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10537. thoughtful - 12/19/2012 2:57:31 PM Arky, I'd like to point out that these people were not average in a significant way. They were among the wealthiest in the country....Nancy Lanza, the mother, received nearly $290,000 in alimony this year. Father Peter was remarried and afforded a nice place in Stamford (very expensive area to live) on top of that. He also worked at a large company so had access to more health and mental health benefits as well as income to afford treatment centers or doctors or medications or whatever might have helped Adam over the years.
There is a lot of talk that mother was in deep denial about her son's mental health and there was clearly something "off" about their relationship....she took him out of high school and home schooled him before he graduated, and she told people that he would be going off to college soon and she was going to move with him to wherever he went. That is beyond helicopter parenting to downright smothering... 10538. thoughtful - 12/19/2012 3:04:12 PM A former babysitter of Adam was also told to never turn your back on him, or leave him alone, even to go to the bathroom....that, I don't believe, are normal instructions to give a babysitter. 10539. arkymalarky - 12/19/2012 3:07:12 PM I knew about the wealth and their concerns about him. Didn't know the extent of her behavior. I was thinking socially/emotionally when I wrote that, but that's certainly not average, tho the denial part is all too common. She sounds more and more like she had serious problems apart from her son. 10540. robertjayb - 12/19/2012 5:56:39 PM "NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama has been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2012."
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
10541. robertjayb - 12/19/2012 6:39:33 PM "NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama has been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2012."
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
10542. judithathome - 12/19/2012 8:23:02 PM Not as loud as these two..... 10543. Wombat - 12/20/2012 12:24:21 AM Or a loud as Concerned's head--or wherever he keeps his thinking apparatus--exploding. 10544. arkymalarky - 12/21/2012 6:07:19 PM I'm witnessing the death of the NRA as a political force in this country. Thank God. 10545. arkymalarky - 12/21/2012 6:30:16 PM The school security this psycho refers to would be the first to be popped by a gunman with an assault weapon. Most teachers have had at one time or another armed security. They can have them still if that makes them feel better. But in most schools filling those positions with qualified people is a non-occurrence. 10546. judithathome - 12/21/2012 9:50:50 PM The NRA
i AND
John Boehner are both becoming non-entities. 10547. judithathome - 12/21/2012 9:51:40 PM Sorry...that should have been AND...so used to quick HTML. 10548. thoughtful - 12/23/2012 4:33:25 AM Doesn't delight me in the least about losing the NRA. I want to continue to have access to an "equalizer" and if legislation that is being bantered about by legislators who know nothing about guns is passed, we will be far worse off than we are now. And responsible gun owners would lose access to rational gun safety and training courses that they get now.
Worst of all, it would be my fears come true...that they will pass some knee-jerk reaction laws that will not be effective, but they will all congratulate themselves thinking the job is done...until the next tragedy. Meanwhile much needed mental health funding, family and youth counseling programs, training and security for schools and other public places will come under increasing budget pressures and no fundamental attempt to get at the root causes of this kind of crime will not happen. Moreover, tv, movies and video games will continue to become more violent, kids will become even more inured and better practiced at committing murder and the border between virtual and actual reality will become increasingly blurred. And those of us who have guns for protection will need them more than ever. 10549. judithathome - 12/23/2012 5:23:21 AM That's quite the bleak assessment....even for a pessimist like me. 10550. arkymalarky - 12/23/2012 6:58:46 AM Other countries have similar modern entertainment without the mass slaughters we have. Yet the vast majority of our kids become productive citizens. We do a poor job of dealing with our fringe element. I think we will see positive steps to deal with what is predominantly an American problem among modern cultures. But I have a very positive outlook wrt American kids. These killers are almost always aberrations whose family and acquaintances know have serious problems.
I have guns too, but I am not afraid of our society, or what our kids are becoming. In fact, the longer I live and work around today's kids the better I feel about it. 10551. iiibbb - 12/23/2012 4:13:01 PM Do you know why these entities are dying?... inflexibility and a tin ear.
The only time I've ever been a member of the NRA is when it's been required of me (when I was a member of a private shooting range).
Needless to say I think any gun control laws that are to follow will be useless. I also worry about a similar blowback after the first AWB and the last thing I want is for the Tea Party to gain any ground back while still in control of religious nutbats. 10552. arkymalarky - 12/23/2012 7:11:40 PM I agree. They really need a gun owners group that is totally apart from manufacturers. The NRA has never been a good spokesgroup for regular gun owners. Ducks Unlimited has members around here but I don't know anything about it. 10553. arkymalarky - 12/23/2012 7:15:53 PM I agree about the NRA. Not that regulating AWs, clip sizes and background checks won't help. They might not, but they sure won't hurt. I'm also concerned about the knee jerk reactions wrt schools. Those have much more potential to do damage than any other ideas I've heard. Many are just hysterics. After 32 years I am not about to start packing heat in the classroom. 10554. arkymalarky - 12/23/2012 7:18:36 PM And I love my principal, but I don't want her packing either. Life involves risk. Times like these certainly make you realize which politicians lack all common sense and calm in a crisis. 10555. iiibbb - 12/23/2012 7:46:20 PM "sure won't hurt" isn't a good enough reason to pass a law IMHO. The idea of a law is to reach consensus. If a law merely makes regular people's lives more of a hassle while accomplishing nothing they're more likely to become single-issue voters... and you're less likely to be successful if you were to come up with a decent policy.
The government has enough problems with credibility gaps to go around creating them eyes open.
Personally I think the most effective thing is controlled entry. The school where we took my son before we moved had it... and the school we're taking him to now is putting it in over the holiday (was already in the works before the massacre). They also posted an armed police officer after the CT shooting and before the NRA came out with their announcement.
And as usual the press totally missed it.... suggesting police patrol schools isn't that crazy.... it's all the other shit he said that was nuts and taking too defiant a tone. People aren't going to react well to that. 10556. iiibbb - 12/23/2012 7:49:14 PM It is a mistake to press people/principals/teachers into performing a duty they may have no disposition for. There is more to having a gun than having it. If you lack the mindset to use it, it's just part of the problem.
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