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!!

[Lynda Kamrath]

Yes, it is too easy to get a gun, and many people have them who should not.  But automatic weapons?  I don't know why any person needs one of those.  You sure do not go hunting with them, unless you are hunting people.  There is too much gun violence in the town where I live and that is basically handguns in the hands of gang members, but automatic weapons?  Why???

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Unimaginable!  We used to live about 25 miles from Newtown, even having looked at a home there when we moved to CT.  Beautiful area of the Country!  So sad to see something like this happen!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

As a new parent, I cannot explain how much this is affecting me today. My prayers are with the families.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

As an old parent, I'm right there with ya, kid. ;-)

[Bonnie and Kona]

As a grandparent of a kindergartener, I am shaken to the core. This could have been my darling Maddie. 

[Bonnie and Kona]

We have to do something. We cannot let this go unchallenged. Gun control will not stop all violence but perhaps it will have an effect on mass murder.

This has escalated to a horrific end and end it must.

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Well said, Bonnie.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amen.

[Jennifer and Jack]

I am not reading the comments but I will say what I said on my FaceBook, We will never ever understand this, their will be gun control fights, metal detector fights etc, none of it will bring one child or adult back. What I will do is never mention the name of the person who did this act, I will fight back with every act of Random violence I will do many acts of random kindness, I will not get mean or hatred, I will love my fellow human beings and animals more. I will stand behind making schools safer, I will pray my heart out for the families affected, I will not lose my faith in humanity I will stand even stronger with my fellow humans. I will do as much as I can to love and support those in needs in any way I am capable of, be it a kind word, a gesture, a dog house, what ever I can do.

I will do each act of kindness and word of love and prayer with a picture of each of those precious children's lives that were lost... I will do that to honor their innocence .... I will remain a positive person who believes in the general good of most humans and I will stand with them. I will not let this person, mentally ill, evil, what ever you want to call him change me for the worst only for the better.

[Kimmy & Chewie]

My heart aches at the news of this senseless tragedy. Just thinking about those poor beautiful little souls makes me want to cry. 

As an outsider (non-US citizen), the USA does have image of high gun prevalence. However, after some research, there are many other countries with equal (if not more) access to firearms. For example, Switzerland and  Germany. Even in my country, Thailand, it's relatively easy to get a gun. I can get a gun in a few days IF I want to.

Some of my US friends also blame the lack of support for people with mental illnesses (especially those that are not so well to do) Yet, Thailand's mental health infrastructure is non-existent but there are no cases of mass shootings here.

Which makes me think there must be other contributing factors like culture that drives some people to do such horrible things. 

[Bonnie and Kona]

It's great to hear the perspective of DKers from other countries. Thank you to all of the non-US citizens for commenting. 

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Thanks for this info Kimmy. You're right it is a very complex issue. Don't forget to consider the size of the U.S. when comparing  it  to countries such as Germany and Switzerland. Here is a map showing Europe overlaying the U.S.  So to get a fair comparison of crime statistics you would have to include a larger land mass than a single European country. I guess you would also have to compare population size as well. Germany has had several mass shootings over the last couple of decades in spite of the fact that they have more stringent gun laws than the U.S.

http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeanmaps/l/bl-country-size-compari...

It's crazy and frustrating. I wish there was a simple solution.