Such sad news from Connecticut

[Viola]

My heart goes out to all of those families.

[rebecca_n]

it's horrible. I will never understand how someone can just decide to go out and destroy peoples' lives... My heart goes out to everyone affected and I'll be hugging my children extra tight today

[GISDiva]

I have no words.  Well, I have lots of words, but they probably shouldn't be written down.  What kind of a person, indeed...  

[kathymuggle]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/27-dead-in-connecticut-school-shooting-reports-1.1079337

 

…….

[~Nikki~]

How do you even begin to explain something like this to your children?  It's just horrible.  My heart is breaking for the families affected.

[34me]

I can't explain it. I will make sure my kids have the info (all teens- from young teens to older) and can come to me with questions. We live in CO so have already had many crazy people with guns discussions.

[Sativarain1]

such a sad story.....prayers to  the families  

[mtiger]

Originally Posted by GISDiva 

What kind of a person, indeed...  

A very ill and tormented one. :(

[ananas]

Originally Posted by mtiger 

A very ill and tormented one.

Yes. Obviously not a perfectly sane and rational person. Very sad

[terraka]

This isn't just sad news, it is more sad news (after Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon and now Connecticut), but this time horrifyingly sad and disturbing to the bones. 

It's wrong to not talk about this and not communicate it to children who are old enough to hear it from peers or elsewhere. Children who don't learn about this from their parents will not know how to cope with it once they hear it from other sources, because they won't really have a model for how to respond and process. And really, the question is about guns just as much as it is about mental instability. 

If mothers aren't thinking about this, processing it and making their voices heard, there won't be any more safety than there is now, and obviously that is not good enough.

The isolating, screen-obsessed time in which many young people spend their entry into adulthood is simply appalling. Add to that the presence of any mental instability and the easy access to guns and you have this scary scenario. It is horrifying that there are so many guns floating out there and no regulation. 

Tonight on TV, I listened to a man being interviewed (Larry Pratt) who declared that teachers should be armed so this doesn't happen. He is the Exec Director of Gun Owners of America. And then I learnt that this man is extraordinarily powerful, having politicians on his side.

In my view this man was completely out of line and simply insane. To have a teacher carrying a rifle in every room in every school is simply horrible. Yet that is what he wants. It doesn't make the least bit of sense.

[FarmerMomma]

Holly crap. We run a family farm. Guns have fallen out of holsters or whatever they were held with onto hayride wagons with little kids. This has happened. The scenario of more guns in school is so scary. Kindergarten, preschool teachers couldn't give hugs cause there'd be a gun there. How would one break up a fight with 6th graders with a gun on them. It's scary breaking up fights. How many kids are gonna get a gun pointed at them for fighting? Who's gonna pay that therapy bill? Even if it wasn't on the body just in the room what is the atmosphere there? What would suicidal kids think of all day? Maybe how to get ahold of that gun? Guns would at times fall to the floor for some reason or another and then we have more opportunity for kids with guns.

[mar123]

Take heart that the majority of teachers do not want to be armed; I live in an ultra conservative state with high gun ownership and 99% of the teachers I work with do not want to be armed at school. We have an armed police officer on campus and many security procedures in place, and I am happy that we do. I do not want to be responsible for a gun; what if a student steals it? (I teach in a high school).