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Would Gun Control Have Prevented Mass Murders at Connecticut Elementary School

On Friday, December 14th, 20 innocent children walked into their schoolroom class at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and before noon, Adam Lanza, 20, had gunned them and his mother down, according to Fox News sources. Recently, this horrific scene has been played out far too many times in malls, movie theaters, and at universities. This time, the unthinkable has occurred. The innocence of childhood was stripped away by this lone gunman, and left a town, and a nation in mourning.

Yet, in the midst of this very tragic day, the routine calls for tighter gun control laws have again raised its ugly head. While there is no reported connection to alleged shooter, Adam Lanza and illegal firearms, the calls are spreading, as they did earlier in the week, when another masked gunman entered a Portland, Oregon area mall, and shot and killed two victims.

According to Fox News, a U.S. Justice Department source, indicated that weapons used in the murderous assault, including a .223-caliber rifle, had been legally registered to the shooter’s mother. There is a serious problem in this nation, but with this tragedy and the one on Tuesday in Portland, Oregon, it was not the gun, but the stolen weapons that was the problem.

In a nation where there are over 50 million legal gun owners, there is no clear reason how the outbursts of violence by mentally unstable individuals whose weapon of choice is a gun, can be used as a rationale to curtail constitutionally protected Second Amendment rights. The two are not even logically synonymous.

Gun control laws that are not strict enough did not fail these families who are undergoing this very grievous period of mourning for their dead loved ones. What may have failed, even though speculative, is whatever social service system that did not intervene or pay attention to domestic issues that were occurring inside the home of the dead shooter.

The answers to what motivated Adam Lanza, to head into the school where his mother taught and into the very room where she was a teacher and open fire on precious little kids, shows anger that was perhaps motivated by revenge, or some other deep unsettling motive. But a gun control law is not the culprit in this tragic scenario.

How much tighter should the state of Connecticut’s laws be, if the weapons were purportedly registered to the shooter’s mother? The State of Connecticut gun laws specifies in part:
“It is unlawful to possess any other firearm by a person who has been convicted of a felony. It is unlawful to possess a handgun if convicted as a delinquent of a serious juvenile offense which includes.”

The mother did not appear to be a felon, now was she a convicted delinquent. She was a teacher in an elementary school, who was according to published reports from Fox News, murdered by her own son, who stole the weapons from her home. She was a victim not of a right-wing fringe element. She was murdered by her son.

There is no gun control legislation in America or on Earth that will prevent an unbalanced person from picking up a knife, gun or any other weapon and assaulting or killing another human being. A case in point was O.J. Simpson, who used a knife to murder his estranged wife and her friend. Knives were not outlawed as a result.

Guns are not the problem, and guns do not murder innocents. People who are determined to harm or murder another person is as old as the bible, with Cain murdering his younger brother Abel. One clear solution which atheists and their fellow liberal secular travelers avoid is, bringing God back into the schools, and into the public discourse.

People of faith can and should draw the line in the sand and stand up for a nation that does not allow murderers to get a free pass for their behavior by blaming heinous actions on a gun. Instead examine the failed social system which disarms children of their access to prayer in the schools, and practice of biblical respect and other behavioral principles which guided America’s founders.

The nation should look inward, and truly examine how can each person begin a new narrative, which does not abandon God and Christ by replacing them with material gift giving. The reason for the season is not Santa in a sleigh, but Jesus Christ, the son of God, in a manger.

Whatever set this young man on a dangerous downward spiral, may have been avoided, if he and those around him could have heard and notified authorities to whatever inner turmoil challenge he was facing.

There is no excuse ever for murdering children or any other person. Gun control laws would not have protected society from his inner demons. In fact, by disarming a nation of its constitutional right to protection, its citizens increasingly will become victims of more murderous mayhem, violence and death.

This, America will never permit!

( click to let me know what you think )

COMMENTS

  • commonsenseobserver

    Obviously, it is up to individual citizens to take reasonable precautions. The government can do nothing in such cases of senselessness, with the exception of basic safeguards and law enforcement services, which often come too late.

  • gunnyg2002

    There are two main reasons for this kinda of crap. One, we no longer punish criminals swiftly and surely. It drags on for years and when they finally go to death row, it takes 20 or more years until they pay up. With liberals whining the whole way. Two, we have a nation of crybabies who cannot take one unce of adversity in their lives without cracking up. As Glenn Beck says, a nation of “get a trophy for participating” children.

  • Kyle-MI

    Besides guns, another common factor in these recent shootings is mental illness. There seems to be a lot of people who knew these people were dangerous. Is there anything they could have done with this knowledge? Maybe we also need to re-examine the laws regarding mental illness. Why is no one raising this point?

    • blissdesignz

      Correct! Because liberal policies are to blame.
      http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/12/liberal-policies-are-to-blame-for-todays-mass-shooting-in-newtown-ct/

    • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

      “Maybe we also need to re-examine the laws regarding mental illness. Why is no one raising this point?”
      +1 on that. I make the same point myself. Maybe we need to start that ball rolling.

      • westcoastpatriette

        The answer, I believe, lies at the state level. Thinking of writing a diary about this, but here in California, we have the laws in place to prevent these horrible scenarios from happening. Essentially, the laws empower mental health clinicians and peace officers to place a 72 hour involuntary hold on a person who is believed to be 1) a danger to themselves (suicidal); 2) a danger to others; or 3) gravely disabled. I am sure other states have similar laws on the books and why they are not being followed is a mystery to me.

        • JohnFLob

          What in the information available regarding this tragedy in Connecticutt even hints that a “72 hour involuntary hold” would have prevented the incident? I have not read or heard any information that indicated the shooter was behaving ‘abnormally’ in the 72 hours immediately preceding his action.

          • Kyle-MI

            I read in a number of articles that friends and family were concerned about his actions and behavior.

  • mtmnd

    You people really ought to let the families bury their children before you launch into your knee-jerk defenses of readily available weapons.

    • PowerToThePeople

      I see you are up and about trying to be clever and pious again. You really do not mind failing miserably in public do you?

    • littlehouse18

      The why did you come here?

    • gunnyg2002

      Why don’t LIBERALS let the kids be buried and the families mourn before THEY use the crisis to advance their gun control agenda?

    • funwithknives

      Go to where you are wanted . The seagulls at the dump love fresh garbage and in reviewiing your dismal history [comments] you are fresh, available, and in need of “fixing”.
      Go now and be gone with you………..
      ( You DID SEE the other diary post hereabouts discussing Chubby Jerry Nadler did you not ?)

  • checkmate2012

    Clapping on this post. How about the demise of the family as a root cause? How about eliminating prayer from school? The 10 Commandments from State Houses? Even if one isn’t religous, the Golden Rule should be front and center. The only thing gun laws will do is put guns in criminal hands (i.e. Mexico that has extemely restrictive laws and how’s that working out, let alone Chicago) and leave law abiding citizens defenseless.
    Well said Kfobbs.

  • capeconservative

    Erick said it well when he wrote about our nation only coming together when tragedy strikes. If we have the audacity to state that America is great or that we should honor the Judeo-Christian values upon which our nation was founded we are mocked by the liberals.

    As a product of public schooling that included morning prayer, rules of dress and expected behavior (at reunions, the men all acknowledge the good that came from their occasional visits with the dean of boys) and when if needed, parents backed the teachers, it boggles my mind to witness the upside-down world of today’s education environment.

    Erick is right…we must find a way to return to a UNITED God-fearing country, uniting families, churches and government to allow our future generations to benefit from living in the greatest nation in the world!

    Gun control is NOT the answer! Lack of respect by young and old alike, as demonstrated repeatedly whether in Madison, Lansing, the Halls of Congress or the many OWS movement sites and, WORST of all, the constant promotion of same by mass media, just might be the cause of our current sad state of affairs.

  • classicalconservatism

    No way gun control could prevent this type of killing. But there are steps that could make it far less likely as evidenced by the fact that US has far more of these tragedies and far more gun-related deaths than other countries. Switzerland for example has low gun crime rate despite more guns/capita than US. Part of this is that the vast majority of guns there are distributed and controlled as part of a well-regulated militia (hm, that sounds familiar), they can’t be treated as casual playthings. And Switzerland has universal health care and mentally ill people get substantially more treatment and oversight.

    • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

      please spare us the ‘universal healthcare’ BS, there is more psychiatric care in the USA than anywhere else. The problem here unlike other countries is that we allow mentally ill people who pose a risk to others to roam free. This has been the real reason behind a lot of homelessness and other problems (like drug abuse). It’s not the spending, its the oversight.

    • Kyle-MI

      The question is how does Switzerland handle the potentially dangerous mentally ill? You can pour all the money in the world into health care, but if the patient goes off their meds or if the meds don’t help all bets are off.

  • runner12

    I am not a huge fan of Huckabee, but he made a very poignant point on Fox today. He stated that when he was in highschool, kids had gun racks with loaded guns in their cars in the school parking lot. Many hunted before or after school, yet not one even thought about turning it on someone. His point was that the culture and the minds of people have changed, and he is right.

    Psychologists, both faith-based and secular, have been repeatedly warning us of the dangers of children taking in violent images through television and video games. Yet these industries continue to flourish an these professionals go largely ignored. To make matters worse, we have moved away from institutionalizing dangerous people with mental illness for fear of being sued. These two things are the real issues here, the gun debate is a distraction from the deeper issues.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    If guns dont kill people but people kill people then gun control doesnt work, but … People control is needed?

    we have 50 million guns in this country, 300 million people. Only a tiny fraction of guns are involved in mass murder. Only a tiny fraction of people too. But without the trigger and the evil / crazed intent behind it, this would not have happened. Going after innocent people or guns that will never be in malicious hands is pointless and fruitless. It only makes sense to go after those who pose a real risk.

    So why wasn’t the person behind this restrained in some way? Certainly the rehabilitation of moral conduct and the cleaning up of our culture will go some way in restoring balance, but the existence and action of killers, from the Unabomber (90s), to Columbine (00s), to the shooter in the UT tower (60s), is ever present. But a common theme of these tragedies is how the shooter was known to be ‘disturbed’ by those around them, but nothing was done to stop the trend.

    It’s not time to change our approach to guns. It’s time to change our approach to mental illness.

  • celador2

    There are many societies that have few deaths from guns and enjoy low crime rates. These are police states and totalitarian regimes like NK, China and the former Soviet union and block eastern european nations. Informers on every corner and in every classroom saw to it the police, STASI (DDR) and KGB knew everyone’s every move and words. Low crime and no gun deaths.

    Western European nations have higher crime rates than China but have decriminalized many immoral behaviors regarding sale of sex and drugs and abortion so there are fewer crimes to commit in western Europe than China or US. In both strict nations like China and in relaxed libertine Western and northern Europe guns are not available as a right. Herein lies the structural and fundamental difference with US.

    Founded on principles of self government, the new US amended the constitiution before the 13 states would ratify and join US to include a guanrantee of a pre exisitng right, the right to bear arms. For whatever reasons that right is there and must remain protected.

    Never give up a right, that point a court would say can not be done even if we want to give up a right. Oh!

    But when it comes to gun control well, guns are heavliy regulated now with many laws on all levels of government. Whatever course others may take it is not smart to give in on a right.

    For now I would resist rolling back and shackling the Second to prevent a nut from slaughtering innocents. Find other ways to prevent slaughters of innocents and anyone in a nut or evil killer’s path.

    The. people have always had that abilty in 1787 and 88 to slaughter and still founders ran the risk that the right to bear arms is a fundamental core foundation of these United States. Do not meddle with the Right.
    The Bill of Rights go together.