i find my self oddly unaffected -- detached -- from news about these massacres any more.

[xchrom]

there was a time i was horrified and angered --

but before new town -- i noticed it had become back ground noise for modern american life.

another day -- another massacre.

my loathing for 2a fundies simply knows no bounds.

as far as i'm concerned -- you fucked this country good.

[Not Me]

1. Rec. I am convinced that if New Town was not able to bring change

nothing will. So disgusting.

[DontTreadOnMe]

5. Newtown, CT... not New Town

[el_bryanto]

2. what depresses me the most about them isn't the killing

That's bad but I am desensitized to it I guess. What bugs me is how quickly everybody is an expert in what happened and what it means for us as a nation well before anybody knows anything. Something tragic just happened, how can you know immediately how to interpret it? I can't. I don't think you can either; so why not take some time, find out exactly what happened and then decide what it means.

Bryant

[leftstreet]

10. People want explanations - fast

People want to believe they're in control of their lives and 'that couldn't happen to me,' so they look for reasons right now

If none are forthcoming, they'll invent, project, theorize until they're comfortable again

[Journeyman]

11. That happens so often anymore, with every topic that arises in the news. . .

Everyone is immediately an expert on (the topic du jour -- and often topic of the hour, or even minute).

How much more refreshing, the words a friend told me years ago in response to something in the news:

"Well, there's something I've never thought of before. I'll have to give that a lot of consideration before I can form an opinion, and even then I may never come to a conclusion."

It made me realize I don't have to have an opinion on everything, and especially that I don't need to formulate an immediate opinion. It was rather freeing, in a sense. Now I find myself more often following your advice, waiting for the facts to develop and reading what others say before I make up my mind.

[Mojorabbit]

44. + a gazillion. nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. I don't know. Sandy Hook just devastated me like no other news story has ever done.

Perhaps though in part because I have two young children. I didn't have that type of mindset during past gun massacres.

[Nay]

48. I find that true for myself as well. At the time, grandson Nay was 6 years old, in kindergarten, and

I truly felt destroyed emotionally. i couldn't seem to stop thinking about those poor children, and how much we would have suffered had our little guy died in such a horrible way. And how much I really hated that bastard who murdered them and his stupid damned mother who had guns around her defective son.

I am sorry that so many innocent workers died today, but Sandy Hook was orders of magnitude worse, if only in my mind.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

70. Everytime I see the parents, it just kills me.

I just can't stop thinking that in some truly fucked-up parallel universe, that could be me.

[Warren DeMontague]

52. Yeah, Newtown just ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it. Still feels that way.

Maybe that means desensitization to anything that comes after, I don't know. But that was about the most horrible of horrible things.

[gopiscrap]

4. and that's tragic, and that's exactly where these fucking gun nut idiots want us to be

[xchrom]

6. Yes. It's taken a part of my humanity. Nt

[gopiscrap]

7. You're not the only one

[NYC_SKP]

8. I agree.

If by "gun nuts" (a term so overused it's practically meaningless) or "gun nut idiots" you mean people so filled with hate that they would kill not just one but dozens of strangers, and would use a bomb as soon as they'd use a gun.

Then we agree.

If on the other hand you mean people who support the second amendment and, like President Obama, believe that it is an individual right.

Then we disagree.

[gopiscrap]

9. yes you put it better than I did...thank you!

[HERVEPA]

12. Fuck your interpretation of the 2nd amendment

[coldmountain]

38. The second amendment has made us a nation of animals. Folk Darwinisism at it's worst

I doubt the founding fathers would have allowed this form of terrorism

[Lizzie Poppet]

58. Excellent example of the quality of the "collective right" argument.

And more succinct than most, so thanks for that.

[hatrack]

66. Gosh, if your logic didn't sway me, your amazing personal magnetism sure would!

Have a nice day.

[HERVEPA]

67. Thank you for your kindeness.

And screw your fucking love of guns.

[hatrack]

68. Wow, the tree you picked couldn't be more wrong . .

But continue to bark up it if doing so makes you feel better . . .

[HERVEPA]

69. Thank you for giving me permission to do so.

Exceptionally appropriate user name by the way.

[Electric Monk]

18. I think "gun nuts" includes the kind of person who would post a "what's your favorite gun" thread

while the latest mass shooting is still fresh in everyone's minds.

Yes, I remember.

[NYC_SKP]

20. Different meanings to different people, it would seem.

Do you have a link to this poll?

Since you brought it up, I'd like to see it.

...

[EarlG]

32. My guess is he's talking about this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022002711

[NYC_SKP]

39. Ah, thank you.

I hope you remember that was a regrettably inept attempt to express disagreement with you all on the matter of gun discussions in the GD forum.

The topic of sensible gun legislation, as you know, is a very heated one with more heat than light.

I'm on the record as being in support of more uniform laws and have said more than once that we should expand California's strict laws to the other 49 states.

Though I disagree with some current legislation that I don't think will help: reclassifying all semi-automatic rifles with removable clips as "assault weapons".

Such moves only serve to make gun laws LESS consistent from coast to coast, IMO.

Cheers.

[CreekDog]

51. No. What it was was you being more upset at discussions of gun control than of the massacre

So much so that you posted your gun humping OP less than 48 hours after Sandy Hook.

Because you think of yourself only.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

34. Hell, this afternoon we have people casually bring up conversations like this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3671916

[RetroLounge]

36. You forget your own gun threads?

How convenient for you

RL

[Call Me Wesley]

40. I thought only Wayne LaPewPew could use

a tragedy to enforce the second amendment with a straight face. Seems I was a tad wrong.

[Mushroom]

45. Ugh Let's not get sickening. n/t

[Katashi_itto]

59. Screw your turning the 2nd amendment into a fetish.

But I have no problem with you having as many guns as you like, provided we put a $5, bullet tax on each bullet.

[NYC_SKP]

63. Strange reply.

If by "gun nuts" (a term so overused it's practically meaningless) or "gun nut idiots" you mean people so filled with hate that they would kill not just one but dozens of strangers, and would use a bomb as soon as they'd use a gun.

Then we agree.

If on the other hand you mean people who support the second amendment and, like President Obama, believe that it is an individual right.

Then we disagree.

Katashi_itto
59. Screw your turning the 2nd amendment into a fetish.

But I have no problem with you having as many guns as you like, provided we put a $5, bullet tax on each bullet.

So, I agree with President Obama. Exactly what did I say that prompted that reply?

[Jester Messiah]

13. Obviously we won't be taking any steps to prevent such things.

At least, not as a country. All you can do is take steps to protect yourself and those you love. The 2A became a self-fulfilling prophecy. By guaranteeing the right of crazies and idiots to have unfettered access to weapons, they've created a compelling case for everyone to arm up.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

14. We need COMPREHENSIVE MENTAL HEALTH CARE

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. ... I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it. --John Lennon


Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world. -- R. D. Laing


The easiest thing a person can do is criticize another human being. --Lynn M. Little

[LuvNewcastle]

28. +1000

We need it bad. We've got a whole lot of very sick people and we don't currently have a systematic way to treat them until they do something heinous. We have very poor planning skills in this country. We move from one disaster to the next, picking up the pieces. Then we talk about what we could have done, but the same thing happens over and over again. Is it possible for America to learn from its history, or are we doomed to this nightmare cycle? This is the reason why so many of us have become numb to these disasters.

[NYC_SKP]

47. +1000 (nt)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

56. Yet another thing we can blame on Ronnie Reagan.

Closed the mental hospitals, was gonna mainstream people into group homes and functioning in society, right?? Didn't work out that way. Now they're trying to bring back the poorhouses--debtors' prison. And the greed decade of the 80s and the competitive nature of society got worse and worse. Fewer jobs with more people chasing them.

It's not what you know, it's who you know. Crony capitalism. Qualifications and education mean nothing.

You know the drill, especially if you are old enough to be a baby boomer.

I don't let mass shootings affect me anymore either. Compassion fatigue when there are too many good causes and not enough money directed at them, and we need a new outlook, a paradigm shift (read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn, 1964).

[AngryOldDem]

61. And for that reason alone I consider him to be one of the worst presidents...

...if not one of the worst human beings, of all time. I've seen first hand the results of his "mainstreaming" programs. People who cannot take care of themselves having to fend for themselves. People who have no place to go to once they leave the care facility. People who can't keep up with their medications, for a variety of reasons. People who have no skills to cope with the world. There is a direct reason why most of today's homeless population has some degree of mental illness -- some very severe.

Fuck Reagan.

[AngryOldDem]

60. We can't even get comprehensive health care in this country.

Let alone mental health care, which has always taken a back seat in society anyway.

I totally agree with your post. But sadly I think it will never happen.

[liberal_at_heart]

15. I lost all faith we would do anything about gun control after Newtown. If 6 and 7 yr old children

can't motivate us to do something, nothing will.

[Mr.Bill]

46. You just wait, someday someone will shoot a member of Congress, then...

oh, wait.

[Myrina]

16. I just keep thinking: it's all gonna collapse, sooner than later ...

.... and part of me really wants it to happen, like in the next couple years, so the sane ones among us can pick up the pieces and start civilization over again.

[LuvNewcastle]

29. I feel that way all the time. n/t

[panader0]

17. Newtown, Aurora, Iraq, Syria, the list of the daily tragedies is endless.

It is not hard to become numb and "detached" from the daily onslaught of horrific news.
Yet I believe that mankind will someday emerge from this. All things are bound for fruition.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. There's a clinical term for it.

Compassion fatigue.

[HappyMe]

21. That's too bad.

What it should do is galvanize people to demand changes. This whole issue seems to have been dumped by the wayside.

[Skittles]

22. but that is not what the NRA wants, xchrom!!

you need to be SCARED and GET ARMED!!!

[xchrom]

25. Right?

[Skittles]

26. I just woke up - saw the headline, have not read it yet

isn't it essentially the same story over and over? F***ing depressing.

[BainsBane]

23. We feel powerless because profit trumps human life

What we can do is oust he assholes that vote against gun control. The vast majority are Republicans, but a few are Democrats. Look at who voted down the background check legislation earlier this year. They need to go.

[FarCenter]

24. The UT Tower Shooting

On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of Texas Tower with three rifles, two pistols, and a sawed-off shotgun. The 25-year-old architectural engineering major and ex-Marine—who had previously complained of searing headaches and depression—had already murdered his mother, Margaret, and his wife, Kathy, earlier that morning. He fired his first shots just before noon, aiming with chilling precision at pedestrians below. “The crime scene spanned the length of five city blocks . . . and covered the nerve center of what was then a relatively small, quiet college town,” noted executive editor Pamela Colloff in her 2006 oral history of the shootings. “Hundreds of students, professors, tourists, and store clerks witnessed the 96-minute killing spree as they crouched behind trees, hid under desks, took cover in stairwells, or, if they had been hit, played dead.”

At the time, there was no precedent for such a tragedy. Whitman “introduced the nation to the idea of mass murder in a public space,” wrote Colloff. By the time he was gunned down by an Austin police officer early that afternoon, he had shot 43 people, thirteen of whom died.

The shootings garnered international attention. “The cover of Life the next week made a big impression on all of us,” UT alumnus Shelton Williams told Texas Monthly in 2006. “The photo, which was taken from the victim’s point of view, was of the Tower, as seen through a window with two gaping bullet holes in it. From that vantage point it looked menacing, even evil—not the triumphant symbol of football victories we were used to.”

At year’s end, the Associated Press and United Press International ranked the shootings as the second most important story of 1966, behind only the war in Vietnam. The massacre would spur the creation of SWAT teams across the country. Because such tactical teams did not exist at the time of Whitman’s crime, many students had risked their own lives to fire back at the unseen sniper, or to help wounded strangers to safety.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/topics/ut-tower-shooting

[BainsBane]

27. The tower has been closed off ever since

The problem, they evidently think, is not guns but clock towers.



I walked by there, from Garrison hall passing by the tower on the way to the Student Union and Guadalupe, every day for years.

[indepat]

30. Senseless thousands of gun deaths a year is a price big brother willingly pays to appease

the NRA/other 2nd Amendment extremists while shamelessly eviscerating several other constitutional right in the name of keeping us safe from foreign terraists. Dichotomously oxymoronic?

[Iggo]

33. The 2nd Amendment is more important than life.

[kestrel91316]

31. Me, too. The gun nuts have got the country they want - guns are used to settle

far too many disputes.

[Thisisverystrange]

35. Very good

Very good

[gopiscrap]

41. welcome to DU!

[uppityperson]

49. This is very strange.

Repeat

[LeftinOH]

37. Same with me. We have no cause to be shocked by this. We expect

that multiple-victim shooting rampages occur with regularity, and that it's just a part of our culture. We hate it, but we don't hate it enough ...apparently.

[xchrom]

43. 'We have no cause to be shocked by this.' nt

[jwirr]

42. I have begun to take these things very calmly. What I feel is more like a heavy heart getting

heavier.

[kentuck]

50. Sad

[ecstatic]

53. Not me. I can literally feel my blood pressure rising

with each new incident. If we don't do something about the NRA and repugs, this nation is doomed. Slightly off topic, but this is why I get so mad about all the democratic infighting while the people who are truly destroying the country get a free pass.

[Rhiannon12866]

54. K&R! Woke up to this news and my first thought was "not again!"

I think David Letterman needs to bring back his "Stooge of the Night," various RW congress members who oppose gun control even though the vast majority of their constituents are overwhelmingly in favor of it.

[avebury]

55. Too many people are more concerned with their right

to own an unlimited amount of guns with massive fire power then they are concerned about their fellow human beings. So much for being a Christian nation that values life. I have stopped paying attention to all those gun massacre stories. I no longer to invest energy in that which I cannot change.

[Silent3]

57. I'm not that blasé, but I sure as hell wish the news shows would stop the damned wall-to-wall...

...coverage that glorifies these acts, which I think not only makes them more tempting to commit, but overestimates their importance compared to many other things that are always going on in the world. Things that claim far more lives. Issues that have, are, or will effect the well-being of many more people.

Typically this wall-to-wall coverage is thin on information, thick with useless speculation that often turns out to be wrong later (but fills people's heads with misinformation that they never hear corrected), and chock full of pointlessly, endlessly looping footage.

I keep hoping that some major US news show somewhere with have the guts to give an event like this no more than five minutes at the top of their show, save any "breaking news" updates until some truly new and conclusive information comes in, and then move on to other important stories.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

65. Watch the foreign news channels instead.

I watch the Chinese channel (CCTV) and the Russian channel (RT). They cover the rest of the world as well as the U.S. RT runs unflattering stories on things like the prison-industrial complex that you would not see on American networks.

We are supposed to have Al Jazeera on DISH but they probably refuse to carry it here in Dumbfukkistan where they get sexually excited over the semi-auto weapons they have to use to plug Bambi.

[AngryOldDem]

62. I know what you mean.

And if we ever reach the "SSDD" attitude, then God help us all.

But yes, you do become somewhat numb to it after awhile. Hell, when a school shooting just gets a passing mention on the news anymore, as most do, unless it's totally catastrophic, you know we're on the slippery slope.

I was hoping that the legacy of Sandy Hook would be a serious and renewed effort to control guns and gun violence in this country. Joke's on me, apparently.

[tblue]

64. I am not jaded by it.

I just can't wrap my brain around it.