Bang. One thousand one. Bang.

[Robb]

Sources said that Lanza's shooting spree lasted less than five minutes and that he fired 152 bullets while making his way through two classrooms in the elementary school.

One thousand one. One thousand two.

Lanza shot his way into the school through the glass windows at the front entrance and turned left toward the first-grade classrooms. He almost immediately encountered Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Scherlach, who ran into the hallway from a meeting room, which would have been on Lanza's right. He shot them both to death immediately.

One thousand three. One thousand four.

Lanza killed all but one student in Rousseau's class, where the children were massed together in a back corner of the room trying to get into a bathroom. One girl escaped because she played dead and ran out of the room after Lanza left.

One thousand five.

Lanza then backtracked to Soto's room. A source familiar with the investigation said authorities believe that Lanza started walking toward the back of Soto's classroom, where the bathroom was, when he noticed some of the children hiding under desks. Lanza shot those students.

One thousand six. One thousand seven. One thousand eight.

Some bullets struck three cars in the parking lot, and police originally investigated the theory that he was shooting at responding officers. They now believe that he was aiming at a teacher who was standing near the window. Lanza shot and killed himself in Soto's room with one of the two pistols that he was carrying as authorities were closing in.

One thousand nine.

Ten.

Eleven.

Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to shoot his victims and a pistol to kill himself.

Here's a link, all you need is your zip code: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

Thank you.

[WillyT]

1. K & R !!!

[monmouth3]

2. I'll look at those photos a year from now and still fill up..

[RiffRandell]

26. Me too---I'm bawling right now.

[onehandle]

3. Pshaw! The 'Connecticut effect' will pass.

Keep telling yourselves that, gun nuts. Keep saying it on the air, in print, and online.

[Buns_of_Fire]

4. Masterfully done, Robb. And terrifying. k&r nt

[LAGC]

5. Appeals to emotion aren't particularly well-suited for crafting effective legislation.

The anti-abortion freaks keep trying this tactic by waving pictures of dead fetuses around, and they still haven't over-turned Roe v. Wade.

Thank the Goddess the Supreme Court has the final say in defending constitutional rights, not the angry mob.

Most of these knee-jerk authoritarian reactions like the NY SAFE act will be shot down in the courts, I have no doubt.

[Cedric the Clam]

14. Supreme Court No Better Than Angry Mob

With decisions that the Supreme Court has made in the last few years, I would rather take my chances with the angry mob.

The US Supreme Court is the most powerful body of organized crime ever witnessed on this planet.

[Robb]

23. The also require the audience have emotions.

The glib sociopath, for example, remains unmoved in the face of this sort of thing.

[Bjorn Against]

25. So you are thankful for Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts and Kennedy?

Those are the people who you just thanked the Goddess for while calling those who disagree with those hard-right judges an angry mob, that says a lot about you.

[Scootaloo]

31. Emotion and reason are not mutually exclusive, despite what shitty Sci-Fi tells you.

The notion that people who are "emotional" are also somehow "unreasoning" is one generally only taken by people who oppose whatever notion is at hand anyway. The denouncement of "emotion" or "sentiment" is a weasel way of denigrating the proponents of a position you dislike, without ever rising to the defense of your own position; the reader is meant to assume simply that your position is intellectually superior because "those people are emotional."

it's often taken by people who support an otherwise indefensible position.

[LAGC]

36. Hey, I enjoy shitty Sci-Fi!

Don't burst my bubble.

[Scootaloo]

37. It's spelled "SyFy" now.

...Still more realistic than the History Channel, at least.

[99Forever]

40. If you don't have a...

... deep emotional reaction to this wholesale slaughter of babies, then you are one sick asshole. Go kiss your guns.

[klook]

42. Bullshit. "Emmett Till was a 14-year old African-American boy from Chicago, Illinois.

On August 28, 1955, while visiting relatives in Mississippi, Till was kidnapped, beaten, shot and murdered. His body was dumped into the Tallahatchie River. His body was so mutilated that it was barely recognizable.

Till's mother, Mamie, chose to have an open casket funeral in order to bring to light the treatment her son had received. The photos taken at the funeral were published in Jet magazine. The publicity of Till's murder and funeral is widely believed to have been a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement."
- http://www.mahalo.com/emmett-till/

Also see: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1969702

Yeah, just another sensationalistic appeal to emotion. Cold, dispassionate recitations of statistics and facts have always been so much more effective in the Civil Rights movement, eh?

[LAGC]

43. Except that was a case about wanting to expand civil rights...

What we're talking about here is wanting to restrict civil rights, namely the Second Amendment.

Kind of puts a more sinister tone on the whole matter, not unlike with the anti-abortion folks mentioned upthread.

[Progressive dog]

44. So is this case unless children have no right to life

In the view of the gun worshipers, all rights flow from their right to bear arms. So if little children have to die, that's just the price of their freedom.

[klook]

45. Whose lives do civil rights endanger?

The contrast you're trying to draw is bogus.

[Robb]

50. Unless you personally believe abortion is just like shooting kids, the comparison doesn't make sense

Do you believe abortion is murder? Or are you hypocritically appealing to emotion?

[backscatter712]

48. Appeals to emotion can be very powerful.

Ever notice that when you listen to one of President Obama's great speeches, it's filled with not just one, but dozens of stories.

Of course you use emotional appeal to push your agenda forward - that's how you win.

[Politicalboi]

52. These were REAL people

Not some cell in a woman's body. These emotions aren't anything like the crazies emotions.

[Recursion]

6. What should I tell my Congresswoman when I call her?

Not that it matters, since she doesn't have a vote in the House.

Should I tell her I support a bill that would require next year's model of the rifle he use to have a different name and grip shape? Will that help anything?

We're all upset about this. Pretending people who are saying our proposed solution is misguided don't care about the deaths is insulting and dishonest.

[Flatulo]

12. I would suggest supporting legislation that would limit magazine capacity to 5 rounds.

I don't see semi-auto rifles being banned, ever, but as a gun owner I would have no problem with limits on magazine size. You can certainly hunt and defend your property with a five round clip.

It's something that is reasonable and doable.

[Cedric the Clam]

16. Tell her this

Tell her that you support the assault weapons ban.

Changing the name of the gun and the grip would not accomplish anything.

The idea is to ban the assault rifle... that's an automatic firing high capacity rifle.

The name and grip argument is a misdirection. Any new law should define the issue clearly enough so that it cannot be worked around by changing a name or a grip.

[Recursion]

21. No, the assault weapons ban is the regulation of the name and clip

That's why I don't support it.

[Duckhunter935]

27. not an automatic

that would be a machine gun already highly regulated but still legal to own. Also not used in any mass shootings.

[hack89]

29. The stupidity of the AWB in two pictures

This gun is specifically called out in the legislation as being illegal under the AWB:




This gun is specifically called out in the legislation as being legal under the AWB:



They are both Ruger Mini-14s

http://www.ruger.com/products/mini14TacticalRifle/models.html

I think you need to take the time to read the law and understand what it will actually do.

[Scootaloo]

32. What makes me laugh about this argument is this...

Know why the AWB had such meager real impact?

Because it was watered down by the demands of the gun lobby.

The same gun lobby who argues the AWB is a bad idea because of how watered-down it was.

Basically it's an instance of the people who had the most say in crafting the ban, then using the ban they wrote to advocate against bans. It's intellectually dishonest, if not overtly deceitful.

[hack89]

33. My post refers to Diane Feinstein's new and improved AWB

the one that was supposed to correct all that was wrong with the first one.

Can't blame this one on the NRA.

The real reason the first AWB had no impact is that there were so few crimes committed with semiautomatic rifles. The good news is that even after the AWB expired, murders committed by semiautomatic rifles continued to decline year after year. In 2011 there were 323 people murdered by rifles of all kinds.

[Scootaloo]

34. It seems like a rehash of the old one

With hte addition of tighter magazine restrictions.

That is, it's still relying on the preexisting material. Which goes back to my previous post. If you want to argue that Feinstein or someone should craft a stronger bill than just copy-pasting then doing a small edit, make that argument. Don't give me the "LOL FOLDING STOCK!" one, kay?

[hack89]

38. I am merely pointing out that many have no clue what the proposed AWB actually does

they think it will actually ban the sale of semiautomatic rifles with high rates of fire and high capacity mags. Of course it does no such thing.

The hard spot that DF and AWB proponents find themselves in is that they know they cannot ban all semiautomatic weapons. By focusing only on cosmetic appearance instead of actual functionality to say some weapons are a menace to society while others are not, gun control advocates have painted themselves into a corner. My pictures are a perfect example of that. I don't think DF can craft a stronger bill without taking a huge leap and banning semiautomatic weapons - function and not appearance is what makes these weapons so lethal. And that won't happen because that is in reality a ban on most modern firearms and extends the scope of the law well beyond "assault weapons".

I have no problem with a limit on magazine size but I doubt it will make America safer considering every proposed law does not make possession of existing high cap mags illegal.

[Scootaloo]

39. Also, a notion crossed my mind; maybe image DOES matter.

If those two firearms you posted are functionally identical, then why the different models?

Marketing. They are designed to appeal to different customers. One of those firearms looks like something you'd see in action in Afghanistan; the other looks like it might be Uncle Bill's lucky .22 he takes out every season opening. With a magazine, 'cause hey, sometimes it's a big deer, I guess. Anyway.

One is an appeal to fantasy and machismo. The person who sees this and goes "OOOOH, WANT!"wants the image of being a "warrior," or a "brave defender" or some other role that fills his sense of militant nobility. He puts his hand on this weapon and feels "I am one of the troops."

The other is more utilitarian, speaking to someone who wants a gun for what a gun does, probably more interested in the technical aspects than the image it projects. Sport shooting, hunting, a chewtoy for a very large dog or small bear, whatever.

I'm not arguing that aesthetics are a cause of shootings, any more than i would argue that Iron Maiden albums lead to people sacrificing chickens to Baphomet. However, I can't shake the notion that someone who's already off-kilter and prone to see violence as a good idea would be more likely to want to buy a weapon that lives up to his fantasy, rather than one that looks like the gun version of a Soviet apartment block.

[hack89]

41. Mass shooters appear to be patient and methodical

Not many mass shootings are spur of the moment events. They think and plan about what they do - they may be off-kilter but they are also smart and calculating. I am not sure that the appearance of the weapon means that much to them as long as it can kill a lot of people. The Va Tech shooter choose two run of the mill handguns - I think because he determined that concealablity was critical to his plan as he moved around campus.

These people are first compelled to kill. Then they figure out how to do it.

[Hoyt]

51. I think folks who buy these guns for the menacing looks are buying into a fantasy, and are excited

by the weapon's looks and potential to kill. That is enough to tip me off that there is a high probability they are immature or outright unbalanced.

I am serious. Our society is not a war zone, and we should not sit by for another decade while another 100 million guns are pushed upon society by those who profit from the lethal weapons trade and bought by immature/unbalanced individuals. They can find another way to satiate their baser instincts.

[Cedric the Clam]

53. Agreed

If this two-picture argument is true, it shows that such a law is utterly useless, and it would explain why it wouldn't do anything to help with the gun violence situation.

Then those claiming that such a law didn't work in the past, would be perfectly correct.

This means that we need to have a real AWB law that explains very clearly that any sort of weapon that can spray more than 5 bullets with a single pull of a trigger should be illegal for civilians to own. One would have to have some police or military position to get such a weapon... only to be available to them while on the job.

Is the new AWB that just passed the senate judicial committee on a party line vote actually this stupid?

[sheshe2]

7. This

Has me crying all over again.

Signing.

Thank you Robb

[lpbk2713]

8. If there's a hell I hope he finds it.

Words fail me in describing this subhuman predator.

[Cracklin Charlie]

9. Is it supposed to feel bad to K&R this post?

So very moving, Robb.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. I really am starting to think we need to show the actual crime scene photos to counter gun nuts...

[subject]

11. I second that.

Show mothers and fathers pictures 7yr corpse with half it's head missing...Now show them a bloody pile of child corpses...Are we there yet?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. The anti-abortionists have been doing it for decades....

I feel leaving it up to the imagination assumes people HAVE an imagination.

The ban on machine guns was inspired by a bunch of Morans:

[Robb]

22. I'm ripping that off.

I feel leaving it up to the imagination assumes people HAVE an imagination.

[sir pball]

47. Don't need the Sandy Hook photos for that

I'm not going to even go so far as to tell you what to Google, let along provide you links. But if you really want to go there, there's a well-known website that will tickle your fancy, they even have a picture of an infant + handgun..

[Ilsa]

15. I think you may be right. I think they need

to see lots of the color photographs as well as photos of the kids post-autopsy. They need to have nightmares from this event.

[spanone]

17. sad. k&r...

[ReRe]

18. K&R

Thank you for the tremendous work you do to document and keep this horrible national issue front and center in the minds of DU members and nonmembers. (We have as many nonmembers as members, and maybe more. I, myself, read DU 11 years before I signed up!) I watched Feinstein's subcommittee this AM on C-Span and that jerk from TX (Ted Cruz?) made a total hateful rude ass of himself. Between Feinstein, Franken and Blumenthal, everything he said was VERBALLY shot down. The song "I fought the law and the LAW WON" comes to my mind...

[Milliesmom]

19. 2,675 have died in US fron guns since Newtown and counting, my God! when will we learn?

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html

[Dpm12]

20. And there have been like

1,000 major shootings since Sandy Hook. Something needs to change

[arthritisR_US]

24. Brilliant, poignant and k&r!

[AndyA]

28. Well regulated: the words often ignored

Well = thoroughly, carefully, soundly

Regulated = rule, govern, manage

It is not well regulated when a person has legal access to weapons that can cause this much death and destruction in so little time.

Some of these children had body parts completely blown off due to the power of the bullet's impact, and had to be identified by their clothing, as they were otherwise unrecognizable.

No citizen has a need for this type of weapon. If they want to use one, they can join the military.

There are limits to other rights, there is no reason why the second amendment should receive any special exceptions.

All of these children had the right to live their life.

[thucythucy]

30. Thank you Robb.

It's so sad that this needs to be done, but it's a good thing you're doing it.

Best wishes.

[JaneyVee]

35. one thousand tears.

[Progressive dog]

46. Thank you for this Robb nt

[valerief]

49. And the gungeoneers only wish he'd had two Bushmasters.

Because you can never have enough firepower in this sewer called America.

[lunatica]

54. Rachel Maddow did a piece on this and I cried through it

I probably always will. I still cry when I dwell on the World Trade Towers being attacked.