i shit down the throat of his mother.

Cue wingnut response “if only those kindergartners had been packing, the body count would have been much lower” in 5…4…3…2….

I wonder if any Americans made the connection between insane killings of kids in America and using drones to kill kids militants in the middle east.

I wonder if the two sets of parents experience the same pain, or, as La Pierre (of NRA fame) asserts, animals don’t experience pain like humans do.

Why is that right-wingers like Reynolds are utterly devoid of empathy?

You’ll pay for a whole flagpole, but you’ll only use the bottom half!

So why aren’t you using your magic wand to fix it?

It’s just amazing how many American males at least think they have tiny penises.

When we solve the problem of perceived little dicks, we might do something about guns.

Not everyone can afford a Porsche.

Reynolds is a disgusting parasitic ghoul, but he’s no more or less a part of the overall gestalt than the entire bullshit corp media ho-down that’s ensued all day after this tragedy.

Visiting relatives, so I’ve been subjected to approx 45 min of the crap that passes for “nooz” on any channel these days. Witnessing perverts shoving microphones in little kids’ faces & panting at them: “How many GUN SHOTS did you hear??!!!”

The depravity on display is unbearable under such horrific circumstances. The afernoon DJ on the local heavy metal radio station actually displayed a hella lot more class, sensitivity, insight, courtesy, professionalism, & maturity as he *cried* on air and attempted to play some relevant songs.

What. Is. Wrong. With. Our. Country??

What. Is. Wrong. With. Our. Country??

Greed is considered a virtue…

Meanwhile, the lame duck Republicans in the Michigan legislature think that what we need most of all is — MORE GUNS IN SCHOOLS!

On Thursday, one day before the tragedy in Connecticut where at least 29 people were killed at an elementary school, the Republican-controlled Michigan legislature passed a bill that would allow people to bring guns into schools.

I’d say there’s about a 100% chance that, were this piece of shit ever to find himself in the middle of such a situation, he’d respond exactly like the punk-ass little bitch he obviously is.

Talk is cheap, Peckerwood. (or is it Mr. Peckerwood?)

Jeebuz Xmas Bunny packing a Howitzer, these people are…just…fucking…I dunno…beyond clueless?

Shooting 5 and 6 year olds in a kindergarten classroom…. I can’t even wrap my brain around this one. Makes me feel truly hopeless for the future of this country. And ask Tbogg…I’m the eternal optimist. It just breaks my heart….

EVERGREEN: In the New York Daily News: People don’t stop killers. People with guns do.
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 2:39 pm

How, exactly, is this any different than the famous Archie Bunker bit about arming everyone on the airplane to deter hijackings? Because Mr. Peckerwood is a “Beauchamp Brogan distinguished professor of law at the University of Tennessee.”

Well whoopty-doo for him. Jagoff peckerwood motherfucker…

I would like to give Mr. Instaputz some history lessons about just how many people who actually had nothing but their bare hands have stopped killers, but he’s too stupid to believe it, anyway

Is that really a picture of Reynolds?

Does he have children?

Like any parent, even though my children are grown and they have children of their own, the one thing you, as a parent NEVER forget no matter how old you are, is the feel of that small hand in yours and the too big backpack as you cross the street or let your child out of the car and you say something banal like “Have a good day” or “Have you got your homework?”. The same thing, generation after generation..maybe without the backpack or homework, but that small hand…you will never forget that feel. The NRA is evil. I hate them.

I went to high school half an hour away from Newtown and played soccer/basketball against teams from that township and am certain I have former classmates who are now in mourning.

Fucking Sucks.

‘Zactly. When you have a child, you go through the stages, from this aspect to the next. Every days needs and concerns, never knowing or realizing till years later that some chapters closed and others opened, the tiny things in growing with that child, their whole view point new, evolving, not written against a backdrop of everything you have learned. You have time to not only adjust to the changes but to look forward to them. To have that cut so abruptly, to look at the place where they are no longer.
I am not looking so much at this person who did this. He committed an atrocity on his own but he was enabled by the people who exploited fear and profited from it. The same type who are right now struggling to find ways to defend their base need to arm themselves.

People who continue to defend guns and arming everybody are EVIL.

We had a ‘mall shooting’ here in Oregon a few days back. 2 dead. The comments on Oregon-Live from the Pro-Assault-Weapon side are breathtaking. The ones that strike me most are the repeated ‘if one courageous armed citizen had been there’….

Those are the people who will always say “We should put them all on an island etc, etc,etc” Insert the “we” of choice: blacks, gays….
If they are so afraid to live in civilized society that they don’t want to support with taxes or credit for their success then they need to take up their own suggestion and go to some island and fight it out.

OT:Damn it’s great to just spew what stoopid stuff comes to mind without worrying about moderation…

I wish I had something like that.

Without a question mark, I ask: Who. Cares.

Dead kids. Any answers? Can you debate the NRA?

Fuck it. This is what we have. You cannot touch guns, especially if you lean any way left.

Fuck it. Dead children. It’s what we got.

Of course. If there is anything that that would truly make a parent feel safe is if they knew that the woman/guy at the blackboard in his kid’s class is packing heat. There is NO CHANCE, of course that the said teacher has big psychiactric problems and could never, ever lose it. Jesus.

Glenn don’t care cuz he’s going to be uploaded into an immortal robot.

Meanwhile, the rest of us have to live with his soulless quest.

New promotional photo for the NRA

Yup, that’s where comments were going, arm the principal and, if need be, the teachers…

After our local ‘mall shooting’ I listened to a couple of my obese (concealed-carry) coworkers fantasize about how ‘if they’d been there…’ and I’m left trying to figure out how these fat fuckers who can’t see (let alone touch) their toes are suddenly quick-n-nimble men-o-action with perfect reflexes and laser-tight aim. Jesus.

Dear Glenn,

The shooter killed his own mother with guns she bought legally. Having them didn’t do her much good, did it?

Sincerely,
BG

“…The ones that strike me most are the repeated ‘if one courageous armed citizen had been there’….”

Yes. We call those people “Police Officers”. Full. Stop.

And they never stop to think about what it’s really like to be in that situation, and how likely it is that if they were, they’d shoot one or more innocent bystanders, or end up dead themselves, because someone thought they were the perpetrator.

Since I’m female and ‘old’ and have had some years of interaction with men of various stripes, I’m going to give you my cliched-ridden psychoanalysis: these ‘heroic’ men strike out with women (including their wives), have small dicks, are chickenhawks and wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the WWE against Rosie Perez (yeah Rosie!!!). You may quote me. If someone actually started shooting at them they would wet their pants. And, if they did draw their gun, they would probably shoot some poor bystander. We’ve had our share of mass shootings in San Diego county, and the Aurora shooter is from here. It’s

Enjoy (or not) the Oregon-Live commenting threads on banning assault weapons in OR and limiting gun clip capacity .

If asshole Reynolds was a real man he’d be sporting Kevlar, in black, with a throat protector.

“…The ones that strike me most are the repeated ‘if one courageous armed citizen had been there’….”

Yeah, courage would certainly be required. Stand up and aim a handgun at a possibly body-armored guy who is burpin’ out the bullets with an automatic rifle?

Way to draw attention to yourself, CITIZEN. Good. Bye.

Or maybe the cops or another courageous armed citizen would mistake HIM for the perpetrator….

Yayhoo Crispy. They sure do have a rich fantasy life.

I blame the film industry.

Got posted before done: Not much more to say. I was going to say that it’s so easy to be Superman when you aren’t Superman.

i havent been near a TV today. And have barely gotten on the net.

I sat down with my coffee and fired up the news only to see giantic headlines. I found the least sensational sound link and read the first few paragraphs of what had happened.

I mean who does this.

I stopped reading and have avoided what was surely to be the usual circus.

God I saw one headline about a 6 year old eyewitness. Like who the fuck get an interview from a 3rd grader who has just been thru this.

This massacre as legs, because it happened in hedge fund exurbia. I doubt any hedgie kids were killed, but that part of CT is infested with prep schools where they send their kids, and it could happen to them as easily as it did to the hoi polloi. We used to think it matters only if it happens on teevee; the truth is it only matters if you’re rich. This one matters. Columbine was for the plebs. Who gives a shit?

Fixed

If someone actually started shooting at them they would shit their pants.

Having been sniped at while on the flight line, the first thing I did was run like hell for a revetment.

BOHICA

aka Brave Sir Robin

These right-wing, NRA, Ayn Rand-loving, overcompensating idiots have this belief that there is the hero out there. The hero will instantly have perfect information and be able to discover who is the perpetrator and act accordingly when all evidence is to the contrary.

Studies have shown that if an armed gunman walks into a classroom, most people will freeze. Even police officers will freeze unless they periodically have the training to react.

Imagine a situation like at the Colorado movie theater where the majority of people thought that the gunman was part of the show. Imagine everyone was armed to the teeth. The gunman enters and starts shooting. How long would it take for the bystanders to start shooting at every other bystander?

One key fact in all of these incidents is the confusion (fog of war). If we spread the war implements, we get more fog and more results of war.

But remember, Ayn Rand said that only the super achievers will react.

These stupid shits should be sent to Afghanistan to lead a patrol.

I doubt any hedgie kids were killed, but that part of CT is infested with prep schools where they send their kids

I lived 30 minutes from Newtown where I went to a very good public school (see @17). These are small towns collected into townships.

Knut? FUCK YOU.

The shooter also had a couple of handguns including a Glock. Took them from his mother before he shot her.

Unlike the Aurora, CO shooting a few months ago, and the OR mall shooting a few days ago, today the weapons didn’t jam. So the toll in CO and OR could have been much higher, like today’s — or even as high as VA Tech was. Being relieved when a gun jams seems like an evil luxury.

Every time something like this occurs, it seems as if it is the last time, but it’s not. What the hell is going on anyway?

Aye yup. The guy in Tucson who was a bystander coming out of a gun store was within a hair’s breath of shooting someone trying to save Gabby Giffords. Afterwards, he was thankful and shaking about what he almost did. Confusion and chaos is not conducive to heroics. These armed wingers are not movie heroes, they are delusional wimps with weapons. Wimpy wingers with weapons syndrome.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/12/14/thoughts-on-the-newtown-elementary-school-tragedy/#comment-224808

“…the sad reality is the “individual” is the variable in the equation of life, with no certainty or guarantees in life except that people die everyday from irresponsible actions of another human being. Like children killed in a drone attack in some far away land based upon intelligence that was incorrect? Guess we will never know, will we? Sucks when it is so close to home!

Guns, Butts, Booze and Cars. Thousands of people killed every year. Mammon sucks…”

:(

I saw on HP that one of those Michigan gun supporters said things would have been better if everyone had a gun.

How can you say such a thing?

The NRA’s “Twelve Days of Christmas”

On the first day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the second day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the third day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the fourth day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the fifth day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the sixth day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the seventh day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the eight day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Eight Maids a Milking
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the ninth day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Nine Ladies Dancing
Eight Maids a Milking
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the tenth day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Ten Lords a Leaping
Nine Ladies Dancing
Eight Maids a Milking
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting sprees

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Eleven Pipers Piping
Ten Lords a Leaping
Nine Ladies Dancing
Eight Maids a Milking
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the NRA gave to me
Twelve Drummers Drumming
Eleven Pipers Piping
Ten Lords a Leaping
Nine Ladies Leaping
Eight Maids a Milking
Seven Swans a Swimming
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And twenty children murdered in a shooting spree

And on Christmas Day itself, the NRA gave to me, under a dripping-with-blood Christmas tree, the bullet-riddled bodies of turtle doves, french hens, calling birds, geese, swans, maids, ladies, lords, pipers and drummers…and twenty children murdered in a shooting spree.
And the five golden rings? They turned out to be gaping bullet holes from high-caliber assault weapons, riddling the bodies, blood and guts splattered everywhere, dripping, dripping, dripping, and the night was silent.

Didn’t that also happen in Colorado several weeks ago? There was a court case out there, and inexplicably a wannabe student gun toter won.

you mean twenty babies, who did nothing at all to harm anyone on this earth.

In our OR ‘mall shooting’ some 60 rounds may* have been popped off, killing 2, before the weapon jammed and the murderer retreated to a side hallway to kill himself. This one appears to be unfamiliarity with weapon (spraying bullets above food court signs) that may have kept body count down.

*official numbers not released

Because Knut is an asshole.

FUCK YOU Knut.

Can you debate the NRA?

You can refuse to. You can say “Loaded guns in kindergarten classes? Kevlar jackets as school supplies? Shut the fuck up and go away.”

well done tribute. thank you.

He does have a point in that when bad things happen to people, the richer ones have more ability to make sure those things don’t happen again, at least not to them. Whether the parents of Newtown have the pull to get their elected reps to, for instance, close off the Virginia Gun Pipeline remains to be seen.

We’re not in possession of all the facts here, anymore than anyone else is, but:

- apparently the Newton public schools (this was a public school, not a private one) had recently instituted new security measures. The Sandy Hook School had recently reconfigured its entrance doors, which were locked after 9:30 am, and you could only gain admittance if the staff member on duty recognized you.

- he used automatic weapons which were legally registered in him mother’s name, and used her car to get to the school. He was living with her in Newton, and killed her first at her home. The type of guns he had are legal in Connecticut (which is

- according to his older brother, he was known to have “personality problems”.

So the immediate questions in my mind are, why did this young man’s mother have all these guns in her home? Were they in a place he had access to? If he had received treatment or diagnosis for any kind of mental/emotional condition or disability, had this been reported to the national database for pre-firearm sale background checks? Is it possible for someone like his mother to purchase firearms legally when a person who comes up on that database is living in the same household? How was he able to get into the school?

According to Demandaplan.org, a petition and info site for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns campaign, my own state New Jersey is one of many that are extremely lax about reporting people with records of mental illness to the national database, even though NJ is rated as having gun control laws among the “most stringent” in the country by the Brady Campaign. Connecticut also enjoys “most stringent” status, and its rate of reporting mental health cases is better than NJ’s, but not great. This “stringency” in CT includes allowing anyone over 20 who doesn’t show up on the database to purchase assault rifles.

Which are, as we all know, the firearms of choice for deer hunters, turkey shooters, duck and pheasant blasters, adventurous Vice Presidents recovering from bypass surgery, and citizen militias standing ready to defy King George’s platoons.

I have from the first. I have also connected it with our culture on many other points. But most people here refuse to go there.

And I know for a fact that I am not the only one who has made these connections.

Even (especially) Medea: “How soft the skin, how sweet the breath of children.”

Today I was looking for a Styrofoam head to use as a sewing form to make a hat. I found one on Ebay entitled “MANNEQUIN/ STYROFOAM HEADS/ TARGET SHOOTING“. Made my stomach churn.

May the souls of the slain children haunt his dreams.

http://youtu.be/AlC0r-aH1qs

In order to find equivalency you must first believe the sole reason the United States is using drones is to kill children? Is that your claim?

The United States is arming Drones to launch missile at children to kill as many of them as possible?

Since that is not the case, it is quite alright to be horrified by what happened today in Connecticut and merely saddened and angered by the deaths in Pakistan or Yemen. There is no hypocrisy involved.

Nothing but hypocritical bullshit.

The children were sacrificed on the alter of capitalism, pure and simple. Obama sheds a tear for the little ones , but backs away from any discussion on gun control. It’s not about the Constitution, any way. It’s about power and money. Unfortunately, I fear their deaths will be in vain as all the others before them have been.

Okay, to Knut and ADC14 and the anti-drone people above, could you maybe not drag your fucking politics to the table for once? Possibly wait a few days before you make this about you and your pet issues? Yes, I know that Pope Greenwald believes that Obama supporters enjoy killing children, but that doesn’t excuse you from acting like a pack of goddamn ghouls.

I do wish that you and Bryan Fischer and Mike Huckabee and all the other jerks trying to squeeze a tragedy into your pre-existing political prejudices would just shut up for a while. Also, learn to spell.

So we are to understand this is about capitalism and that no good Obama? The little fuck that pulled the trigger and all the other politicians in the country and the NRA had nothing to do with it? Guess there’s nothing for us to do here then? Or is this a call to overthrow the government and install your more righteous one?

Wanna explain that?

Profound dramatic pronouncement spelling fail.

Re: Knut @ #35, and objections @ #38 and #43. . .

————-

The objections have bothered me since last night.

I think Knut can count, and observes media reactions and coverage. Then he recalls, say, the toll in Chicago and our reactions. It is true people have been numbed by that. It is also true a substantial part of that toll is Black and Hispanic.

Part of problem with getting one’s arms around Chicago-like situations is that they have endured so long and are expected on a daily basis. Also, the shooters are many. That, however, wouldn’t matter to someone killed there — you can’t die more than once.

No one deserves what happened in CT. Unexpected for sure, yet I’m afraid it’s just part of a much larger problem. Knut’s terse but right, I think.

” the truth is it only matters if you’re rich” . Really? Tell that to a parent who just saw a son or daughter shot to death. You say they are ” expected”. Bullshit. No parent anywhere expects their loved ones to be killed when they go out. Yes it is a larger problem. But why must you trivialize the pain for others bc it is part of a ” larger” problem. And bc media hasn’t given it enough attention is part of the larger problem. The NRA doesn’t talk much about it either. Time we did. So I repeat my objection. Fuck you too.

You wanna stand up for that asshole and write an essay on what you think Knut is thinking then have at it, Knut is still an asshole.

Obviously, the person who pulled the trigger bears the ultimate responsibility. But this killer is just another in a long line of killers and no one wants to ask why this is happening over and over again. Of course, the NRA is a big problem, but why? Because it has gobs of money and therefore has the power to influence public policy on gun control. And why does the NRA have so much money? I think you’re capable of figuring that one out yourself. Bottom line, money trumps common sense, public health, and morality in a pure capitalist society such as ours. Factor in the effects of a militarized culture and a shitty mental health care system and you get—twenty-eight more dead people.

So much easier to focus on typos than to thoughtfully consider what the other person is saying.

I don’t think it really matters–hoi polloi or elites. Hell, one of their own was shot in the head and the politicians sent their well wishes and moved on without changing a thing about gun access. The people who make money from the sale of guns (either directly or indirectly as investors) really don’t care about the body count. Until we change our legalized bribery form of government and our military worshiping culture, the deaths will keep coming.

I’m anti-drone and anti anything that results in the killing of innocent people. I’m also anti-death penalty. And , BTW, it’s ALL about politics, power and money. If it were not, we would have had sane gun control laws decades ago.

BTW, I’ve read a number of your diaries that included “spelling failures.” But I don’t harp on them, because I know you can spell and I know they are typos. It’s the point of your diary that I’m interests me. And that’s the difference between you and me.

BTW, I’ve read a number of your diaries blogs…It’s the point of your diary blog…

FTFY

In the wake of this tragic incident I will send my condolences to the families involved and extend a ” no comment ” on the why. Seems this family had some real challenges with the young shooter. However, something has really gone off the rails in this country. Young adult males, and those locked into a vision of what is acceptable from that incomplete perspective, really have to be scrutinized much more closely. And certainly the visual of 300-400 city, county, state and federal law enforcement officials armed to the max ready for WW III doesn’t help. The government, like the people who support it, must understand we are spreading the wrong answer at home and abroad. It’s starts with our irresponsibility and the concept that everything is for sale and cheap, too. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of children died every week in our last decade’s foreign interventions. They will continue to die until we end this fascination with money, marketing and the selling of violence as a commodity like burgers and fries. I fully understand huge sums of money in our political economy are at stake. This is why nothing has been done as of yet. Going forward, however, we must disentangle our vision of what is acceptable in our own homes and communities from what our gov’t is doing every day in foreign lands. We need a new normal in our relations and how we deal with the world. ( The most powerful security apparatus in the world is not an acceptable antidote, either. I didn’t help or prevent a damn thing this last week. ) Nothing else will stop the commoditizing of murder for profits and personal comforts. And it’s just got to stop or we’ll all be intimately involved in one of these disasters.

Yeah, that’s why I put the spelling as an addendum. Bryan Fischer and Mike Huckabee may be orthographically challenged, but I don’t know. What I do know is that the three of you share a commitment to your own prejudices.

Re: #66 and #67. . .

I’m angry about it, too. But I’ll stand my ground. It’s just what I see going on, and it stinks.

Oh, fuck. I actually read the Ole Perfessor’s USA Today column where he cites the wisdom of William S. Burroughs on gun safety.

I am an admirer of Mr. Burroughs in many ways, but I don’t think you take gun safety advice from someone who tried to shoot an apple off his wife’s head while drunk, killing her.

If being against a system that allows for the wanton slaughter of innocents is a prejudice, then I’m happy to be committed to it.

Sanctimonious claptrap.

People were sometimes evil before capitalism was invented, let alone named. People were sometimes saintly before capitalism was invented, too. When children are murdered, anyone whose first response is to invoke their previously held positions on an abstraction, be it theological or governmental, is applying prejudice. Hence the comparison I made between you and the Christianists. Both responses are inhuman and despicable. Both — I grant you — may have been informed by the kind of horror that freezes the brain and provokes unfortunate reactions. (Me too; I should have written this yesterday, rather than telegraphing my views.) I am steadfast in my opposition to capitalism; but each individual victim is vastly more significant than any theory.

“Capitalism” is only the tip of the iceberg. We have media and politicians who have conditioned Greater Wingnutistan to believe that guns=freedom. We have politicians who not only exploit this to the max, but who treat mental illness as the lesser stepchild of disabilities under the ADA. Hell, this is even enshrined in our tax code! If you get an award or settlement for physical injuries, such as the loss of an arm or an eye, it’s exempt; but if you suffer profound depression because you lost your child in an auto accident, too bad, so sad!

Politicians will claim before Congress that “getting right with god” has cured them of their need for “doing the nasty” in public restrooms, or while dressed in diapers. Bob Dole and others will publicly admit to having a legislatively invented “disease”–ED–so that Medicare/Medicaid covers “boner drugs” (–as our host Tbogg so eloquently calls them.) Yet few will admit to a family history of depression–let alone schizophrenia, or the borderline psychopathy that so many of them appear to display when off-camera.

Employers who wouldn’t dare discriminate against hiring an otherwise qualified physically disabled person think nothing of doing so against equally well-qualified person with a controlled mental illness. Schools are the worst. Instead of attempting to accommodate kids with disabilities of all types, and incorporate them as much as possible into the normal classroom environment, kids who require a greater investment of time are shunted aside into remedial programs for those who can’t be accommodated–regardless of their IQ or talents.

Yes, we have a gun control problem; but if we diverted half the money we spent on illegal drug interdiction on illegal firearms interdiction and gun training programs, we could probably halt a great deal of cross border drugs as well as illegal guns–as the two often go hand in hand. In addition, if every gun nut who wanted a conceal carry permit, handgun permit or automatic weapon purchase were required to undergo the same screening and training for these weapons as a LEO, fewer people would have them.

More pressing is our cultural attitude toward mental health issues. Even the best of families tend to ignore it, or hope it self-corrects when they observe it in their kids. (God forbid they should call it to the attention of the family physician during the 20 minutes per year she sees little Johnny. It could ruin his chances of getting into Harvard….) To say that the public is not generally understanding or accepting of these conditions is an understatement. The funding for most anti-psychotics is a lower priority with most drug companies than orphan drugs. The patient compliance is low because the side effects are horrible–particularly for bright patients. And the people who are usually diagnosed with severe mental health issues later in life rarely have the sort of insurance that pays top dollar for cutting edge pharmaceuticals.

So next time you trolls want to knock Obamacare, you may want to keep in mind that while we can’t yet arm kindergarteners for their own protection, we do have the means of diagnosing disorders like schizophrenia, and would be able to do so more readily with an enhanced Medicare/Medicaid system; and we are also quite capable of interdicting illegal guns. Both of these would decrease the probability of future incidents such as the recent shootings in Sandy Hook Elementary, and the mall shooting in OR. Neither of these will interfere with your precious “freedom.”