Tonight, as President Obama represents the nation in mourning the tragedy in Newtown, CT, I am sharing a couple photos of the brave women who gave their lives to protect the children in their care. Our public school teachers are national treasures and the 6 women who died on Friday in Newtown also happen to be heroes.
So so sad. I am just sick over this tragedy, as Im sure pretty much everyone else is. These brave women (and men too Im sure) died as heroes though, as they got the children out safely as best as they could and then shielded them and protected them from harm until the police came and all of that. May these incredible men and women, and innocent children, rest in peace.
I see them not only as heroes, but as martyrs. They are martyrs to the cause for which many of us have been relentlessly, and to no avail, advocating for years: the idea that someone’s “2nd Amendment Rights” (as they love to call it) should NOT include automatic weapons, magazines with 100+ armor piercing bullets, endless amounts of ammunition available on the internet without any controls NOR TRUMP OUR RIGHT TO LIFE, LIBERTY and the PEACEFUL PURSUIT of WHATEVER. This is simply madness.
I couldn’t agree with you more but unfortunately when I start speaking of gun control, everyone throws the 2nd amendment at me, so I just gave up trying to speak of it, even though I’ve been saying this since Columbine.
There also needs to be a bigger discussion on mental health as well, which seems to be one of the first things to get cut in budget decisions, unfortunately. As someone with a Master’s in psychology, I know how few opportunities there really are in jobs in this area that’s not considered just opening up a private practice on your own (which tends to be more expensive for the patient, so if you can’t afford it, you aren’t going to get help).
Anyway, don’t mean to get on my soapbox, but there it is lol
Well everyone has a different idea of what types of guns should or shouldn’t be allowed. I’m not sure what kind of weapons this particular shooter had. I’ve very wary of the idea that legislation is going to address anything. We have a lot of laws, but when you have 300 million handguns in the country, at this point legislation is just trying to monitor who is exchanging firearms with whom.
I would also point out that while our homicide and gun violence rates are high compared to other first-world (whatever that means) countries, and they’re higher than any of us would like, both homicides and gun violence rates are on the decline since spiking in the 1980s and early 1990s, and are at levels we haven’t seen since the 1960s. That can partially be attriubuted to better medical protocols, but still, gun violence has been trending down.
I live in the 4th-most dangerous city in the country, and I have a wife and a 15-month old daughter. I’d love to hear ideas for what could make my family safer. Just not sure it’s a piece of legislation that politicians can sign so they can tell us all that they’re doing “something”. And no, I do not own a firearm and have no plans to acquire one.
I’m not sure that more resources for mental health wouldn’t be more effective.
Well, theres always this, that you can check out, if youd like: http://www.nationalmemo.com/what-can-president-obama-do-about-gun-violence/
As for what I think, its hard because no matter which way you turn on this issue, it really doesnt matter what laws you pass because people can obtained guns anyway, sort of like drugs being illegal doesn’t stop anyone from over-dosing. Im just sick of the status quo and I want something to change. I live in a state (AZ) where people are allowed to bring guns into bars…yeah, bars! Because alcohol and guns mix so well. And don’t get me started on that Stand Your Ground nonsense in Florida. These types of things are not helping the situation.
An economist last year found that more mental illness was not correlated with more deaths from gun violence. But stricter gun laws are correlated with fewer deaths from gun violence. See #9:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/
Like many people, I favor background checks, closing the gun-show loophole, banning assault weapons, and requiring both safe storage and trigger locks, the specific policies that correlate with fewer gun-violence deaths.
Thank you, Shirley, for posting the photos of these brave teachers.
Brings tears to my eyes that they were so protective of their children . . . heroes indeed! Let’s remember their names instead of the sicko that killed them.
I don’t know what to say. Our hearts are with the families. May they find some healing in the times to come.
Thank you for remembering these amazing women-giving their lives to protect their children. My prayers go out to all those involved-the victims, their families and friends, the first responders, the community.
As Nickolas Kristof wrote in his excellent column this morning, “What do we make of the contrast between heroic teachers who stand up to a gunman and craven, feckless politicians who won’t stand up to the N.R.A.?”
Love it!
Both are protecting what they care about. Teachers = their students. Politicians = their re-election.
I hope their dogs are cared for…
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Schools, being made a gun free zone, where no one is allowed to have a gun, makes it the most dangerous places because it’s the nut jobs that will carry a gun into the place where no one else is armed to stop him.
Pilots weren’t allowed to have a gun on flights and look what it did for 9/11 highjackers! After 9/11, pilots were not only allowed to carry guns, but were encouraged to do so.
Every place where vunerable defenseless folks like kids/elderly/disabled are, there needs to be at least one trusted armed person to protect them from the deranged nut with a gun. Gun free zones only makes it easier & safer for the nuts to get away with murder. If those teachers were armed, I seriously doubt the nut could of gotten away with so much death & destruction.
If you outlaw guns, you know outlaws are still going to have them, so arm more good people to protect from the bad ones willing to start shooting. They’re less likely to start shooting in a place where everyone is shooting back.
I wouldnt have an issue with an armed guard on campuses, but I strongly disagree with teachers having guns. If you start having teachers- and God forbid students- bringing more guns into classrooms, it just causes more harm than good with people not knowing how to shoot or accidentally setting one off. We dont need that. And no one- except for maybe the military- needs an assault weapon that can shoot off 40 rounds within seconds! If we had an assault weapon ban in place, like we did from ’94-’04, this probably wouldn’t have happened.
Just my .02.