Comments on: 'Revenge' Shooting At Amish School

Four Girls Killed, Six Others Hospitalized; Cops Say Gunman Killed Himself

[thgdriver]

To rsoxfan1123
You asked me to read your post and I did. I am truly sorry for the problems you face everyday now. I hope he pulls through.

My sister shot herself with a gun, there is not a day I don't think about her, I miss her very much as does the rest of my family.
She used a very powerful crossman air gun to her hart, it could very well, have been a knife. Wasen't even a firearm. Fact is she is gone.

Point is, when someone wasts to do harm to others or to themselves, they will always find a way. Razor blades, knives , pills, cars, rope, machinery at work, whatever.

I happen to be a staunch beleiver in self defence, calls to 911 take from 20 to 40 minutes for a policeman to arrive, If someone is out to kill you , you are going to be quite dead in 20 minutes.

Get the guns off "all" the bad people, let me know when you have.

Firearms save a lot of lives every day, even the policeman wearing one is a deterrant, that's the good news we never hear about.

[katsmeo]

remember nerya_100 that everyone has a right to their own opinion. As do you.

[nerya_100]

I am so sick and tired of bleeding heart socialists giving excuses for the insane acts of sick humans. President has nothing to do with these shooting and if he is associated with the devil or not isn't for anyone to state.

[anne1224]

In this case the guns were not stolen! He bought them several miles away from the school.
According to the news tonight he planned this. We need licenses for certain things in this country. With all the terrorism that is going on. Why is it that we are not doing psychological testing for the people who want a license to carry guns even for sport? We need to start somewhere. The Amish people in my state keep to themselves and hurt no one. This should not be happening to them or anyone else in this country.
I am sick to my stomach over what has happened today as well as the events of last week. We are putting guns in these nut cases hands that think it is ok if they are unhappy about something to go blow someone away.
Also, someone mentioned the state of healthcare and needing good mental health care. You can have all the good mental health care you want, a person has to want the help.

[tkb2101]

Hi,

I've been following today's tragic Amish school shooting. I'm a nonpracticing Amish female student at Columbia University. If what happened today raises questions on the Amish that you haven't been able to get answered elsewhere, I'm available for comment.

I would like to correct a statement that Lucy Walker made in A Glimpse Inside Amish Life, "When the Amish turn 16, they are allowed to explore the customs of the outside world."

This statement is misleading. Only the teens in certain communities, mostly the larger communities, are able to get a taste of the outside. They are not actually allowed to experiment but because there are such a large number of teens who do it and it's been going on for generations, the parents can't stop their kids or they've given up trying. Most of the teens in most of the smaller communities do not ever get the opportunity to explore.

-Torah Bontrager
[e-mail]

[dirck99]

The growing number of incidents of this type is definitely a reason for establishing a private commission to study the possible reasons for this type of tragedy. In addition, if there a unit such as the CBS show "Criminal Minds", does exist, it should be put to work on this immediately to avoid future tragedies.

[franmurus]

Your commentator on the shootings at an Amish private school took the opportunity to attack the public schools for teaching evolution. I should like to know if the shooter believes in evolution and which type of school he attended. This comment was a disgrace and an insult to the families of those innocent girls so attacked.

[swarren2a]

I have been a faithful watcher of CBS for decades, from Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, and now Katy Couric. After this evening's Free Speech I am sorry to say that this is it for CBS news. To use the terrible tragedy in PA as an excuse for a political diatribe on totally unrelated issues - abortion and evolution - is beyond the pale. Maybe the gentleman should have let us know his feelings on gun proliferation - that might at least have a remote connection to this crazed individual's rampage. Free speech indeed.

[inlancaster]

read for yourself the feelings of those close to the Amish community in lancaster

http://forums.ibsys.com/viewmessages.cfm?sitekey=lan&Forum=323&Topic=14570

[katsmeo]

Even though I do believe in what you are saying terminalman1, many people do not. I actually believe it all started when the President's father was in office. But, that is just an opinion of loving mother of two beautiful children attending high school. A high school that has an open campus and people can go in and out all day as they please.

[nerya_100]

Guns don't kill or make war or anything else. It is humans with sick minds and no ability to handle or control themselves. I personally don't like the fact that some crazy sick person can have my rights taken away.

[terminalman1-2009]

I'm not at all surprised at all of the school shootings going on. The people who are doing the shooting are desperate because of what is going on in this country with the war and this administration. They feel helpless and are lashing out. George Bush is the Devil and he has turned the U.S. into his version of hell. We will see a lot more of this in the coming months. It still has not come to a head. Like the war in Iraq it's always the innocent ones who suffer the most. Bush needs to be impeached just to show Americans that there is justice in the U.S.

[katsmeo]

In the mean time. All of us knowing that this is not the last of these trageties, does anyone have anything productive to say about how we are going to protect our wonderful children when they go to school.

I work in a locked down building. No one in or out without clearence. I am protected at work. My children are out there on there own. I want to protect them. I don't want to keep them out of school but, if something were to happen to them I would never forgive myself for letting them go.

What do we do?

[ellenrouse]

Thank you, gmond, for your common sense! The shooter is the criminal.

[ghost9111]

Here we go again, The Good,The Bad,and The Ugly is playing again. I told you that it would happen again. It sad, but I am three for three. When are humans going to realize that the sick and the weak are living right next to them. You know the guy that's always ******** and saying if was me I kill them. Well this guy, recalled what happen to him 20 years ago and used that as excuse to kill. So much for the guy next door. Let's not bring up the issue that guns kill people, people kill using guns or a weapon, anything can be a weapon, It's a tool, he could have used an axe or sledge hammer etc. A sling shot is very deadly. I remember a lot of boy's had them when we were young. It does not matter what he used, there dead right!!!! dead is dead. If guns are taken from us. I guess we will all die, because the people of this nation will have no way to defend. The killer was 32 years old, something happen 20 years ago. That would make him 12 years old. Some thing seriously happen to him to carry revenge for 20 years. Girls again were killed, why girls? I would say, a girl did something to him or said something negitive about him. I hate to say this, but there be more soon, I hope I am dead wrong. Because there will be more dead to come. Until we take corrective action to stop future blood baths..............

[cntrygrllst]

I think if you are trying to place the blame on television or media or guns or anywhere but the head of the person or persons committing these acts of violence then you are sadly mistaken.

These children are in the arms of God now, pray for their families and the ones the shooter left behind, what must his wife and children be going through. they had a father who dropped them off to school on a normal day and as they were beginning their daily lives he was ending the lives of children their age. His wife whom he called and told of this thing he was doing, she like most of us will probably be wondering what she could have said or done differently to stop him.
My prayers are with all the people touched by this maddness
the only way to stop such things from happening is to make sure you raise your families with love and caring and forgiveness. Children need to be raised and nurtured and not left to grow like weeds in an unattended garden. We should put more into our children and less on them, take more time with them and less worring about what we are going to buy next.
They are the future and from what I see right now, we could be in serious trouble unless we get a handle on the "ME" generation we as parents have created

[ellenrouse]

Oh, jumkey, cry me a river. You had no response to the social issues raised. It took 2 days for me to get a legally-acquired handgun. I, like millions of others, are responsible gun owners. As society's social mores have declined into a state of vacuum, my once-middle-class neighborhood 12 yrs ago turned into a battleground for crack dealers living on gov't assistance. When my life & family were threatened with fire-bombing, we bought a weapon for protection. Do you NOT see the role moral decay, liberal and/or non-existent justice system and absence of punishment of criminals play in this chaos? Notice the grown men involved in these attacks have criminal records & released on probation or parole? Notice the kids who commit these horrific acts are angry and full of unimaginable hatred? They all gave signals they were dangerous, but no one reported it to anyone. The Columbine murderers were white supremacists who were made fun of by their classmates, so their anger & hatred manifested in the deaths of 15 kids. When the government enforces existing gun laws, there will be marked improvement in these frightening statistics. Stop whining about gun owners and focus on the damaged people who are murdering kids. Timothy McVay drove a truck-sized bomb into the Federal Bldg in OKC. The terrorists flew huge bombs into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon & a field in PA. No guns there. No NRA. Just people full of hate and the intention to murder innocent people. Guns are not the only weapons at hand.

[gaye5]

Hermit22, you are so correct, teaching violence amd filth is what TV does. Notice that there are only broken homes, disaster, pain, horror, hurt, violence and NO two parent families examples on TV so this is what life has become.. We can no longer leave our homes unlocked when we go out or on holiday as we used to be able to do in Auckland NZ only 25 years ago, we didnt even have a key for the door... there used to be examples of what good two parent families were in great programs on TV, our kids loved them, now it is even young kids sleeping around, parents in and out of others beds, break ups, sadness, etc so depressing.. the only way to teach children to be good parents once again is to have hrs of good parenting stories like we used to, for the kids who watch hrs of TV.. So yes I do blame totally producers and parents for the way society has gone today, it all started when programs went down the drain.

[dougskelly-2009]

Security measures at schools might not be the problem, but it is important to be more vigilant at the schools to provide our kids with some protection from inside and outside the schools.

[gaye5]

although authorities will tell you otherwise, the gun experience here in Australia has failed, look it up on the net for yourselves. Anyone with half a brain knows that the crims wont give up their guns, which then leaves the innocent totally unarmed against any intruders. I believe that it has also failed in England and Canada, so one has to wonder why our governments are trying to disarm the good people...

With bullying in schools rampant it is no wonder damaged children are destroying those who have hurt them, then committing bullyside, (suicide)!!!
take the bullying, broken homes and the non stop killing on tv we have a recipe for total uncontrolled disasters one after another, but what amazes me is that the authorities dont have the brains to see that if a few seconds of commercial advertising has such an effect on the population that companies are prepared to spend billions on advertising every year, why cant they see that even a half hr of violence would have horrific effect on our children and adults especially those who are or were damaged through bad parenting..