Lady gun-loving Democrats, please weigh in. Are your young weened on muzzles?

I'm not a mom but I know of several in my neck of the woods who most definitely have kids as young as ten who use guns. I don't think it's as uncommon as you might imagine. I am not a close friend of these folks and I don't know to what extent they have collected weapons but I know they have them and their kids shoot them.

Would you call protective services?

Or would you say anything because it had all been normalized to your youthful outlook?

Are all an unpopular cause? So don't vote for the People not to get shot?

You asked about whether there were any moms who shoot with their kids. I responded by saying that there are quite a few that I am aware of, don't know if they are Dems Or Reps... In fact, my father taught me to shoot at the tender age of five and I was a very accurate shot well into my thirties when I realized that there were too many whack jobs running around with guns, that being in the early 70s. I have worked in a field where guns were the norm though I chose not to carry one, I figured I could use my brains instead and did quite well thank you very much. Even though I was very accurate and was trained to use military level fire arms I chose not to have them, personally or on the job since I had a choice.

I live in a rural setting where there are many subsistence hunters and sport hunters. I don't care for the latter but we all live here and I have no place to tell the others how to live or raise their kids. What they do is legal and for the most part I also know there are safety classes that these folks attend and many are formerly military. Perhaps some are a little off but I am not aware of it.

Protective services plays a very different role out here in the wild lands where there's a low population and miles to the nearest town. Not that heinous crimes don't happen here, it's just not my place to interfere when I don't know the details of these folks' daily lives and not present for whatever crimes might take place. I don't have to agree with everything my neighbors do on their ranches.

I don't have a gun lust nor am I willing to confront those who engage in legal activity with their kids, it's what they do whether I object or not.

Sorry your anger has put you in a frame of mind that judges everyone else's choices. I am horrified by what happened in CT yesterday and I have cried about it quite a bit. Apparently that mom didn't use appropriate discretion regarding her firearms and I'm sorry that her mistake cost so many so much. But you can't paint everyone with guns with a broad brush and call everyone who isn't you "the bad guys" because they have guns and maybe think they should teach their kids to hunt. I don't like hunting but it's what people do out here.

All that being said, I, personally, am in favor of gun legislation that bans assault rifles and other rapid fire guns that hold too many bullets... I feel that there is no need for civilians to have access to antipersonnel weaponry.

Sorry if that upset you. I would welcome some changes in policy but I am not going to tell my neighbors how to raise their kids... I'd be run off with pitchforks and guns and worse. I like it here and I feel safe, the only thing I have to worry about here are the cougars, bears and the weather and I like it that way... the "get in yer face" kind of lifestyle doesn't work out here.

But I will never own one when I start a family, keep them in a house if I did, and nor would I take my children out shooting. However, I will let them do that when they go to camp. But it will not be something I encourage. My parents never encouraged it...I just wanted to learn so I did and enjoyed it.

We did that with our daughters at an early age. If they ever encountered an unsecured weapon they would have known what to do and not do. Otherwise their curiosity and willingness to emulate cartoons and video games may get the best of them with disastrous results.

Now the downside. That kind of safety course is taught by the evil NRA for free.

I don't think majority of Americans have an idea of using a gun or own one.

Bloomberg for you.

My take is about half the households in the US have guns. Maybe 20-30% have active shooters. Distribution is based more on locale than party affiliation. Lots of people have their dad's shotgun, or grandpa's pistol in closet and untouched for a decade.

Mother was in DENIAL.

down innocents with her.

so much for that having a gun will save you.

I can see where it might have been a fashion statement, you know, like Caribou Barbie up there in Alaska. Whether that so or not she may well have locked them up too but the kid was of a mind to kill and I guess he started with her. Maybe she was trying to stop him and that's why she got it too.

I still don't see any reason to have guns of that kind, period.

Expecting financial armegeddon despite getting $325,000 a year to live on from her husband, in a $1.6 million home. Possibly believed the poor were going to come and steal their goodies. That is not unique, and other details at the link below indicate she was having trouble with the boy.

From the story by the U.K. Mail Online:

...Last night it also emerged Nancy was a member of the Doomsday Preppers movement, which believes people should prepare for end of the world.

Her former sister-in-law Marsha said she had turned her home ‘into a fortress’. She added: ‘Nancy had a survivalist philosophy which is why she was stockpiling guns. She had them for defense.

‘She was stockpiling food. She grew up on a farm in New Hampshire. She was skilled with guns. We talked about preppers and preparing for the economy collapsing...’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248782/High-school-tech-club-student-turned-cold-blooded-executioner-How-classmates-remember-genius-Adam-Lanza.html

I don't know what coverage is like in other countries, and as an adult she probably didn't see her behavior as a problem and wouldn't have gone for treatment, but... while nobody is responsible for making sure she came down to earth, there wouldn't have been a support system in place if she had.

Prudent persons do such things as maintain three days of food, water, fresh batteries for news, toiletries, etc for natural disasters, savings, credit, their home and vehicles.

The survivalist mentality is an American tradition. I remember people afraid of atomic war in the 1950s and building bunkers with supplies. Those who live in remote areas think the same way. It's not mental illness but logistics. Even people in cities have seen things get difficult or dangerous with power outages, snow storms, etc.

This newer version, though, feeds on apocalyptic visions with some basis in reality and are even discussed here. Global warming and the effects on population shifts that are not advantageous to those in areas lost to poverty, flood or famine, nor the people they are moving toward to obtain employment, land and food. The BP spill and fracking that damage the water supply and health, the nuke accident in Japan, and fear of mad cow and adulterated food work on people to keep them in a state that is beyond normal concern, even if they see none of this in their immediate surroundings, but watch or listen to media or read the internet about it.

So you will have people that won't classify as mentally ill, as there is no way to tell if they are off the wall or just swallowing the crazy that is being pumped into all of our heads if we don't consider the sources and intent. I doubt mobs burning witches or lynching saw anything wrong or mentally ill with it, as when you have that many people doing something, like an army, it can't be wrong, 'because everyone's doing it.'

Reluctantly, I've come to the conclusion that the only thing that would have stopped this would be a restriction on the type of guns she bought legally. She was not a criminal, and stories about how it's illegally obtained weapons doing these killings, are a knee-jerk defense mechanism. Since most of these things are done with legally purchased weapons by people with means, not the gangster on the street. That's first.

Second, is the almost impossibiity of stopping this flow of weaponry and ammunition, as ALEC has promoted guns in every venue, and they are not going to stop. Next, they'll be pushing for the baby Jesus in the manager at nativity scenes with a handgun, with Mary and Joseph toting a rifle and machine gun next. That's how crazy we've become.

The news abroad is usually more accurate. I guess she was pretty paranoid. I hadn't seen/heard about that part. Some reports alluded that there might be something of that sort going on but nothing confirmed so I wasn't immediately willing to include it as part of the story. Our media is so sensationalized and got so many details wrong in the first 36 hours that I have been reluctant to use a lot of their info.

The info you provide makes sense though. I am not in defense of people who have antipersonnel weaponry nor am I interested in the survivalist paranoia, there's a whole lot of that out where I am but it's manifested in a bit different manner. And then again, there are those, whom I mention above, are ranching folks who hunt and they teach it to their children as a tradition, though I still don't agree with it, it's the way it is. In fact, in Idaho the citizens just voted on a referendum to add hunting rights to the state constitution because they are so attached to their guns and killing animals there, especially wolves.

What I was saying was speculation after thinking about the claim that Ms. Lanza had been bragging about her guns at a local bar. Homeschooling is done for a variety of reasons and does not, in my reckoning, immediately make someone off kilter. The "fashion statement" was maybe the wrong term, if it were a man I would have used the term "weenie waving" and not being a fashion plate myself, I used the term "fashion statement" as a substitute.

That being said, the part of the story you offered confirms that she was really removed from the normal social sector herself. Thanks for that info.

There is a small amount of deer hunting here in CT but there really are not a lot of hunters. Doomsdayers? All seen as total nutballs in New England.

and hunting was big back then... the 1950s-60s. I haven't been out there for some time so I'm not really aware of the sentiments in the burbs these days. And I bet the locals in that area were probably still hunters then. Sorry.

She couldn't have been better defended gun-wise, yet... well, obviously.

I HAVE FIVE DOGS!

Today (Saturday) was/is my husband's birthday. He turned 40. We went to eat and have some drinks. We left my 13 year old son to watch his 5-year-old sister. My husband is former Army. He knows guns. I covered police for years and did stories about training - I was trained at a police academy. We're not newbies at guns, yet we don't own any. We left our children in good paws. NO ONE would want to come into a house where there are dogs inside, outside and in unfinished basements you don't even know about.

And, you know what else? In addition to the protection, the children get to learn responsibility (they help feed them and let them out to do business) and get a bunch of buddies and pals to play with.

Fuck guns. Cold metal is nothing when compared to cold noses.

But I feel MUCH more safe with dogs in the house than with guns in the house.

They're harmless to me, but if a stranger broke in, I sincerely believe that they could kill if provoked.

I can picture it perfectly: the dogs would surround the intruder. He would probably try to face the 100-pound Newfoundland/Springer mix, who really is a gentle giant, but the 65-pound cattle dog/boxer mix and the 35-pound English shepherd would come up from the rear. Once the intruder was down, it could get ugly fast. The shepherd in particular has anger management issues and a predilection for killing small animals in the yard.

Though anyone would be a moron to break in in the first place. There are other houses in the area with better stuff and without 200 lbs of dog to contend with.

Not only is he an early warning system, he's also a deterrent to burglars and self-defense weapon. I would much rather have a loyal German Shepherd in my house than a gun.

I'd wager she was listening to Alex Jones and convinced she was being chased by Black Helicopters, Chemtrails, and the New World Order.

Sounds like she was a homeschooler, too.

It cleared up quite a few of the misconceptions that have been leveled against her here. She homeschooled her kid on and off due to his Asperger syndrome. They interviewed those who knew her and they described her as a very caring mom whose life revolved mostly around her disabled son. She was a gun owner who liked to target shoot, whether or not she was a gun "nut" or not remains to be seen. Apparently her use of guns began with her life as a child growing up on a farm (not that much different than most everyone else who grew up on a farm, myself included). She owned at least 3 guns, but that's not that unusual for someone who is a target shooter. Those three weren't specifically designed for target shooting, however. The three were all legal and registered in a state that has some of the toughest gun laws. It remains to be seen if she had more than that.

inaccurate reports around this.

Thanks for the clarification on the homeschooling. That makes sense. I also read last night that the kid had had an "altercation" with staff members at the elementary school, that was being looked at as to why he targeted it.

They didn't say anything about any altercation and nothing that led me to believe she was any sort of survivalist or even what I would call a gun nut, although they didn't say she wasn't either. They said quite a bit of the initial media reports were just false. They did say the school was locked down and the way he got in was by shooting out the window on the door and forcing his way in. They said he smashed all the computers in the house.

Most of the story concerned an interview with a couple of experts on school shootings and speaking to the school nurse. She hid behind a desk and the shooter walked by her desk and left her. One thing that was surprising is that she stayed in her office for 4 hours before the police extracted her. Her experience was extremely terrifying as you can imagine. She said the police had her close her eyes as they led her out which she did.