Diane,
I didn’t know any of the victims personally, and I feel sick to my stomach thinking about the tragedy at Sandy Hook. I can’t even begin to imagine what the families are going through.
So many people are offering a definitive prescription, a monolithic cure-all that will magically stop this violence and make our children safer. Few people seem to be really listening.
Perhaps we need a more holistic examination – consideration of all possibilities, including gun control, mental health care, education, the role of pharmaceuticals, family, relentless violence in popular media, foundational values of our nation, the deification of the deeply disturbed people who commit these crimes.
I don’t know the answer, but I am encouraged by the discussion that is taking place.
Thank you for your beautifully articulated post, and thank you for encouraging dialogue instead of monologue. I am listening.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Let’s get real. There are too many guns out there and too many crazy people. Therefore, you cannot stop all of it ever. Man is a high level predator and there are between 6-10% of the population world wide that show to be sociopaths, not all dangerous, but still a high number. This also cannot be stopped. People are like cars, some were not built correct and have defects. This campus was a closed campus. How do you stop a dedicated violent heavily armed person from doing what this person just did? Does the principal and all staff have access to high powered weapons and training and use them on campus? Would that even work or could that cause even more death and maiming?
Since the planned financial crisis we have even more stress in peoples lives and with more stress more people will be pushed over the brink especially if they were close to it in the first place. Many times these violent people are very quiet and not noticeable until their act of violence. How do you predict that? Basically, it is impossible. Even a ban against assault weapons would not have worked in this situation. I talked with a friend and we figured that it took more time for the shooter to change clips than to shoot the clip empty. How do you deal with that?
This is a tragedy and a part of the reason is that we have been creating a me only country. As long as the me only and a lack of financial controls on the financial sector continues we will have continueing stress on most people and with that more violence as people cannot find a way out of the rising cost of living with stagnant or declining income. What else can we expect from this situation?
There can never be one definitive prescription. But more than gun control has to be examined here. And when it comes to kids, we as teachers and society should not nickle and dime their services while using tax payer dollars to enrich the pockets of Pearson, Murdoch, Gates, Rhee and others who want to profit from them.
I just read that the Newton school board was going to cut the school’s music and library program. Both the music teacher and librarian didn’t think twice about their own life when they protected the lives of their students. These students are going to need music in their lives. They are going to need the enrichment a librarian can afford them–books like “Freddie the Leaf” or “This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort”, “Bravemole” and many of the picture books that were published after 9-11.
The role of pharmaceuticals as well as diet need to be thoroughly investigated. I like Senator Lieberman’s call for a national commission.