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Obama: "These tragedies must end"
President Obama speaks at a memorial service for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 16, 2012 in Newtown, Conn. / MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Facing a room full of parents, siblings, classmates, and teachers of the 26 victims who died Friday in a mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, President Obama Sunday night asked if Americans can claim as a nation that they're doing everything they can to ensure the safety and happiness of their children.
Obama: "Newtown, you are not alone"
Newtown, Conn., memorial vigil
"We are not doing enough" to prevent these massacres, Obama says
"If we're honest with ourselves, the answer is no," the president said during an interfaith vigil at Newtown High School. "We're not doing enough. And we'll have to change."
It's the strongest language to date Mr. Obama has used in reference to calls from his fellow Democrats for sweeping reforms to gun rights and, from both sides, for increased support for those suffering mental illness. The alleged shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who turned the gun on himself when approached by police after killing his mother, six faculty members, and 20 students aged six and seven, is thought to have suffered from various mental disabilities.
Vowing to flood the coming weeks with meetings with mental health professionals, parents, and others who may shed light "in an effort at preventing more tragedies like this," Mr. Obama asked, "Because what choice do we have? We can't accept events like this as routine." If lawmakers have at their disposal the ability to save at least one more school, or even family, from this level of grief, he continued, "surely we have an obligation to try."
"We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true... but that's no excuse for inaction," the president said, mourning victims who "much of the time, their only fault was being tin the wrong place at the wrong time. We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end."
The vigil included interfaith scripture readings and prayers, and before the podium, which boasted the presidential seal, were glass votive candles, one for each victim in the shootings. Stuffed dogs were given to children as they entered. Gov. Dan Malloy, D-Conn., who opened for the president, ensured those in attendance, "we will get better."
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Having spent two hours prior to the event meeting with victims' families and first responders, Mr. Obama said the 27,000-person Connecticut town has "inspired us - you remind us what matters." The victims, he continued, "lost their lives in a school that could have been any school, in a quiet town full of good and decent people that could have been any town."
"Newtown," he assured, "you are not alone."
Mr. Obama ended his remarks by listing the names of each individual victim, drawing sobs from throughout the crowd.
Obama names victims: "God has called them all home"
Connecticut elementary school shooting
In the hours following the news of the massacre Friday, the president approached his condolences as a parent. With little mention of legislative action, he told the nation: "As a country, we have been through this too many times."
His visit to Connecticut marks his third trip to a site following a mass shooting in the past 23 months. In January 2011, Mr. Obama took part in a vigil following the mass shooting that injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and this past July, he met with victims' families following the massacre at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
During his remarks Friday, the president said, "I know there's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief I do" and noted that the majority of the victims were "children, beautiful little kids... They had their entire lives ahead of them, birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own."
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Psychologists, who are specialists in the human mind, FAIL to tell us WHY death and destruction in films, TV, and video games IS entertaining!
This is a simple question, but it is virtually NEVER asked!
WHY DO WE HAVE TO BE ENTERTAINED BY DEATH AND DESTRUCTION?
There IS a solution to these mass shootings. It requires an open mind, one that goes beyond the weaknesses of science, which does NOT factor the human spirit into its narrow-minded equations.
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things....put it into practice. And the god of Peace will be with you!" Philippians 4:8-9.
Parents! STOP taking your kids to see violent movies! STOP buying them violent video games and plastic guns and such! FEED their minds with "whatever is pure," not death and destruction galore!
It REALLY MATTERS...don't let some narrow-minded "experts" tell you it's "okay" to be entertained with death and destruction. Wake up! Think on it! Why does anyone NEED to be entertained with murder? We NEED food, shelter, love---not blood and gore! God knows better! In whom do you trust---social scientists who do NOTHING to stop the carnage, or God who instructs us to fill our minds with "whatever is pure?"
1) I think schools should have panic buttons in the rooms like banks have at the bank teller counters. We go through all of this to protect money why not our children? So if someone in a school hears something like this or something horrible starts to happen. The Teacher can hit the panic/emergency button and the door to the classroom they are in closes and locks. This could also be made to close and lock the door to each classroom in a wing, hall or the entire school at the same time while sounding an alarm. It could also close/lock doors in the hallways-sections of the school. All this while calling/dispatching law enforcement immediately. This puts obstacles between the Psycho and their escape and anymore victims. Let's implement this ASAP. In addition, Bullet proof doors to all classrooms and all doors in the school. Bullet proof glass on at least the first floor rooms/areas.
2) I think we should consider utilizing the current assets we already have to save tax payers money and provide a deterrent for this type of activity.... Why don't we make Police station hubs on the same property with the schools? It's already government land. Instead of paying an ineffective rent a police to walk the halls (no offense but we need the real deal in this day and age) have that Police hub service/ provide an officer or two to the school as well. We need to strategically place our law enforcement like we would military these days. Use current assets we already have to save tax payers money and provide a deterrent for this type of activity. Comments, suggestions, improvement, different ideas?
3) The reason schools are targeted is because there aren't any deterrents. Children are the least likely to be able to fight back. You have one adult to every child. It's a cowardly thing but is fact. It's instinctual for animals to pick off the weakest in a pack when hunting... it's disgusting humans are doing this but it is the world we live in now.
There are way too many guns now days and even if you were to implement a law to eradicate guns, only the law abiding citizens would hand them over making them sitting ducks and future victims for the bad guys. I look forward to hearing real solutions instead of fear mongering to try and
strip the rights of others away.
Concerned Parent and Citizen
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What "you" are you talking about?
You do not speak for me, or anyone but yourself.
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It's called the NRA Hall of Fame.
If you need a Bushwhacker to feel safe, you've already lost.
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Wow!! Speak about the classic Monday TV quarterbacking. Jeeze your argument doesn't even address the seductively complicated and yet very subtle issues leading to the Holocaust. Even when the Poles of the Ghetto did arm themselves even though it was heroic it still was a losing cause.
How about this: Image if Hilter's mom was Pro-Choice?
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Yep, that's exactly what the NRA wants a country resembling a police state ...how ironic.