Old wounds from past shootings resurface after Newtown tragedy

Survivors and others affected by past mass shootings, including those in Colorado and Tucson, expressed shock and condolences in the wake of an elementary school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead Friday.

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Mass shootings in 2012

Frank DeAngelis, who was the principal of Columbine High School in Littleton during the mass 1999 shooting that left 13 dead, told CBS Denver his first reaction to Friday's tragedy in Newtown, Conn.: "Not again."

"It just made me sick to my stomach," he told the station. "It just takes me back to what we felt on April 20, 1999. Even though it's going to be 14 years, anyone that was alive during that time or in schools at that time or especially at Columbine, it just takes us back to that horrific day."

DeAngelis said that he is available to me with members of the Newtown community in the future to help them heal.

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Mark Kelly, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, said he and Giffords offered their thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims. Giffords was gravely wounded when a gunman opened fire at a community event in Tucson, Ariz., and killed six others in January 2011.

"As we mourn, we must sound a call for our leaders to stand up and do what is right. This time our response must consist of more than regret, sorrow, and condolence," Kelly, a retired astronaut, wrote in a statement published on Facebook.

The mayor of Aurora, Colo., also offered condolences after the attack. Twelve people were killed and dozens more were injured when a gunman opened fire during a premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a movie theater in July. James Holmes, 24, was charged in the shootings.

"It is almost incomprehensible that an elementary school would be the site of such violence," Mayor Steve Hogan said, according to the Aurora Sentinel.

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However, he said the time was not right in commenting on gun laws.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger sent a letter out to the campus community after news about Newtown broke, according to NBC affiliate WSLS-TV. Eung-Hui Cho, 23, killed 32 people and himself at the university's campus in Blacksburg in April 2007.

"We of the greater Virginia Tech community know, from our experience, of the unending sorrow and horror that has now descended on the Newtown, Conn., community," he wrote. "No words can express how they now feel over this senseless and insane tragedy."

Newtown's tragedy also reverberated in Oak Creek, Wisc., where gunman Wade Michael Page opened fire at a Sikh temple and killed six before taking his own life in August. School Superintendent Sara Burmeister said it was a "tragedy beyond words can describe," according to the Oak Creek Patch.

"We always think, 'It can't happen here,' and we pray fervently that it won't. But as we know from our experience this summer, it can happen anywhere, even in the quietest and gentlest of communities. My heart just aches for that entire community. I can't imagine how they will recover from this horror," she told the news site.

[jonathan2112]

I hate when people try to politicize a tragedy such as this. The first thing that's always argued is gun control. Norway has some of the tightest gun control in the world, did it stop Breivik?

Did it stop William Unek from hacking apart 21 people in the Congo? Did it stop Banjarsari from killing 20 people with a sickle? Did it stop Jiangsu from stabbing 28 schoolchildren? And even today, there's a news story out of China that someone went on another knife rampage, cutting up to 22 children.

The "kid" got the guns from his mom. Legally registered handguns. Handguns that aren't on any state's restricted list. They're not on many country's restricted list either.

By the way, vehicles are still the world's biggest mass murderer. Should we ban them?

The solution isn't in banning weapons as we've seen fail in many of our cities, where strict gun laws have done nothing to curb gun crime. The solution is socio-economic. You have to provide mental healthcare, you have to provide a basic safety net and a basic standard of living. The more people can resort to social services, the less likely they are to go on a rampage when they've got nothing left in life. If they're on the proper medication with the attention needed, maybe they wouldn't decide to go off the deep end.

[Nikos_Retsos]

Seen another massacre happening again and again every few months, we must ask ourselves this question: "What nation have we become?" And I feel that it is about time to change our constitution and repeal the Article that guarantee us the "right to bear arms" in the 2nd Amendment! That Article was necessary in the "Wild West" era when the U.S. was a vast lawless country, and the the settlers needed the guns to protect themselves from American Indians whose territory they were encroaching! The "right to bear arms must be replaced with another article whose provision won't be "a right, but a privilege" accorded only to law abiding citizens of mature age. As it is now, the National Rifle Association, with hefty political contributions to Washington and state politicians have made gun availability almost as easy as in Somalia or in Central Africa.

I expect all politicians to blame the gunman now for the massacre, and exclude themselves of any blame - probably citing the Constitutional provision as something that tie their hands to do anything, or they would probably claim that they "safeguard our civil liberties! On the meantime, more and more Charles Manson types are out there, ready to seek glory in a massacre before they end their psychotic existence. The "right to bear arms" has become the right to kill with impunity for any psychopath with a twisted mindset - and the murder tools are there just for the taking! And when the "right to bear arms" stands above all, "the right to life" for the civilised citizens and children is taken away! Nikos Retsos, retired professor - Chicago, with about 475 murders here so far this year!

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

We as a country, adults and parents are suppose to be the protectors of our children but republicans and the NRA blocks every attempt to protect them.

My condolences to the families of this tragedy. We have been thru this too many times and we must begin to address this. However, do not expect any help from republicans as they are in the pockets of the NRA and other entities hostile to ordinary Americans. Republicans must be voted out to remove their obstruction to making progress on this and other issues. Elections have consequences, and electing republicans to control congress will result in no movement to begin to address this or other issues America so desperately needs to address.