And, WOW, I totally forgot to mention irresponsible media. like releasing names when NOTHING is confirmed. The Social Media attacks on people today with similar names is astounding. NOT surprising, given the nature of people and mob mentality, but just amazingly irresponsible of the TV media to allow their endless unfounded speculation lead to things like that.

Posted by coach_billyg on 12/15/2012 12:05:00 AM (view original):

Posted by a_in_the_b on 12/14/2012 10:16:00 PM (view original):

Posted by emy1013 on 12/14/2012 8:58:00 PM (view original):

Posted by a_in_the_b on 12/14/2012 2:22:00 PM (view original):
It's the crime equivalent of a plane crash. In a country of 300,000,000 evil things will happen somewhere.

Really?  Is that how you see this, as just some sort of statistical probability?

It's evil, hideous. However ... I don't like the "what does this mean?" And "Why did this happen" questions. It's not indicative of some larger pattern. It was an act of evil by a disturbed individual. But people almost ALWAYS overreact legally and otherwise to them, immediately sweeping laws are proposed, and there is garment rending, and a look for trends, people blaming video games, or violent movies. The are sick and disturbed people out there and they will do sick and disturbed things and sometimes, despite your best efforts, somewhere one will slip through. You try to figure out how to prevent anything about it that was preventable ... but sometimes senseless violence and evil doesn't have a larger meaning. Sometimes, and it sucks that its true, there is nothing to be gained, nothing to be done.

Other than to hug your loved ones and children and ultimately realize exactly how ephemeral and precious they can be, they are.

But even in a perfect police state where everyone is monitored 24/7 - somewhere something evil will happen, and the infuriating thing is - there isn't always something that could have been realistically done.

i agree, too.

i hate how in our society, when something bad happens, we feel SUCH a need to blame someone or something. sometimes bad **** just happens, and someone is at fault, and should be brought to justice. but sometimes, its just an accident, and there is nothing you can do. in this case, the guy responsible is obvious, and hes clearly deranged, and now hes dead. why isn't that enough? this blame game is so pathetic. its like when a kid breaks into your property, slips near the pool, hits his head, and dies. its sad. but why do we try to ruin the peoples' lives who own the property? when there is a fatal accident on the road - oh boy, you better not have had even 1 beer - even if you had ABSOLUTELY NO FAULT in the accident. because now, its a murder investigation. its pathetic. im not saying drunk drivers should get off - but man, i am terrified of the prospect of driving around after having a beer or two with friends, and some idiot doing something stupid and getting themselves killed, somehow involving me - and now my life can be ruined, forever. its just ridiculous. there are some things i really like about this country, but man, there are some things i really, really, really hate, too. and until we can grow up as a society - we are like immature 3 year old brats - i don't think we will get better. until we can do things like - spend more time talking about, you know, the real war we fight every single day, over in afghanistan - instead of ranting about the war on christmas - i just have no hope for us. how come the war on christmas gets 10 times the coverage? or is it 100? and really, calling it war, the destruction of thousands of lives and vast amounts of property, one of the most unfortunate, obscene, and grotesque realities in this world - is that really the appropriate way to talk about the issue? oh god, we better go cancel sesame street, because we give them like 100 million over 10 years so that our kids can get some education without all the OH LOOK BUY THIS CEREAL MADE OF PURE SUGAR!! BUY ANOTHER TOY! BUG YOUR PARENTS FOR THIS **** UNTIL THEY HAVE TO EITHER GIVE IN OR STRANGLE YOU!!. but the 260 or so billion we will give the top 200 biggest companies in america over the next 10 years? lets not talk about that. really? if sesame street needs to compete in the fair market, why not exxon? the biggest company in the world cant survive without billions in government subsidies? come on. the intellectual level of this dialogue our nation is having, its appropriate for 5 year olds. we need to grow up, quick, or the real problems facing the world - population growth, environmental damage, how to deal with an increase in computing and robotics technology that makes many manual labor type jobs obsolete - they are going to get serious and we just aren't going to be ready for them. its unreal that as bad as our politicians are, our news casters are even worse. thats the real travesty. dont turn this horrible event into some political issue. our news is not news, its an opinion show, and should be labelled as such. i would LOVE to have the money to fund a multi billion dollar class action suit against each of the major news networks, for false advertising. i dont think i'd win, but i think it would get some serious coverage, and maybe would open some eyes.

I don't want to take this thread off track, but ironically, while demanding that the news media not turn this tragedy into a political issue, didn't you turn your response into the very same thing? 

Urgh. I hate seeing things like this. Why must reality suck?

Posted by uconnut on 12/15/2012 5:43:00 AM (view original):
Urgh. I hate seeing things like this. Why must reality suck?

Agreed.

Although violent crime could never be eliminated.  Even though, too many of our freedoms may be lost in the effort to prevent all such tragedies.  I think that it is important to remember that we live in a democracy and that our representatives will do the right thing, if it appears necessary to their re-election.  

I have a young child, as many who read these forums do, and presumably all who read may hope to have.  I'm sure that it is political to post, but then everything is, so, the only alternative would be silence.  I strongly believe that our society has an obligation to reconsider two changes that have occurred in the past 50 years: (a) the availability of assault weapons and assault gear for sale to civilians, without any requirement for training in use and secure storage of same; and (b) the malfunctioning mental health system stemming from the passage of the Community Mental Health Act in 1963.  

I believe that we as citizens need to consider the true and full cost of these changes to our society and whether, perhaps, there are some things that we can do to prevent at least some of these horrible events from occurring again and also to lessen the scale of such tragedies when they do occur.

This guy did a pretty decent job illustrating (literally) part of your point.