HE SHOT A CLASS OF KINDERGARTENERS EXECUTION STYLE. WTF is wrong with this country?

[anneboleyn]

Fox is reporting that the shooter shot his father and mother and then executed these children.

I know this question is an old one that has been posed before, but the execution of kindergarten students? Body armor? Automatic weapons? "Execution" slaying of kindergarten students? No words for the state of our country.

[KeepItReal]

1. No regard for life. Any life. Any age. Any place.

My sister was a Kindergarten teacher. She had so much love for her pupils.

I cannot fathom anyone walking into a classroom...

[Journeyman]

2. Been going on for a long, long time. . .

Bath, Michigan. 1927.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster

[closeupready]

3. There was a similar incident in Russia, wasn't there?

And then in China more recently.

Violence is everywhere unfortunately.

And I have been a victim of violent crime.

[bluestate10]

20. The situation in Russia was done by islamic terrorists. Their objective was to kill as many

people as possible, regardless of their ages. The situation started as a standoff, but the terrorists started killing children and continued to kill them. Russian special forces troops finally stormed the school, but that action triggered the terrorists to systematically execute more children before they themselves were killed.

[closeupready]

24. And that objective made sense to no one.

Thus, the point stands that gun massacres happen in lots of places, not just in the US.

[intaglio]

25. The one in China was 2 years ago and no-one died n/t

[closeupready]

29. 21 dead and 90 injured over multiple attacks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_attacks_in_China_(2010-2011)#March_2010

>>March 2010
Main article: Nanping school massacre

On March 23, 2010, Zheng Minsheng (郑民生 [2] 41, murdered eight children with a knife in an elementary school in Nanping,[3] Fujian province;[4] The attack was widely reported in Chinese media (called 南平实验小学重大凶杀案 ,[2] sparking fears of copycat crimes.[4] Following a quick trial, Zheng Minsheng was executed about one month later on April 28.[3]<<

[Robb]

30. I thought I heard about China on NPR this morning.

I only heard part of the story, but it sounded like an adult came into a school and shot a bunch of kids over a dispute with the local government.

[JaneyVee]

4. Not just a National tragedy, but also a National epidemic. This is a societal crisis.

[anneboleyn]

8. Yes, there have been a LOT of mass shootings, almost copycat style. Body armor, etc.

This is clearly a national problem, and a national shame!

[JaneyVee]

15. We had a National conversation about Four Loko alcohol and it was banned in like 3 weeks.

Something MUST be done.

[valerief]

5. Unfortunately, the only way to fix it is to remove all gun laws and give the 1% a huge tax break.

on edit: Oh, yeah, and ban abortion and birth control.

[anneboleyn]

10. That's exactly what Mitt and Ryan proposed! And get rid of Medicare because old people

are a problem too. (again, sarcasm alert, though we probably are not that far off from what they would recommend)

[valerief]

13. And make all states right to work states. And get rid of minimum wage.

That about covers their "solutions" to everything. Oh, yeah, and start another war.

[treestar]

44. And allow prayer in the schools

And stop teaching evolution.

[valerief]

48. Boom! Wow, this list is getting longer and longer. nt

[Recursion]

6. Overall murder rate is down. Mass shootings are up. Something is weird there.

I don't know what, but something is weird there.

[Harmony Blue]

9. This. +1

We have a real gun crisis in this country and we have the media hyping up a manufactured Fiscal cliff crisis.

[anneboleyn]

11. Exactly. serious, epidemic, untreated mental illness. Violence at very high levels.

[Recursion]

16. "violence" as a whole is at historically low levels. This particular kind of violence is increasing

And that's very strange because most violent crimes increase and decrease with each other.

[valerief]

14. +1

[WCGreen]

36. Getting the lead out has reduced the violence...

Seriously, when we took lead out of gasoline and stopped using it in paint and glass, the kids who came sifter the ban are less prone to violence.

[Recursion]

37. +1 that's been a huge part (nt)

[jberryhill]

40. That's fascinating

[TPaine7]

7. Obviously, it's impossible to know what set this psycho off, but I have to think the Republican

"you're on your own" mentality and St Reagan's mental health cuts may be involved.

[anneboleyn]

12. I agree...there is something very odd here.

[anneboleyn]

17. CNN reporting that firemen first responders were walking out in tears. Bodies of murdered children.

Horrific.

[bluestate10]

21. MSNBC reported that some of the first responders had children in that school. nt

[jberryhill]

18. There are more than 300 million people in this country

So, if only one person out of a million is a raging murderous lunatic, we have more than 300 of them.

[AZ Progressive]

22. Then why is the murder rate so much lower in European countries compared to the U.S?

The United Kingdom, a country of 62 million people, and Germany, with 82 million people, have 550 and 800 murders a year respectively, compared to more than 14,000 in the U.S. a year (2/3rd of them with firearms.) The city of Chicago, with a population of 3 million people had 433 murders last year, nearly as much as the entire United Kingdom!

[rrneck]

26. They have better health care. nt

[jberryhill]

27. Still below average

The rate of murder, worldwide, is 6.9 per 100,000. In the US, it is 4.2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

[AZ Progressive]

35. Thats because you are adding in third world countries to that average,...

...many that have lots of poverty or drug lords, military conflicts, or with a lot of organized crime in general. Should we be comparing ourselves with third world countries just to feel good while ignoring that for such a developed nation as the U.S., that we have a far higher murder rate than other developed nations?

[jberryhill]

39. I don't know who "feels good" about it

It's all one planet to me. Our infant mortality rate, for example, compares quite directly with many less developed countries.

However, we have a culture which celebrates violence.

Guns are used in 66% of murders in the US (table here: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004888.html ).

So taking the UK rate of 1.2 per 100,000 and the US rate of 4.2 per 100,000, eliminating all gun murders, and assuming that none of those murders would not otherwise be committed, we'd still have a higher rate. Clearly, we have too many guns. Also as clearly, there is a cultural component for which the availability of guns does not account.

[AZ Progressive]

41. Exactly, thats what Bowling for Columbine talked about

[jberryhill]

43. Yeah...

I don't own any guns and never have. I'm all for figuring out what we can do to decrease their availability. But there is another problem entirely which drives violence, that has nothing to do with the availability of guns. The availability simply makes it easier to act on impulses that might not otherwise be as lethal. As noted above, though, the overall incidence of violent crime is down from historical highs.

[jberryhill]

47. Incidentally

I do not know why you think that development or poverty has anything to do with it.

Bangladesh and Djibouti have FAR lower murder rates than the US.

Afghanistan has a remarkably lower rate than the US.

Poverty tends to make people poor, but doesn't seem to make people violent in isolation from other factors.

[jberryhill]

31. Excuse me?

Schizophrenia, for example, affects about 7% of the adult population.

That is a fact, and it is one which our country does not address or deal with in any sort of organized manner.

Of the mentally unbalanced, you are going to get a certain number of raging murderous lunatics out of a sample of 300 million.

Perhaps if you believe calling someone a "raging murderous lunatic" makes me a "champion and spokesperson", I'm curious to know what you think I would say about someone I didn't like.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

32. You can always alert

[jberryhill]

33. I tend not to do that

But apparently someone else did.

[AZ Progressive]

19. America's culture is what's wrong with this country

Why are the Japanese and much of Europe so peaceful and law abiding, with a sense of caring for others and economic equality in comparison? (Even the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza, has the sense of doing things like disaster relief efforts in their country.) Why in Europe are the CEO's ok with only being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and not demand the millions that American CEO's want? Why are Europeans ok with paying higher taxes if it means a better society? Culture instills things in people, but America's culture is as value instilling as the crap sold in Mcdonalds and Walmart. America's culture has led to the degeneration even of national IQ.

[Glassunion]

34. You hit the nail on the head. Part of what makes America great, is what

makes America bad. We are a culture bred from all cultures.

Not to mention we are consumers, not producers. On the whole Americans eat eat eat eat everything, and put blinders on to the world around them.

[Arugula Latte]

38. I agree. American culture is sick and twisted and its values are out of whack.

[woo me with science]

42. +1

[88mph]

23. what did this country do to make ONE MAN do this?

[craigmatic]

45. What kind of gun was it?

[Daniel537]

46. 99% of people in this country never murder another person.

Yes, our rate of violent crime is higher than most other industrialized nations, but lets at least keep things in perspective.