Apathy is a powerful killer, and apathy tends to be born of fear - fear of mental illness, fear of questioning too much - whether it be gun control laws, the state of the mental heath care system and its ability to help these people out before it's too late; or the fear gun lobbyists hold over politicians who refuse again and again to actually *do something* about this glaring neon light bulb fault in your gun laws. Honestly, I'd be more afraid of the guns.

This only happened once here, once and our government acted. For all your sakes, I wish yours would do the same.

we are a very individualized culture. perhaps one day this will change for the better but there's so many factors that actually cause the isolation instead of socialization among people. i'm not saying we all have to be social butterflies and in a way it's amazing to see the online/internet community coming together over situations of tragedy but it's also unfortunate that it takes something so awful to bring together individuals.

*HUGS*

I read your post earlier today not understanding the reference to Sandy Hook, I thought it had something to do with hurricane Sandy. So I lived on blissfully ignorant for a few more hour.

Your post without context was very powerful but now it vibrates with the horror and helplessness we all feel.

So the shooter is another young man with a history of mental issues. This is becoming a far too common pattern. After a while you have to ask if there is something in society that creates the ingredients that add up to the unthinkable.

Hugs to everyone.

No one's been able to tell me why an average American citizen needs an assault rifle, the only purpose of which is to maim or kill another human. Yeah, this guy had mental problems, as yet undisclosed, but he also had legal access to guns that can kill a lot of people in a matter of seconds.

At what point do we decide that the safety of our ever smaller society is more important than an amendment that was written when it took 15 seconds to load one round into one's musket; it didn't take this shooter much longer than that to murder twenty children and six educators who were doing nothing more than going about their business.

magnavox_23, I had no idea about those Port Arthur killings. What a horror. I'm glad your government and people came to their senses. I have less hope for ours.