where they lose 12-13 people in a night sometimes with strict gun laws in effect.

is it more important because they are kids? Or white? or suburban little white kids?

It sounds like you are very emotionally invested in your position (Devil weapons? mow-down machines?) rather than a real public health policy discussion that takes calm, rational folks making hard choices.

what is all this about.....really?

In the world of debating this is called deflection and garners no points.

policy point home with what.... poignant and creative detail?

The question is Jersey and not Chicago.

Glad you're here. It's gonna be a prickly subject even here on DU. Not everyone's on the same side - by a (forgive the pun) long shot.

wielded to incite people to horrific acts. see Rwanda, 1930's Germany.

the real weapon in the world is not the inanimate object du jour or the lone lost soul using it, but the constant re framing of practical public policy arguments into firebranded, emotionally invested tent revivals that spill out into the street in a misguided effort to make ourselves "feel better" about our tenuous existences.

the danger is in the ideology, not the tool.

other than i'm anti-authoritarian and pro-equality for all people.

that can be tough these days when people sink into emotional responses like "Wipe your upper lip, you're getting excited....."

meh.

Assholes with guns are the problem.

However fewer guns happens to be the solution to the problem of assholes with guns. Assholes are notoriously difficult to mitigate.

we only differ on the last half.

Let's all try to find out who these heartless bastards are and post their names here, then barrage their offices with shame calls or e-mails.

Nice to know others are concerned about this. If those reps don't want to meet with the families, why can't they just come out and say so? Why the cowardice? If they're gonna take a stand like THAT, at least they could own up to it. Stand by what they did. Maybe, waaaaay deep down, even some of them think what they did is probably not cool? Otherwise stand up and claim it.

I want to know who they are. I want to know who feels it necessary to refuse even to meet with these parents? Refusing means they're doing something actively, not passively. I think about these grieving Americans a lot. Now they have to go through their first Fathers Day without their precious children. A few had to endure their first Mothers Day last month, without their mothers. It's beyond imagining. You have to be pretty damn hard-hearted actively to refuse even just to meet with them - even if only to re-state condolences or something. But to refuse to meet with them...

Sorry, I'm just kinda hung up on that one. Don't know why I feel so affronted by that whole idea, much less the harsh, calculated reality of it, but I am, dammit. Deeply so. I can't imagine turning one's back in this case. This sorta transcends - with GREAT apologies to the many, many multiples of gun-violence deaths in this country - whose losses are an equally profound loss to us all. I guess it's because most of the victims of Sandy Hook were very young children, so this one stood out in the national mind. But I'm stuck on the statistic we had earlier this year, where for a stretch of three or four consecutive months, it was akin to having a 9/11 every month: some three THOUSAND people per month were dying directly because of gun violence. I think the numbers have slackened since, but they still mount up by the day.

Sadly, we don't seem able to do anything to stop it - or heck, even slow it down. But beyond that, aside from that, Dear God, where's the simple human compassion? The simple human decency. The simple, basic, oh-so-plain and uncomplicated wish to reach out and connect with another human being in pain? Is fucking politics that important? Is a fucking damn ideology so much more important?

Sheesh.