Obama offers 'love, prayers of nation' to Newtown
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NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - A mournful President Barack Obama said Sunday that the nation is failing to keep its children safe, pledging that change must come after an elementary-school massacre left 20 children dead.
"What choice do we have?" Obama said. "Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?"
In a vigil for the fallen, in a moment of grief that spread around the world, Obama conceded that none of his words would match the sorrow. But he declared to the community of Newtown: "You are not alone."
For Obama, ending his fourth year in office, it was another sorrowful visit to another community in disbelief. It is the job of the president to be there, to listen and console, to offer help even when the only thing within his grasp is a hug.
The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday elicited horror around the world, soul-searching in the United States, fresh political debate about gun control and questions about the incomprehensible - what drove the suspect to act.
Privately, Obama told Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy that Friday was the most difficult day of his presidency.
"What choice do we have?" Obama said. "Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?"
In a vigil for the fallen, in a moment of grief that spread around the world, Obama conceded that none of his words would match the sorrow. But he declared to the community of Newtown: "You are not alone."
For Obama, ending his fourth year in office, it was another sorrowful visit to another community in disbelief. It is the job of the president to be there, to listen and console, to offer help even when the only thing within his grasp is a hug.
The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday elicited horror around the world, soul-searching in the United States, fresh political debate about gun control and questions about the incomprehensible - what drove the suspect to act.
Privately, Obama told Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy that Friday was the most difficult day of his presidency.
"You are not alone" right Barry, there you were driving up in your armored vehicle, with dozens of heavily armed SS, state and local law enforcement. He will promise to take your guns to make you completely defenseless. Give them a hug Obozo, of course only under the scrutiny of the SS.
Won't see this story from main stream media on how close a CHL holder came to stopping the Clackamus town center shooter.
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http://www.kgw.com/news/Clackamas-man-armed-confronts-mall-shooter-183593571.html
 @FreedomRocks God will you guys give it a rest.  I am also a CHL holder and pro-gun...and a proud Dem...so, before you start calling me anti-gun..I'm going to get that out of the way....There are some of us out here who are pro-gun and would like to see something done to get this under control...unfortunately I don't see that happening.  Now, back to this kid...Why is this coming out now?? and not on the day of the shooting?  And he did nothing to stop that puke...nothing.  Stop making this guy out to be some hero, when I believe he is just looking to get his 15 mins of fame from the tragedy.  Yes, there are people out there who just want their face on T.V.
 @PD1202 So just how do you propose we legislate the crazy out of people?
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Women who are battered and killed on a regular basis have a great legal means to protect themselves. It's called a restraining order and makes it illegal to come near them or harm them. There are hundreds if not thousands of dead women who would be glad to testify that strict and harsh laws did not save them.
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Guns will always be available to criminals just like drugs are and there will always be crazy people who want to harm others. This problem is not really fixable so the best you can do is insure everyone has the best possible protection.
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As for your sorry butt you attack the guy who may likely be the reason dozens more are not dead just because it goes against your agenda very sad.
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As for why it did not come out sooner ask the police the control when info is released?
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Oh and the liberal media who don't like to make guns look good so would not want to report it....
 @FreedomRocks First off...the "liberal media" comment is getting old.....really old.  Well, it's typical coming from a right winger (Palin is no longer in the picture, so we can get rid of that sorry label).....Now, in regards to fixing the problem...it's not going to get fixed....this world is full of psycho's who will get their hands on what is necessary to do what they intend to do....and I don't attack anyone...this "information" came out now??  and guess what genius..the mainstream 'liberal" media who you like to bash....came out with it...KGW, for matter of fact.  My comment was just my opinion...you don't know if it's true and neither do I.....just my take.
 @FreedomRocks I have to give you extremists credit for a unified message, too bad the thing that REALLY saved lives was a) a jammed gun and b) the kid was a poor shot.
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 @deejm2112 Ya I am an extremist because I believe I am my own best self defense of cowering in a corner and waiting for the government to show up to protect me from nuts. I think anyone with common sense can figure out who the extremist seems to be here...
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Also I believe he fixed the gun jam and used it to shoot himself because he knew he was about to die from the CHL holder. In any case though he had a working gun and lots of targets still or he could not have shot himself so try again on the factually incorrect and extremist anti-gun crap...
 @FreedomRocks Here we go again....I did not say he's making it up, am I questioning his credibility? Yes, over a week since this happened and NOW he says something?...and guys NEVER exaggerate right? (this fish was THIS big) everyone should wonder about this guy...so let's hold off before you start erecting statues and tributes of thanks...ok?
 @deejm2112 So how is what he hears a hole in his story. Maybe he was looking the other direction when the first shots were fired? Does not mean he did not then turn around and see the guy.
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I was not there and don't really know what happened just what KGW reported but your insistence that he was making it up does make me worry about you.
 @FreedomRocks Who is the extremist? I have not once said ban guns.I do however think there should be limits to your arsenal.
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Said CHL holder says in his interview he heard 3 shots....holes in the story right there.
I'm seeing a few references to the 1927 Bath School disaster in which a deranged man used dynamite to bomb a school and kill 45 people. Somehow, this story is being pointed to as though it makes clear that guns are not the issue.
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Well, try to get some dynamite today (or any explosive). First you apply for a license from the BAFT. You have to pass a background check, prove that you need the explosive for professional reasons, and prove that you have a safe to store the explosive in. The process can take up to 90 days.
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Now, I'm sure someone somewhere has broken the law and procured some dynamite that they shouldn't have, while law abiding citizens have gone through the legal process to get theirs. But, I can't help but to notice that not too many schools have been bombed since 1927 - even though a criminal could still break the law and get dynamite.
 @Max Quinn Dynamite? Go to the sporting goods store and get a pound of Pyrodex for $15. Go to the Lowe's and get some metal pipe. The fuse is easy. That's just one way. You can buy the ingredients for about six different bombs that I know about, at Fred Meyer for under $50. Of course, I'm not going to share this knowledge but it's all basic high school chemistry.People don't blow up schools because the media and pop culture isn't saturating society with the ideas and imagery of blowing up schools. Let's not start.
 @Playanekes And not everyone knows how to make a bomb. And deranged people might not be capable of doing so. But shooting a guns is relatively easy, especially when they are semi-automatic and have large-capacity magazines.
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It's already happenning. The Christmas Bomber used the internet to get ahold of the FBI(That he thought was helping him with a Bomb). I know of 3 of these that have been in the news. People who are demented or intent to do harm will allways find a way to commit murder or conspire to commit murder. Examples are everywhere. Also read the Newspaper Public Log every week there is another Felon in Poss. of a firearm who got arrested(Non Law Bidding Citz). Gang Bangers don't abide the law they break the law. If they could not get a gun then they will find other ways to hurt or mame people. In Mexico the Cartels are using IED's that they are learning from where?????????Remeber the Feds let over 2800 assault style weapons walk with no way of tracking them untill they are used in a crime. That was the Good Old Justice Dept. that did that one. It even cost us 1 boarder agent and another found it's way into a shooting in Arizona. There are places in America where the Feds have said"NO TRESSPASSING" on the American side of the boarder of Mexico. Why is that? Â
 @FreedomRocks  @Max Quinn  @Playanekes Sure.  The fact that they're so easy to make and so seldom used for mass killing surely says SOMETHING.
 @FreedomRocks  @Playanekes So, are you saying that if all guns were banned, then insane people would use the internet to build bombs and the body count from attacks like this would be that same?
 @Max Quinn  @Playanekes Any idiot can make a bomb with anything from current gun powder to match heads and XXX XXXXXXXX. Makes great frag grenades from stuff you can buy at any 7-eleven and any sporting goods store. Even a self propelled bullet that can go through 3/4 inch plywood with ease.
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I was making these will lots of other kids 43 years ago at age 8 so it is not rocket science to make things go boom and destroy stuff as you seem to think.
 @cpt.iceman So, are you saying that if all guns were banned, then insane people would use the internet to build bombs and the body count from attacks like this would be that same?
all you need is a computer and the internet and you can find out all you want to.
You can allways make the explosives you're self. It does not take a rocket scientist to do it. Where there is a will there is allways a way for the demented to harm others if they want to. More regulation won't stop it.
 @cpt.iceman And yet it has...
The only thing that annoyed me was cutting into the football game...I mean jeeze, they couldn't even put the game in PIP, nope, the MEDIA force fed us and got us back on the subject again (as opposed to how bad the Pats were playing). I turned off the news because this is literally in our face 24/7.
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So, all you gun nuts out there.....a shoe bomber fails to kill anyone on a plane and 100% of the flying public has to take off their shoes, countless mass murders and zero changes. Well, fear not, the supreme court guaranteed that no one will take all your guns away but do you NEED high power rifles? High capacity clips? Clearly adding more guns is not an answer, how many of those will be used in a suicide? Get stolen? Accidental shooting? Are you ready to have a conversation now? How many more mass shootings will it take?
 @deejm2112 I got a flaregun (I'm a ferry pilot and it's required safety equipment in the Yukon and Alaska) through TSA on the way home from Alaska last year, and through the Texas, Arizona and California TSA screeners also, while they were swabbing down my British partner's shaving kit for explosives. Isn't that cute?
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On Friday, I slowly and deliberately walked past the elementary school office attendant and security guard, walked unnoticed down the hall to my daughter's classroom, past all the students and parents and unlocked doors, and, with a .45 under my coat, I looked around the room and found my target. She lunged right at me, said "Hi! Daddy!" and I completed my mission. I picked her up, hugged her tightly, said Merry Christmas to the teacher, and we went home.
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My only fears in life are stuff like cancer, and crashing an airplane with somebody's kids on board, but, people trust me with their kids' lives in a Cessna even though they don't trust me with a .45.
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TSA screeners who can't stop shoe bombers are the result of idiotic fear-driven policies made by thumb-sucking paranoids who would rather hose you down with X-rays than risk Grandma sneaking a bomb through in her diaper. Meanwhile, "gun nuts" like me are able to get a flare gun and six ballistic incendiary devices onto the airplane.
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It works for me because rich people buy their own planes and hire me to fly them, or teach them, while the poor suck working class stands in line waiting to get X-rayed. Of course, in San Antonio last month I literally walked right onto the airport flight line...no security, no TSA, no questions asked...I just pointed to an airplane and said "That's my Tiger out there." You sucks wait in line because you live in a different kind of fear.
 @Playanekes I got a box cutter through airport security 3 times before they found it (purely accidental).
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"TSA screeners who can't stop shoe bombers are the result of idiotic fear-driven policies made by thumb-sucking paranoids who would rather hose you down with X-rays than risk Grandma sneaking a bomb through in her diaper. Meanwhile, "gun nuts" like me are able to get a flare gun and six ballistic incendiary devices onto the airplane."
- YES, and that is a real problem, thanks for validating it.
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"You sucks wait in line because you live in a different kind of fear."
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- that speaks volumes about you, I am in awe /sarcasm
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In all I'd it's a pretty detached naive comment. Bring a loaded .45 into my kids school and I will take you down, without a gun.
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 @cpt.iceman How selfish....and the person the gun is being pointed at.
What people forget is it is not about the gun... It's the person behind the gun.
 @cpt.iceman They haven't been shot at or had a gun pointed at them.
People who talk like that is the first to cry when confronted with a gun to the face. Remeber that saying don't write checks that you're mouth can't cash.
@deejm2112 A lousy bunch of morons kicking a stupid ball is more important than this??? Talk about not having priorities.
 @fracas  @deejm2112 Do I want to be force fed that? ...the answer is no, I went and played with the kids.
@deejm2112 What about Ryder trucks and fertilizer? It killed 168 adults and 19 babies under 5 years old when Timothy Mcveigh decided to bomb Oklahoma. And all this about the second worse mass killing at a school is not true. The worste in US history was in 1927 when a man in Bath Mich blew up the school with bombs killing 38 children, and then blew himself up in a car. The real problem is we need mental detectors not metal detectors. The Town Center shooting could have been much worse, but the gunman was met by a man with a ccl, and when he saw him he shot himself. Now if there is someone that has a weapon for defense, like so many people with their bodyguards, how do you limit what they carry, when a criminal has no limits, and black market weapons, and ammo is readily available world wide? If your worried about the football game, than it only shows you want to disarm the honest citizens and really don't care about gun control and what the 2nd amendment stands for!Â
 @flyroy Oh...and I'm pretty sure I'd get a visit by some guys in black trench coats if I tried to by a few tons of fertilizer.
 @Playanekes  @flyroy Obviously if someone wants to create big harm they will...doesn't mean we should leave the barn door open and let them use whatever they want, nothing wrong with making them work for it.
You can even make Rocket fuel at home. It's alittle tricky but not impossible. I also know how to make homemade black powder. You can make a ton without even getting the feds onto you. Or how about biological that can be made with house hold stuff. I want to know how banning guns will curb the criminals from committing crimes or thinking of ways to hurt or mame people?
 @deejm2112  @flyroy You don't need a few tons of fertilizer. You just need a little bit of it. It's banned or tagged for commercial sale, but, of course, you can make it yourself. All you need is some...
 @flyroy No...absolutely not, the mall shooter could have killed a lot more but he was a bad aim....lots of people, a hundred or so rounds, 2 dead.
He only stopped when he was confronted by a person with his own gun pointed at him. Then the coward ran off and capped himself. Remember he had stolen that weapon.
 @deejm2112 Time for you to review the purpose of the Second Amendment.
 @Altazi  @deejm2112 So where do you set the line?  The right to keep and bear Personal Nuclear Weapons?
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Clearly you would not allow any and all kinds of weapons in the hands of any citizen. Â A reasonable discussion can be had about what kinds of controls are constitutionally acceptable on keeping and bearing arms. Â
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Just like shouting "FIre" in a theater is not protected speech.
 @cpt.iceman That'd be your basic MOAB - Mother Of All Bombs.  Gas-air mixture ignited at low altitude over the target area. Â
Gas Bomb would be alot cheaper to make.
 @Playanekes  @Altazi  @deejm2112 How 'bout personal MOABs?  Or chlorine gas mortars?  Dirty bombs? Â
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Pick a WMD of your choice that could potentially be made and/or sold if it helps you with the argument and decide if an individual should be allowed to possess one.
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I'm not taking a position on gun control. Â The issue is way too complicated and way too rooted in the American psyche to have a simple answer. Â Not to mention the fact that initiating gun control today would probably be a pointless exercise with all of the firepower already in private hands.
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The conversation is still worth having, there's certainly some legislation that makes sense and would pass constitutional muster. Â I just get a bellyful of the crowd that hides behind the second amendment, unwilling to even admit the role that laughably easy gun ownership plays in making these kind of scenarios possible. Â
Heck for $250,000 I know where you can get a 40mm Gatling Gun in exellent condition. The guy wants $280,000 but I thnk you can get it for $250,000 with shells.
 @Festivus  @Altazi  @deejm2112 There is no such thing as a personal nuclear weapon. You can keep your Phasers and your lightsabers too.  I DID see a Gatling Gun for sale in Gettysburg for $50,000, though.
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Are you going to come and take my assault rifle, or aren't you?Â
 @Altazi Here's a fact: If someone wants to cause harm, they will use whatever means they can to do it. This young man had easy access to guns and he used them. I have no problem with people owning guns. But what reason do they need for owning assault weapons that are meant to cause mass destruction? None. There is not one sound reason I have heard or read for civilians to own military grade or lesser grade assault weapons. If you cannot see that it's time to remove them from civilian hands then you obviously have not seen the news lately or have a heart. Keep your rifles and standard handguns if you want. But let's get the mass killing guns off the streets. There is no way to ban guns in the US. Admit it, we are a gun toting society. We feel if we have a right, let's blow it above and beyond what that right is. Same goes with the 1st Amendment. Some people go overboard with their "right".
88.8 out of 100 people in this country own guns.
60% of all homicides are committed with a gun.
Over 9100 people are killed each year with a gun.
This equates to roughly 3 out of every 100,000 people die from guns. The US population is approx. 270 million. I got this info from an article written out of the UK after the Aurora shootings. It listed all the countries and their gun crime. The numbers are staggering as to how many own guns. More than I care to think about to be honest. Again, I am not saying get rid of all guns, but let's get the ones that do mass damage out of the hands of gang bangers and unstable people. Will it stop gun violence? Of course not. Will it stop these weapons from being trafficked in? Of course not. Will it bring the amount of people being killed down? YES! Will it stop people from hurting others? Sadly, no. You can still do damage with a "normal" gun. But there is no way that all guns will ever be banned.
 @deejm2112 Agreed.....
 @PD1202 We still need a pitching change but they at least now have a better than average team...which is a major step forward over last season.
 @deejm2112 Don't want to get off topic here....but, we made some good pick ups during this off season...and I'm sure they are not done...lots of money to spend.  Go Sox, Go Ducks!!
 @PD1202  I'm a big Red Sox fan myself!
 @deejm2112  @Altazi  @Kymberlie2873 Very well stated deejm2112....
 @Kymberlie2873  @Altazi How did the fact that assault weapons were banned in Connecticut in 1993 and that they were legally-purchased, and that murder has been banned since the foundation of America work out for Connecticut?
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You and I aren't going to kill each other, so, why are we talking about placing greater restrictions on ourselves as if that is going to solve the problem?
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You're not going to take my family's semiautomatic or assault weapons, without at least an equal number of your own. Is that what you want?
 @Kymberlie2873  @Altazi It doesn't say "right to bear arms with restrictions" either.
you think a Ban on these guns will work? It won't, They will just get them the same way they get them now. They will steal them(Or the black market).......Gun control only keeps the guns out of the law bidding citz. Not the crooks. How is sammies gun free areas working in Portland? Only the honest Person follows the law. The last few shooting have been with stolen fire arms.The school shooter shot and killed his mom by shooting her in the head 4 times then he went off to the school. I don't think that NO Can stop a crazy person out to hurt or kill. If they want to then they will find a way.REGUARDLESS!!!Â
 @Altazi We, here in the US, seem to think going to the extreme is OK. We see a McDonalds and we eat it and get fat because we have that right. We have the right for free speech yet many see that as a reason to use words to be cruel and vile. We have the right to bear arms and people think it's just peachy to own an assault weapon that can kill 26 people in under 3 minutes. Having our rights makes this country great. Having some restrictions on those rights does not take them away. It just makes us a better society to have some restraint. It's time for us to be regulated in the matter of gun control as we have proven, as a society, that we cannot seem to regulate ourselves.
 @Altazi The right to bear arms. It doesn't say to bear all types of arms.
 @Altazi  @Kymberlie2873 That's where I disagree with the way it was written. At the time the militia was the framers, the populace, and it was against tyrannical governments (you know, England). An armed population was much harder to conquer. Today we have a a full time military which covers that need quite nicely.
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The times have changed, our fore fathers rolled in their graves last week with sadness at the mess they created.
 @Kymberlie2873 What is the purpose of the Second Amendment?
@Altazi And the 1st and the 6th. I'm cataloging which Amendments to the Constitution can be trampled here on the KATU comment boards and which cannot. So far only the 2nd has sacred status.