Connecticut School Shooting

[Shelley & Beans]

Hoping and praying that none of my fellow Doodle Lovers are effected by this, but wanting to send my thoughts and prayers to those that are and to let you know your Canadian friends are feeling for you. How heartbreaking that society (and lost individuals) can be so cruel. Children under 10 years old don't deserve this fate for any reason.. God Bless!!

[Kimmy & Chewie]

Very good point Riki.

I also stand corrected about gun crimes in Thailand. While there are no mass shootings, the murder by guns in Thailand is actually VERY HIGH!!

According to this site, # murders with handguns in Thailand is actually #3 in the world and higher than the US!

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-crime-murders-wit...

I think most of it is in the southern region where there are crimes related to separatist movement.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Sorry to hear this about your country Kimmy. 

[Christine & Camus]

I sat and watched the news cast early today and felt numb(?), cannot really explain how I feel.  The children were as young as 5, babies, killed – a catastrophic, heartbreaking, unthinkable, senseless event. 

Gun laws do need to be changed, whether it is called gun control or control of the sale of guns.  It is too late for those that have lost their lives, and those who must live theirs without their children, their loved ones, but with changes others may not die at the hands of those who should never have been allowed to buy/own a gun. 

There is still no confirmed information about the 20 year, only that he killed his mother who worked at the school and that he also had mental health issues.  Knowing the details will not change anything, maybe the details will help change the mindset of lawmakers regarding guns.  We can only hope and send our prayers to those who have lost their children and loved ones.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Cultures can and do change.  Slavery was considered the norm in the last century.  It takes time but it can be done. The culture of carrying guns and having them in your homes can become a thing of the past.  Only a few years ago in Ireland we banned smoking in public places, the lobbyists and outcry that it would never work were loud and very vocal...it only took a few minutes and now even smokers agree that the thoughts of smoking indoors is abhorrent.  I know that is an easy example but guns can become a thing of the past except in the hands of trained cops.  It can and must be done if we are not to have repeated examples of wanton and needless massacre of easy targets such as happened in a small school in a sleepy town yesterday.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Yes Nicky it can be changed, the smoking bans are here as well (thank goodness) but it will not change the minds of the generation that owns guns. We can change their offspring perhaps but I can tell you right now, you can not pry the guns from the hands of the people that own them now! I battle my brothers constantly about this and it is a losing battle.

There are responsible gun owners, unfortunately there a more that aren't.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Lisa, I think, given the number of gun owners in the U.S. that the majority are responsible with them. It's just that, as is true with so many other things, the irresponsible ones get all the press.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Nicky, it is hard to compare a public smoking ban with a ban on gun ownership which Americans view as something that they do in the privacy of their own homes. People are still allowed to smoke in their own homes. Out of every 100 Americans 88 own one or more guns and the majority of them have guns for protection purposes. I've seen bumper stickers that say "When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns".  Gun ownership is a very emotionally charged issue here and then there is the Constitutional side of it as well.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Ricki, this is a great response. Thank you.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

What you say is true, and the smoking ban was perhaps the wrong example.  Slavery on the other hand is not.  It would take a huge shift of thinking from both the top down and the bottom up and it would take some time but it is certainly not impossible.  In many ways I love and admire the USA and understand that it is not always appropriate to make comments from afar.  We have several problems here in Ireland which have me constantly tearing my hair out.  Thankfully we don't have access to guns (unless we're talking about the criminal class)  Our regular police force do not carry guns either and we have never had a massacre of the type that happened yesterday. I have actually never seen a gun and don't wish to either.  I understand the right to protect ones self and ones property but I do not think that it is right that people can go into a shop and buy either a pistol or an automatic weapon for their personal use.  Nothing could convince me that liberal gun laws are a positive and something to be defended.  I do think there needs to be a wider debate within the US about this whole issue.

[Camilla and Darwin]

The shift in the way that men view women was a huge change as well. I guess there IS hope for humanity. :-)

[F, Calla & Luca]

The shift in the way some men view women, the shift in the way some people view homosexuals, the shift in the way some people view minorities has changed and that is great. I was shocked that at Johns Hopkins in the 50's there were segregated wards etc. I was one of 5 women in a class of 105 in graduate school. But there is still a lot of intolerance in this country never mind the world. I am hoping change continues. But the gun issue has only gotten worse in my lifetime.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

My father told me that when he attended Northwestern University as an undergrad in the 40's, there was actually a "Jewish quota" on the number of Jewish students they would admit.

And in the early 60's, there was a realtor who told my parents that a certain house they were interested in seeing was in a "restricted" neighborhood, meaning "don't bother looking, they don't sell to Jews there."