I was going to write a long and lengthy rant on how we need gun control in the United States. It just didn’t seem right. We need more than control. We need an actual solution to the problem. Before we get into that, let us determine the actual facts that we know as of this writing.
Facts
From: ABC
- 26 people were killed
- Six of them adults.
- Twenty of them are children
- The Gunman is Adam Lanza (Not Ryan Lanza as previously reported)
From AP
- The Guns used were a Sig Sauer and Glock (Not a 233 Caliber Rifle as reported)
These are the facts as we know them right now.
As with any tragedy, there will also be some reactions. Below are a sampling of the reactions to the shooting.
Reactions
Other Facts
Thought provoking Tweets
https://twitter.com/ryancates/status/279709365349539840
https://twitter.com/smalera/status/279712576693211136
https://twitter.com/RonanFarrow/status/279720343743127552
We don’t need more empty rhetoric or broken promises. We need to put partisanship aside and truly find a solution. I’m not saying we should ban all guns, that would violate the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. Instead we need to figure out, as a society, a compromise that ALL parties can live with. No, it will not be an ideal solution for any side of the debate, but it will be a compromise that will allow us to become a better nation and reduce the needless violence that is occurring.
Do I have ideas, sure. But they’re only ideas. There are people much smarter than myself who actually have solutions. We know something has to change. This is not the first mass shooting this year, let alone this WEEK. This year alone we have had sixteen mass shootings. They are:
From The Nation.org
February 22, 2012—Five people were killed in at a Korean health spa in Norcross, Georgia, when a man got into an argument and opened fire inside the facility.
February 26, 2012—Multiple gunmen began firing into a nightclub crown in Jackson, Tennessee, killing one person and injuring 20 others.
February 27, 2012—Three students at Chardon High School in rural Ohio were killed when a classmate opened fire.
March 8, 2012—Two people were killed and seven wounded at a psychiatric hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when a gunman entered the hospital with two semiautomatic handguns and began firing.
March 31, 2012—A gunman opened fire on a crowd of mourners at a North Miami, Florida, funeral home, killing two people and injuring 12 others.
April 2, 2012—A 43-year-old former student at Oikos University in Oakland, California, walked into his former school and killed seven people, “execution-style.” Three people were wounded.
April 6, 2012—Two men went on a deadly shooting spree in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shooting black men at random in an apparently racially motivated attack. Three men died and two were wounded.
May 29, 2012—A man in Seattle, Washington, opened fire in a coffee shop and killed five people and then himself.
July 9, 2012—At a soccer tournament in Wilmington, Delaware, three people were killed, including a 16-year-old player and the event organizer, when multiple gunmen began firing shots, apparently targeting the organizer.
July 20, 2012—James Holmes enters a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises and opens fire with a semi-automatic weapon; twelve people are killed and fifty-eight are wounded.
August 5, 2012—A white supremacist and former Army veteran shot six people to death inside a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before killing himself.
August 14, 2012—Three people were killed at Texas A&M University when a 35-year-old man went on a shooting rampage; one of the dead was a police officer.
September 27, 2012—A 36-year-old man who had just been laid off from Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, Minnesota, entered his former workplace and shot five people to death, and wounded three others before killing himself.
October 21, 2012—45-year-old Radcliffe Frankin Haughton shot three women to death, including his wife, Zina Haughton, and injured four others at a spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin, before killing himself.
December 11, 2012—A 22-year-old began shooting at random at a mall near Portland, Oregon, killing two people and then himself.
December 14, 2012—One man, and possibly more, murders a reported twenty-six people at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, including twenty children, before killing himself.
This is sixteen too many. These are not the first shootings to occur at a school. See Jonesboro in 1998, Columbine in 1999, Virginia Tech in 2007, Northern Illinois University in 2008, Virginia Tech in 2011. There are a couple of examples that did not occur in schools. Most Notably the Aurora, Colorado shooting in July 2012.
What is the answer. Is controlling the guns the answer? Is controlling the bullets the issue? That is for America to decide, not me. Yes, I have my input, but I’m just one voice.
Safety
I know that nothing is 100% safe. Regardless of how much protection we put in place. Why is nothing 100% safe. That’s simple, nothing is life is guaranteed to be safe. We can put in as many safeguards as possible, but we know it’s never truly enough.
Regardless of the entire debate, the events that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut were tragic. They never should have happened. Twenty children and six adults needlessly lost their lives today. The following tweet sums it up quite well.
https://twitter.com/NikAff21/status/279688338670247936
There’s nothing more to say about the subject now.
