We’ve gotten a lot of great, powerful emails this afternoon in response to the shooting in Connecticut. I’ll be printing some of them this afternoon and this evening. The opponents of gun control argue that the gun control regulations on offer wouldn’t prevent these tragedies. And in most of the cases they’re right, at least in the narrow sense. Most of these people bought legally, didn’t have a history of mental illness, didn’t buy at a gunshow etc.
They’re both right and not right — in part because what we generally mean by ‘gun control’ only operates on the very fringes of the problem. The key is grasping this is that there’s a culture of violence, particularly a culture of gun violence that pervades American society. It’s particularly rooted in the South. But it’s worth noting that most of the recent mass shootings have happened outside the South. We know this. Our lax gun laws are rooted in this. They didn’t create it, though they exist in a mutually reinforcing, symbiotic relationship. Read More
A teary-eyed President Obama addressed the Connecticut grade school shooting from the White House briefing room: Read More
A father of a Newtown student holds it together better than I could describing his reaction to the news of the shooting.
I try not to, or I generally have no interest in writing things that amount to counsels of despair or suggestions that there’s no possible solution. But I have a hard time not doing that in this case. Many of you have kids. I have kids. These school shootings, a subset of the no less horific mass shooting phenomenon, seem like they’re becoming more common (though I’d be curious to hear whether there are hard statistics on this.) But this one seems, feels like it’s in a whole different category — the age of the children, the number of fatalities. I’m not sure any of that requires saying more. You get it. Read More
Jay Carney’s press briefing at the White House coincided with the initial reports of the enormity of the death toll in Newtown, Conn., so he was somewhat handicapped in his responses: Read More
Hartford Courant: “One entire classroom is unaccounted for, sources said.”
TPMLivewire has running coverage of the horrific news coming out of Newtown, Conn.
Update: Because of the news coming from Newtown today, we’re going to postpone this chat to next week. You can continue submitting your questions, but Brian will not respond to them until a date TBD next week.
Heads up that I’ll be doing a live chat with TPM Prime members at 4 p.m. this afternoon.
Topics include the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, taxes, health care and any of the myriad silly things Congress does. Get your questions in now.
Fox Contributor hires “heavily armed” ex-cop to guard home, wife after alleged threats.