Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut Elementary School

Wow,,, back from jazz practice in Sandy Hook,,, We practice at the house of our flute/alto sax player.
He lives a few blocks from the school.
Anyway, we all arrived at practice at 7PM. We smiled at each other as we individually walked into the basement studio like we always do on Thurs night.
Our Trumpet player still wasn't ready for social activity and he emailed us earlier and told us that he wasn't coming.
We had to enter the neighborhood from a direction that doesn't pass by the school. Security is still tight and no one drives by the school.
Kind of ironic to think about how security is employed to protect the evidence of a horrific crime and the not people.

We spoke mainly of positive things like how much is being donated by sympathetic people from all over the world to aid the families of the victims. Mostly pleasant things with a few stupid jokes thrown in for comic relief.
We then all tuned our instruments.

Someone called the tune, "It Don't Mean A Thing" to warm up.
I counted us in,,, 1,, 2,, 1,2,3,Well It Don't Mean A Thing...,,, we hit the first note and off we flew into a memorable session.
I mean, we were really nailing stuff down when we played. It didn't matter if it was a Swing Tune, A Ballad, A Funk Tune. We all hit it with feeling and dynamics.
We felt freakin good for a change!!! None of us had felt good since last Friday and it was fine to feel good for a few hours.

We talked about our upcoming New Years Eve gig at the senior center of the neighboring town. We ended practice and we simply said goodnight, and see you all next week.
Life goes on, I imagine???
We all wanted to say more than we did but we are just so worn out that we just needed to have a night without grief.
At least,,, I think that is why we didn't say much to each other??
 
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bobdadruma said:
As I have learned more about how the event unfolded I have concluded that it is time to have armored structure in school buildings in the needed areas.
I also believe that a trained and armed special officer is needed at every school.
Perhaps It could be a job for officers who are nearing retirement who want to do it.
Children will always be prey for sick demented criminals simply because they are defenseless.

Gun control alone will not solve the issue.

The Newtown Fire Department has received 6000 Teddy Bears to hand out. They have handed out over 1000 already.
Millions of dollars in donations have come in for the families.
The media is beginning to thin out a bit and a sort of, "normalcy" for lack of a better word in starting to settle in.
Of course we all know that it will never be the same.

I am off to Sandy Hook in a few moments for Jazz band practice. We decided to hold it to get a break from the sadness.
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Check with your school board and local pd about the School Resource Officer program. It used to be federally funded grant program ( may still be) at least for first few years, and does exactly what you say. As I explained earlier, I was one of these for 4 years and the program works.
 
Don't worry Mary, I am sure that that is being done.
I am sure that there will be a boost in school security throughout the USA and the world.
There are some pretty powerful and influential people in Connecticut that will help see that it happens.
 
longgun said:
I've been reading this thread and thought I'd stay out of it, but just couldn't help putting my two cents in...............

What I feel changed was the way we raise our children...............

- todays children spend an average of 4 to 5 hours a day watching TV, playing video games, on the computer etc. Real social interaction isn't near as prevalent.

- Many children are raised in single parent households, as was I. The result, in a lot of cases, is the children do not get the same attention, guidance or supervision as when there are two parents in the house

- The lack of facilities to deal with the mentally ill.........these need to come back.

These factors, along with decreased individual responsibility, has not been good for our children.

I know plenty of you will disagree, and that is fine, but myself and many Americans see it the same way.
............
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I totally and completely agree and the only gun in my house is a grease gun for my lawn and garden equipment.

As is happening in other parts of the country, we have school's in my town under "a threat of violence" according to my administrators. Moronic kids claiming they're coming into school with guns. Needless to say other kids have reported them to school officials who I'll hope and assume have brought the police into it.
 
badgerfromsaturn said:
what do you expect?????...it's the f-in internet!
good grief. just a lame attempt at trying to be better than everyone else.

welcome to the ego show

Everything here has been very civil and it's not like this thread is going to bring back the dead children. It's absolutely horrific..THAT is something we can all agree on.

Let's ban guns, then we'll ban knives and then we'll ban spoons and before long we will ban keys. Where are the men in this world? Why have they become a bad crop of little boys who don't know how to be respectful of others and most importantly how to treat women? Women no longer get married to a strong man..they basically marry a child to raise. The family dynamic and morality in this world is suffering the wrath of selfishness. Culture has changed and we're too busy looking at our smartphones to adapt and balance the loss of morality. We just keep breeding more selfishness. No body knows how to love and respect their neighbor anymore.
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Thanks badger, this is what I wast trying to say in an earlier post of mine, but you said it much better.
 
The pic shows an exit hole in a car door from one of the shooters bullets .
A piece of grey tape covers the entrance hole on the outside doorskin.
This car belongs to one of the school staff that survived unharmed physically.
 

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bobdadruma said:
The pic shows an exit hole in a car door from one of the shooters bullets .
A piece of grey tape covers the entrance hole on the outside doorskin.
This car belongs to one of the school staff that survived unharmed physically.
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Wow..... Erie.........
 
A local business owner told me that he spent an hour making the 3 min drive from his home to his office. When he got there there were several media trucks in his parking lot setting up to broadcast. He told them that they were on private property and they had to leave.
A news employee took out a roll of cash and he began to offer him a number of $100 dollar bills to allow them to stay.
The business owner told them that he didn't want their money, he just wanted them to leave.
The news employee was persistent about paying for parking. The business owner kept pushing the money away. The media employee dropped the bills on the ground and he walked away to move the truck hoping that the business owner would pick up the cash and reconsider.
The Business owner picked up the cash and he opened the door of a motor home type vehicle that was being used for the reporter and support staff.
He threw the cash inside of the motor home as they moved away.

Several Ma and Pa stores in Sandy Hook are in danger of going out of business because people simply can't get there. The constant traffic from spectators is keeping patrons away. Cars from all over just keep on arriving to parade down to the area where the shrine is by the river. It never stops 24 hours a day.
 
Good on that man. In a constant chase for ratings, nothing is sacred. I think it's disgraceful that they feel that they can do what they like for enough cash. They need to give Sandy Hook time to heal and time to come to terms with the losses and the tragedy.

I feel very proud for that man. He didn't compromise his principles and stuck with his convictions.
 
Props to the business owner. I think the story has been told and now is the time to let the locals move on as well they can and prepare for what will be the saddest, most memorable holiday season ever. The presence of the media is just reinforcing the invasion of their peace of mind. Bless them all.
 
This whole thing has as I thought it would,turned into a media circus.The first 8 pages of the NY Daily news are all about the shootings.The race to the sensational story is the mission of the day.

How can these poor people even begin to heal a wound that will remain open for some time.Living in the same town as that school will be a constant reminder of this tragety.

Haven't they milked every single mile out of this story.Leave these people alone....a community has to begin the healing process and that can't begin till these humanoid vultures, stop picking at the carcus,and let these folks alone.

My subscription to the NY Daily news trash tabloid,media story bending,made up fact nonsense rag, is here by cancelled.

Steve B
 
You have read my posts in this thread that reflect some of my personal experiences of the Newtown tragedy.
My perspective was of someone who is in between the outsiders of the mass media and the people who actually live in the town.
I am just an average man who has worked in the town for over 30 years who knows many people there.
I experience the people of Newtown as they really are. They tell me things that they would never say to the press.
I have had to hold back and not repeat many of the things that I have heard.

The mass media reports anything that is told to them. They don't check it out, they just repeat it in a hope of being the first to say it. They can always retract it later.
They reported that the Father of the shooter was killed. They reported that the shooters brother was arrested. They reported that the shooters mother was a teacher at the school.
They reported many things that simply weren't true.

Remember that whenever you watch the news.
They really don't get the whole story. They are outsiders.
 
tamadrm said:
This whole thing has as I thought it would,turned into a media circus.The first 8 pages of the NY Daily news are all about the shootings.The race to the sensational story is the mission of the day.

How can these poor people even begin to heal a wound that will remain open for some time.Living in the same town as that school will be a constant reminder of this tragety.

Haven't they milked every single mile out of this story.Leave these people alone....a community has to begin the healing process and that can't begin till these humanoid vultures, stop picking at the carcus,and let these folks alone.

My subscription to the NY Daily news trash tabloid,media story bending,made up fact nonsense rag, is here by cancelled.

Steve B
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I agree with that. The media is invading people's privacy and doing nothing but make it worse for the victims families. While I am not sticking up for his family or friends, don't you think they should stop bothering people who knew the killer. If his family is even halfway normal, they are upset beyond measure about what he did, you think they need the media going after them for what they may have had nothing to do with? There should be police investigations and they need to look at what has happened in this guy's past, but that is not the media's job. This country (and I'm sure many others) would probably be better off without the media. They tell lies and make it worse for victims, and everyone else by doing this.
 
Manningluck said:
change the media, change the world!
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The media is changing. The social networks of Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube have become important sources of media. The TV news media hasn't let this go unnoticed.
I have a feeling that the way that the news is presented will change drastically in the coming years.
 
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