Parkland Shooting (Palm Beach, Lantana: attorney, price, military)

[parentologist]

People in power only finally react when it affects them directly. Do you remember about 20 years ago, when airlines were leaving people locked in on planes waiting for hours and hours on the tarmac, because they didn't want to pay to return them to the terminal, unload them, feed them, rebook them or reload them, when there was going to be an inevitable delay after loading and leaving the terminal? Congress QUICKLY passed a law limiting the amount of time that an airline could leave a loaded plane waiting on the tarmac, before they HAD to return to the terminal and unload. Why did Congress act so quickly? Was this more important than all the other woes affecting our country? No, but Congressmen fly a lot. It directly affected them. (Of course, now that corporations are people, Congressmen fly on corporations' private planes, not with the cattle on public airlines).

Point is, nothing is going to change until a lot of Congressmen are directly affected by this. Even when a Congresswoman was almost killed, and survived with brain damage, from a nutcase with a gun, STILL Congress did nothing. It will take a mass shooting that directly affects many members of Congress, or their immediate family members, before our government votes to restrict access to assault rifles.

[BeachBum87]

Originally Posted by CGab

I have no problem with hand guns and rifles being legal, but there is NO reason why a semi-automatic should be legal!!

Almost every handgun for sale is a semi-automatic firearm. And handguns can lead to high casualties - the VTech shooting led to more deaths than this shooting, and the perpetrator used two handguns.

Let's be honest with ourselves - half measures won't work. Either we move to the same gun policies the UK/Australia has (something that is against our constitution, half the people in this country would be against, and with the amount of firearms already in circulation, it's not clear how it will be enforced) or we just resign ourselves to the reality.

Tragedy nonetheless.

Just one more point - alcohol (via drunk driving) kills more people than mass shootings at least. We have resigned as a society for alcohol to be legal, means that some people will abuse it and cause many innocents to lose their lives in drunk driving. While I don't know any victims of mass shootings, I do know many victims of drunk driving. A family friend lost his wife and daughter to a drunk driver.

[BeachBum87]

Originally Posted by parentologist

Point is, nothing is going to change until a lot of Congressmen are directly affected by this. Even when a Congresswoman was almost killed, and survived with brain damage, from a nutcase with a gun, STILL Congress did nothing. It will take a mass shooting that directly affects many members of Congress, or their immediate family members, before our government votes to restrict access to assault rifles.

There was the shooting at the congressional baseball game. That put many congressmen under the line of fire. And one almost lost his life.

Do you think he (Scalise) has changed his mind on gun control?

If you lost your family to a drunk driver, would you favor a ban of alcohol?

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Squidlo

2017 - 50 = 1967

1967 1 year before the automatic weapons ban.

You are right 50 years ago we could own automatics. Machine Guns!!!!

The AR 15 has been around over 50 years. The AK 47 even longer.

So its the guns you say?

Charles Whitman used top of the line weapons of the time for his attack. Those included:

Remington 700 ADL (6mm)
Universal M1 carbine
Remington Model 141 (.35-caliber)
Sears Model 60 Semi-automatic shotgun (12 gauge)
S&W Model 19 (.357 Magnum)
Luger P08 (9mm)
Galesi-Brescia (.25 ACP)
Knife

The police at that time were armed with .38 Specials and shotguns. 12 year old school shooters today are better armed, then the police were in the 1960s. BTW this is 2018, not 2017. So that ban was in effect 50 years ago.

[wizrap]

Originally Posted by SeaDoo342

Well south Florida, this is the beginning of whats going to be a tough road for you all. I lived in the Newtown area when Sandy Hook occurred. At first, I felt the way the OP does. Physically numb, sick to my stomach, distraught.. sometimes, I still can't believe it happened here.

The weeks on end of media, out of state residents, etc. The town became an attraction of sorts.

Then down the road, you'll deal with the conspiracy theorists who claim it never happened. They'll harass townspeople, law enforcement, local politicians, etc.. it won't get a lot of press but it will happen, and it will enrage you...

Then you'll form committees and attend meetings on what should be done with this school (or the wing this tragedy occurred in). Everyone will disagree and it'll be emotional. Then there will be the meetings on how to distribute donation money. Again everyone will disagree and again, it will be emotional. Then will come the cries to put a cop in this high school, and all the other schools will ask "what about us?" and again, disagreements arise. You'll get through it all and remember that in the end, everyone desires the same result: safety and security.

What you all need to do is just be kind. Get even more close knit than you were before. Talk to your neighbors. Buy that stranger's lunch or coffee who stopped in the drive thru behind you. Reach out to those you think need to talk even if you don't know them well. Being kind trumps EVERYTHING.

Five years after Sandy Hook, people are kind. There is a marked difference here. Yes, Connecticut has changed for the better. In general, society here is a lot more forgiving and a lot less judgmental. I guess it's a silver lining, if you will.. but it's a shame it had to come at the expense of children's lives..

And I'm really sorry that you're all now part of this "club" every area prays they'll never have to be part of.

Just take care of each other and you'll get through it.

I think I can speak for many of us in saying how much your concern (and sadly, your experience) means so much. Just as Newton is a beautiful, affluent area, so is Parkland. How many times have non-residents visited the Ft. Lauderdale forum, looking for a safe community, excellent schools, family friendly, good location and so many times we’ve listed Parkland as one of the few cities down here that checks off all the boxes. It just goes to show that you can’t take one single thing for granted, including tomorrow.

[sandy221]

Originally Posted by justthe2ofus

The sad truth is that the perpetrators never learned that if he/she ever needed to go off and do such a thing, that he/she should start with him/herself.

Yes instead of hurting innocent people WHO HAVE DONE NOTHING TO THEM!!!!!!

Its very sad...........

[newtovenice]

Any tally of the number of gofundme pages yet?

[Corrie22]

This isn't a gun problem.....it's a mental illness and drug problem
This young man had a history of mental problems....it will be more interesting if we find out he was medicated or not
Guns are not the common denominator....metal illness and the drugs they are given is the common denominator...and all drugs have side effects
...we need to stop drugging our kids...and ourselves

Leo Knight's Crime & Punishment:* Common theme emerges in school shootings

[sinatras]

Every country has crazy people.

Every country has drugs, porn, immoral movies, video games, etc.

Every country has angry people.

Every country has bullies.

Every country has bad parents.

Every country has bad kids who get expelled from school and who make threats.

Only this country has mass shootings every other week.

Only this country has had 18 school shootings since Jan. 1.

Only this country is perfectly OK with people being slaughtered over and over again with assault weapons.

Limit the weapons and you will limit the violence. You will not completely stop the violence, but you will certainly drastically curtail it.

Nobody is saying ban all weapons. But severely curtailing the weapons will severely curtail the violence.

Until then, we have to accept that we are perfectly fine with this. We have to accept that this is totally normal. And that when your kid doesn't come home one day from school, that's totally normal too.

If you are not OK with limiting weapons, then you are perfectly OK with having your child blown to bits at school, or in a movie theater, or at a concert. Period.

[BeachBum87]

Originally Posted by sinatras

If you are not OK with limiting weapons, then you are perfectly OK with having your child blown to bits at school, or in a movie theater, or at a concert. Period.

That's a nonsequitur. It's like sating if you're not perfectly OK limiting alcohol further (than it is) you're ok with your child getting run over by a drunk driver.

The same logic applies - if we begin to severely restrict alcohol across the board, eventually drunk driving will go down to almost 0(look at the ME countries). Is that the price we're willing to take?

Every day, multiple innocent people die at the hands of a drunk driver. Imagine if the media covered their stories everyday. It would be nonstop coverage.