Almost everyone I know (including myself) was talking about how this is clearly an issue of mental health as well as access to firearms...if there were arguments about anything, they were about gun control, but almost everyone sees that access to affordable mental health care is hugely important. If everyone were able to get the treatment they needed, we might have fewer incidents like this. And I can attest to that; while I was once suicidal, threatening and verbally abusive in one of my worst depressive episodes, others turn homicidal or physically abusive during their worst moments of mental illness. People's pain affects them in different ways. It gets that bad because we don't have access to therapy or medications, but it doesn't mean we're bad people. It means that something is hurting us from the inside and we need help fighting it so that we don't give in.

these days so many kids are being brought up in a culture that encourages self-centered-ness combined with parents who dont take the time to actually teach their kids right from wrong and dont teach their kids t be kind t others, so is it really that surprising that some kids end up snapping when they have known no kindness or real caring and have been bullied (which this IS the case with many of the past school shootings, and is likely to be the cause for this one too) .... it really isnt that surprising when more and more people are being put into situations where they are stuck with no control and no way to better their situation and end up loosing hope because it has happened even despite them doing everything right and making responsible choices up till that point... when a person has lost hope and no longer feels they have anything to loose then yeah they are much more likely to lash out especially if they are young and have never KNOWN any goodness. and lets face it the cruelty levels of kids these days ARE much worse than they were even a decade ago, though some of the excuses they use for that cruelty are different since many of the past sorts of discrimination have been cracked down on, but others are now treated SO much worse.

Certainly there seems to be an issue of mental health here (and in all these cases--let's face it, mentally healthy people don't go on shooting rampages). But it doesn't seem to have anything to do with affordable, accessible care, since the shooter's parents were apparently well-off financially.

On the other hand, on Facebook I saw an amazing chart that listed the gun-related deaths in the US as compared to many other countries. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it read something like" Britain--24, Netherlands--18, USA 10,000. You see my point here. These guns were legally purchased in a state with relatively tight gun control laws. But why on earth would anyone need to have them? You can't tell me that there is any use for semi-automatic guns except killing.

I have friends who target shoot, and others (I live in the country) who hunt to provide for their families. None of these people use semi-automatic weapons to do so. I have long been an advocate for gun control, and I realize this is a difficult question, but clearly, SOMETHING has to change.

Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow.

I saw a very good suggestion on FB this morning on the Pigtail Pals page... to write a letter of support for any teachers you know who will be having to talk to their own students about what happened at Sandy Hook.
I was a teacher for many years, and it can be incredibly lonely and isolating, never more so than at a time like this...

it's heartbreaking, both for the innocence lost and the sheer size of this. he could have killed his mother at home like, unfortunately, hundreds do every year.

I 'get' the logic behind saying there need to be tougher gun controls, but it's entirely too late to do ENOUGH. there will always be guns here, and without the legislation going insane (and really? they won't. too much power and history behind the 'right' to bear arms in this country), this will be the same for decades to come.

Seen the contrast with the slashing of school children in China that *also* happened the same day? That's a country with nearly impossible access to guns, so 'cutting' incidents are the thing that happen. Horrific still. Just slightly less deadly.

(many links, this one touches on my points: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/15/not-just-sandy-hook-china-s-terrifying-knife-attacks.html )

What I REALLY hope comes of this, hopefully when more things are understood, is talking about the access to health care and specifically mental health care. Beyond being something that when denied damages the person, in some causes (see the Colorado one this summer as well, haven't kept tabs on the 'mental' state of others but presume they were most if not all having serious issues) damage to MANY others when things like happen.

I don't believe in 'coddling' people either, but if there had been an easy walk in clinic for mental health that this fellow drove by (or ANY of this year's incidents), do you think, just maybe, it might not have happened?

Sadly, we won't know. But I'd love to see some *hard* facts and numbers about access and treatment available vs. numbers believed/diagnosed

Off topic: since Sheroes was originally conceptualised, I've always appreciated how you open discussion without derision or judgement, TP.

I've seen a lot of focus on the child victims and their families, and on the shooter, and his family; I'd like to take a moment with you all to also remember the adult victims and the school they gave their everything for. Both the school principal and the school psychologist were among those killed; the NYTimes article about them (Two Educators Went the Extra Mile for Students) suggests they were pretty incredible people.

To love, and teach, and serve - it is never in vain. Requiescat in pace, omnes.

I really recommend reading the Huffington Post article by Lisa Belkin: Gun Control is a Parenting Issue. I won't post the link here, but I really respected what was written there.

The local United Way branch has set up a fund to help the families of victims. https://newtown.uwwesternct.org/

Funeral expenses are not something that parents of young children budget for, so please help if you can.

I so appreciate you NOT posting the pictures. I can't deal with this right now. I know that's selfish and awful and unsocially aware of me, but I had twin baby boys six weeks ago and I've got hormones up to here and just thinking about it makes me want to throw up and build a cabin in the woods and homeschool them and possibly not teach them English. So I'm not engaging with anyone about this.

And I feel like the picture are in really really awful taste anyway, especially that one of the mother (sister?) crying on the phone. I've made and gotten those same phone calls before. It shouldn't be displayed in some kind of grief orgy for the nation.

I'd like to take time to remind people that this is a good time to participate in our democracy by writing to your congressperson (very easy to do online) and urge them not to remain silent on the issues of sensible gun control and easy access to mental health care which might help prevent these kinds of tragedies. It only takes a few minutes to write an email. We need to make our voices heard in the halls of government, not just on the internet.

Tammy, I'd like to add my thanks to the others for giving us a shrieking-free place to talk about this. I had to get off of Facebook because it was too...soul-shredding...at the moment. Here it is quiet and thoughtful discussion with no finger-pointing. Thank you.

The first culture shock I had on my student exchange visit to the US was the unlocked cupboard in the living room of my host family that had several rifles in it, and hearing that the eleven-year-old son had been taken hunting already. Our visit was shortly after the Columbine shooting, and I remember a Social Studies teacher doing some very subtle prodding by asking the US kids how many of them had guns in their homes - many of them, and how many had already used them - almost all of those who had guns. If I read him correctly, he would have liked to go into a deeper, critical discussion what that meant in regard to the shooting, but he pulled back before it became controversial, although I think he made some people in that class do a bit of critical thinking in their own time.

I'm really horrified by what happened; we've had a few shootings here as well in the last years, but nothing like this one. Just today, I took part in a big choir rehearsal that involved a lot of children, and the youngest were just five, standing there all proud and nervous singing foreign-language Christmas songs at the top of their voices - the thought that someone would so something like that to such small, helpless beings, and the people who care for them, is unimaginable.

I really hope there can be some way of improving things in the US in the long run. I've seen online that there are already people who want all teachers to be armed, too, and that... in a peaceful country people shouldn't have to arm themselves to the teeth or put metal detectors and armed guards everywhere because they have to fear other armed people. I met so many open, welcoming, and friendly people during my stay in the US and later online, and I wish with all my heart for them to be safe and without fear.

What I keep seeing is this sentiment: "Those _____-gun people are such heartless monsters that they would jump on this tragedy to prove their political point."

Both sides of the divide, saying the exact same thing. I disagree strongly. "They" aren't. They just want their kids to be safe, same as you and me. They just don't agree as to what the best way to ensure that is.

I wish I knew how to fix this. Ban guns, wrap the whole lot of them up and drop them in the deepest part of the ocean, and someone, somewhere will turn to bombs or poison gas or whatever horrors they can dream up. But I don't think that increasing guns is the answer either.

Making it harder for the mentally ill to get guns? Who decides that someone is mentally ill? The doctor that prescribed valium for the 'anxiety induced breathing trouble' I had a couple of years ago (that turned out to be pertussis)? Does my ADHD, depression, insomnia, and social anxiety (plus a history of OCD that went away when I stopped taking medications for ADHD) mean that I'm not 'safe?' I don't think I'm a danger to society, but I've got years of therapy in my medical records, plus, I'm sure, a cute little write up about how I told that particular doctor where he could put his valium.

And it wasn't that long ago that homosexuality and gender dysphoria were considered mental illness, either.

There are no easy answers, I'm afraid.

I spent all last night crying. Those poor little kids. My siblings are that age and my heart broke when I thought of them and their families. Ugh, I'm crying again now. I can't think of anything else except for the loss of those little lives.

I just want people to be able to talk about it without someone popping in and going "now is not the time for this discussion." Some of us HAVE to talk it out to process it.

What a horrible thing to have happened. :(

super OT, but thank you for the introduction to Chuck Prophet, TP!

Thank you for making a safe space for this. This sort of thing doesn't really happen in Britain - I guess we're lucky in that we have very strict gun laws, and in that mental healthcare is free. Bullying and mistreatment of youths and children with disabilities, leading to suicides, is still endemic though.