[Kobrar44]

Flip's post prompted me to look up a comparison between shootings in the US, to other countries

It may be wikipedia, but it does provide some perspective regardless

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting#Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shootings_in_the_United_States

No shooting in Switzerland. How is that possible?..
Why is there no mentally sick people in Switzerland? [at least committing such things]

[Flipside]

I think it boils back down to support for those with mental health issues again. Switzerland does have problems with mental health issues, but are more willing to confront the problem...

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_count_the_cost_of_mental_illness.html?cid=6361418

[The E]

No shooting in Switzerland. How is that possible?..
Why is there no mentally sick people in Switzerland? [at least committing such things]

Because maybe they have a better handle on how to head these things off before they happen?

[deathfun]

You also have to take a look at the population
There's only seven point six million people in Switzerland
http://www.indexmundi.com/switzerland/demographics_profile.html

Meanwhile, there's three hundred and thirteen in the United States
http://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/demographics_profile.html

[Thaeris]

Why is there actually never an armed patriotic american nearby to stop the amok running person before he can kill at least a dozen people?

I'm certain this is some flavor of sarcasm, but I would add that with the trend of mass-shootings comes a fairly constant aspect to them: most of them occur in firearm and knife-free zones. No one is actually armed, and probably not sufficiently trained, to combat the sick bastard before he or she may take those lives. For the people that will scream gun control in this instance, it's a fairly weak argument, as it illustrates a case where law-abiding citizens followed the law, and a fringe element couldn't care less about the law.

[BengalTiger]

Why is there actually never an armed patriotic american nearby to stop the amok running person before he can kill at least a dozen people?

Because schools are gun free.

Not even school security can carry guns in school zones, so pretty much every other law abiding patriotic American also has to leave their gun at home.

[Kopachris]

Flip's post prompted me to look up a comparison between shootings in the US, to other countries

It may be wikipedia, but it does provide some perspective regardless

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting#Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shootings_in_the_United_States

No shooting in Switzerland. How is that possible?..
Why is there no mentally sick people in Switzerland? [at least committing such things]

Interestingly, Switzerland is very big on sport shooting, military duty is compulsory, and they're required to keep their military-issued equipment (including assault rifle) with them at home.

[BengalTiger]

Interestingly, Switzerland is very big on sport shooting, military duty is compulsory, and they're required to keep their military-issued equipment (including assault rifle) with them at home.

Therefore the problem is not with the guns but somewhere else.

[IronBeer]

Dug up this old piece on Reddit, it's Marilyn Manson's commentary on the Columbine shooting (wait, wait, bear with me here); I think it's actually very insightful and well-articulated. It's a bit of a read, but it's definitely worth the time.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/columbine-whose-fault-is-it-19990624

---
Also, two snippets that popped up on my Facebook feed that are more directly related to the Sandy Hook tragedy.

"Events like this, if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: if I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."
-Roger Ebert

"We've had 20 years of mass murders, throughout which I have repeatedly told CNN and our other media, if you don't want to propagate more mass murders:
1. Don't start the story with sirens blaring.
2. Don't have photographs of the killer.
3. Don't make this 24-7 coverage.
4. Do everything you can not to make the body count the lead story, not to make the killer some kind of anti-hero.
5. Do localize this story to the affected community and make it as boring as possible in every other market.
Because every time we have intense saturation coverage of a mass murder we can expect to see one or two more within a week."
-Dr. Park Dietz

[Kopachris]

Dug up this old piece on Reddit, it's Marilyn Manson's commentary on the Columbine shooting (wait, wait, bear with me here); I think it's actually very insightful and well-articulated. It's a bit of a read, but it's definitely worth the time.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/columbine-whose-fault-is-it-19990624

---
Also, two snippets that popped up on my Facebook feed that are more directly related to the Sandy Hook tragedy.

"Events like this, if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: if I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."
-Roger Ebert

"We've had 20 years of mass murders, throughout which I have repeatedly told CNN and our other media, if you don't want to propagate more mass murders:
1. Don't start the story with sirens blaring.
2. Don't have photographs of the killer.
3. Don't make this 24-7 coverage.
4. Do everything you can not to make the body count the lead story, not to make the killer some kind of anti-hero.
5. Do localize this story to the affected community and make it as boring as possible in every other market.
Because every time we have intense saturation coverage of a mass murder we can expect to see one or two more within a week."
-Dr. Park Dietz

Very true.  When I could contemplate suicide, I would contemplate mass-murder/suicide in exactly that context.  (Don't worry, I'm not actually at risk of suicide and/or murder.  I've just thought about it a lot.)

[Klaustrophobia]

borrowed from facebook.

[sigtau]

We need better health care for the mentally ill.

Battuta has said all that I think needs to be said on the matter.

/$.02

[Apollo]

borrowed from facebook.

Absolutely. This man was evil and/or psychotic, and the media cannot be held responsible for his actions.

Last night I heard a talk show host say that there might have been less people killed if the teachers were armed. What are your thoughts on this?

[Scotty]

Yes.  Let's arm school teachers and allow guns on school property.  That can't possibly go wrong.

[Apollo]

Personally, my thoughts on that are a little mixed. In this particular instance it would of been good for the teachers to have guns (provided they were calm enough to locate the shooter), but then there's the possibly of a teacher committing a similar massacre in the future.

[Dragon]

Agreed. Maybe it's time school security and teachers started carrying guns. While I understand the reasons for not allowing this, I think that some school shooters would be discouraged by a chance of being shot before killing anyone. Right now, once inside he's inside the school, the shooter is pretty much safe from any harm. Teachers are, in general, more mentally stable than most teenagers. How do they stay so is beyond me, but at least from my experience, they're pretty good at it. I don't think a teacher would draw a weapon unless it was absolutely necessary.

No shooting in Switzerland. How is that possible?..
Why is there no mentally sick people in Switzerland? [at least committing such things]

Interestingly, Switzerland is very big on sport shooting, military duty is compulsory, and they're required to keep their military-issued equipment (including assault rifle) with them at home.

Swiss mentality is different and most things in there (probably including mental healthcare) are extremely efficient, in no small part thanks to it being so small and rich.

That said, the US is far more likely to hand out bullet proof vests to schools than legislate guns, it's a safer political route.

This creates an... interesting mental image of a "school uniform" consisting of MCCUU cammies, MTV and an LWH, all with school logo in place of EGAs. Could help solve the problem of school shootings (well, of somebody besides the shooter dying in them, at least), but would be a bit cumbersome to wear, especially for an elementary schooler. The problem with body armor is that it's cumbersome and heavy, so hardly anyone would wear it unless school shootings were an everyday occurrence.

[Apollo]

I have no problem with teachers wearing body armor, but I don't think it would be terribly useful without a way to quickly take down a shooter.

[Goober5000]

Why is there actually never an armed patriotic american nearby to stop the amok running person before he can kill at least a dozen people?

This is because 1) if the person running amok is actually stopped, there's no way to tell how many people he would have killed unimpeded; and 2) unimpeded mass rampages are much more newsworthy than thwarted mass rampages.

Because of #2, you seldom hear about these events, but they do occur.  You just have to go looking for them.

http://citizensvoice.com/news/police-bar-patron-shot-plymouth-homicide-suspect-1.1371076

An armed patron stopped a gunman's shooting rampage early Sunday outside a Plymouth bar, shooting the suspect multiple times on East Main Street after he fatally shot one man and critically wounded another, arrest papers revealed.

Investigators said the suspect, William J. Allabaugh, 25, shot a man in the head inside Bonnie's Food and Spirits just before 2 a.m., then fatally shot another customer outside the 133 E. Main St. pub.

When Allabaugh pointed his semi-automatic pistol at another patron, the man, Mark Ktytor, pulled his own gun and fired multiple rounds at Allabaugh, according to arrest papers. The shots dropped Allabaugh to the ground and left him with critical injuries, police said.

Yes.  Let's arm school teachers and allow guns on school property.  That can't possibly go wrong.

So let's disarm school teachers and disallow guns on school property.  That can't possibly go wrong either...

[Scotty]

Yes.  Let's arm school teachers and allow guns on school property.  That can't possibly go wrong.

So let's disarm school teachers and disallow guns on school property.  That can't possibly go wrong either...

Are you actually advocating arming teachers and allowing guns on school property?  In a serious sense?

[Lorric]

You Americans and your wonderful, precious guns...

Here in the UK we have about 1/5 of your population, many cultural similarities and about 1/200 of your shooting deaths. No one has guns, not even the cops.

Over there every Tom Dick has a gun. You can just buy a gun, you pick up bullets from a grocery store. Guns are just a part of your life, of course people are going to use them. That and the whole macho man image America likes to project. So when you pull a gun on someone and they don't back down, you're going to think "Oh, I'm going to look like a ****ing pussy now if I don't shoot..."

 

That and everybody who wants to fight is going to be packing a gun because everyone has a gun, instead of using their fists or at worse a knife or a bat.