateway effect. Recent studies have shown that children are prescribed psychopharmocological agents as children are far more likely to use illegal drugs when they grow older. Part of that is because the authorities in their lives taught them that drugs are a good recourse. Their locus of control becomes externalized and they seek external solutions whenever things look bad.

Likewise, kids often look more at our actions than our words. How do our actions inform kids who suddenly see guns in their hallways and the figures of authority in the school armed? What idea does that reinforce in their mind and where could that gateway lead?

It's dangerous to teach kids that lesson. Mind you, having militias marching up and down the school hallways is probably a better solution than arming teachers, but it's still not a good choice especially, in a country where so many people are killed in gun accidents. Plus, the first time a militia man hesitates when a young kid is going crazy and then somehow gets that gun... guess what everyone is going to say?

Hey Burg, you bring up a very good point...much better than the PTSD stance brought up earlier (IMO).

Interestingly, my sister's fiance was born and raised in Lebanon (moved over here with family in middle school). And he brings up the very same point you're making (fyi, he's a big supporter of gun owner rights). He has some insane stories of his time over there and of his most recent visit a few years ago (where his family tried to assassinate him by shooting him, but I digress). First, he said something like this CT shooting would hardly make the news back there. But the main point he brought up when the family were all discussing placing National Guard, etc. in the school, over dinner the other night, was that American society does not fully realize the psychological impact placing uniformed, armed guards in schools will have on people, particularly children. He talked about how drastic the psychological change was for him when his family fled Lebanon where armed guards were EVERYWHERE and moved to SoCal where even at that point, there were no armed guards visible in even the airports. He said it was hard to explain, but he said he thought the detrimental psychological impact would be much more than our society would be "okay" with.

I brought up putting them in plain clothes with concealed weapons, like US Air Marshals, and he said that might be a better idea than openly militarizing, or giving kids the perception they were attending a militarized school or zone or whatever.

I don't know, I just think it would be a good use of resources to put National Guard or reserves on duty at schools in plain clothes. Being in plain clothes would also potentially make them a harder target for a gunman to identify and take out... That said, I absolutely agree with your viewpoint and am just trying to figure out a way to minimize potential psychological effects it would have on our children.

[Zguy28]

This happened this morning in a little town/village about 15 minutes from where I live, and it's on the front page of CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/24/us/new...html?hpt=hp_t1



I have a hard time blaming guns. It's people. These people who do this stuff are SICK.

Still waiting to find out if I knew anyone involved.

Wasn't this an episode of Criminal Minds? Or was it Law and Order: SVU?

This kind of sick twisted crap is right in front of our eyes every night of the week.

[stevemcqueen1]

Texas Shoots back (not about twa )

http://news.msn.com/us/thousands-sig...t-piers-morgan

Thousands sign US petition to deport Piers Morgan



I admit, I have only seen a few random and brief segments of Morgan's interviews, but from what I saw, he would be one of approximate 280,000,000 people in America I'd deport if possible.

Merry Christmas!

I wish the people who sign it would be deported.

[Special K]

I wish the people who sign it would be deported.

Yeah, that's seriously ridiculous. Especially since the people who signed that petition are likely very strong supporters of the Constitution...apparently just not the free speech part, lol. Ding dongs.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

I wish the people who sign it would be deported.

And therein lies the major problem why you'll never get on top of the gun problem. That type of person with that type of attitude. (And man does it sound utterly ridiculous and crass to call it a 'problem' after all the utterly pointless loss of innocent life this past month alone. Sighs.).

God rest those two brave firefighters doing their job to protect the public. Thoughts and prayers go out to their family's and colleagues; and for the two wounded to pull through and make a complete recovery.

The perps must be so proud of their gutless lil' selves. This may make me a bad Christian, I don't know, but I can't say the above toward the gunmen found dead at the scene.

Hail.

[alexey]

People who will end up committing violent acts are likely to be interested in violence and seek out violent content.

Finding violent content on their hard drives tells us little about causality.

I am all for changing our culture, things we do, and things we glorify... But we have to be honest about what we can and what we cannot tell from the available data.

[Bang]

So I hope no one tries to tell me that without the guns these two firefighters would have been snipe-knifed, or long distance smothered, or tiger trapped with punji stakes anyway.
I mean, crazy people will do what they'll do and all.
especially if they can do it so easily at a distance with no one seeing them. That's got to be appealing.
ah, but I digress.

More of the same usual reactions..coming up. gasp, oh,. how shocking, etc.

Is anyone really shocked by these murders anymore?
Disgusted? Sure. Frustrated, Probably.
Surprised?
Nope. Not even a little bit.

More to come, bank on it.

~Bang

[alexey]

I am thinking since shootings are popular nowadays, we will be hearing more stories about them on the news. There are plenty of great stories out there

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

I'm just waiting for the NRA to announce that all firefighters should be armed.

This is getting more ****** up by the passing day.

Hail.

[ixcuincle]

People who will end up committing violent acts are likely to be interested in violence and seek out violent content.

Finding violent content on their hard drives tells us little about causality.

I am all for changing our culture, things we do, and things we glorify... But we have to be honest about what we can and what we cannot tell from the available data.

But studies prove violent people get violent by violent media!

[Special K]

Finding violent content on their hard drives tells us little about causality.

I am all for changing our culture, things we do, and things we glorify... But we have to be honest about what we can and what we cannot tell from the available data.

Could you explain what you mean by that? Are you saying there is no evidence to support the viewing of violent media/game correlation with aggressive behavior, or that there is evidence to support that?