From a reader:
Unfortunately, nothing is going to change within our society due to this terrible tragedy. The people of power control our society and have no need to change the class system that benefits them in all ways. It is not just about gun control, it is really about the maintenance of the societal status quo. The rich & powerful will maintain that which benefits them the most. It remains all about money & power. God Bless the students & teachers and all of the members of the Newtown community.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Guaranteed, if this tragedy happened in an elite school with ties to big money and high-ranking politicians, we would suddenly see legislation banning the possession of assault rifles, but quick.
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I can understand this reader’s despair, but this is no time to surrender to the “nothing’s going to change” meme. Things are changing, in fact, and we have to recover our equilibrium, somehow, so we can guide that change.
I’m trying not to rush ahead of our actual understanding, but I think the institutional source of this tragedy lies outside our schools. One way money and power grip our public life, family values, and even internal dialog is through the deliberate manipulation of identity politics. Here’s a connection we should think through more deeply:
“In the Shadow of Sandy Hook, a Powerful Pro-Gun Organization Keeps Silent”
Read more: http://nation.time.com/2012/12/15/in-the-shadow-of-sandy-hook-a-powerful-pro-gun-organization-keeps-silent/#ixzz2FEDmg9M5
Nancy Lanza and her family and community could have been protected if her extreme gun-nut hobby was regulated by sane, reasonable laws. Instead, a manufacturer’s association drummed up business by fronting “youth outreach” programs. They’ve declared allegiance to their assault weaponry to be a patriotic duty, and warped our whole society in their own narrow economic interest. They built their political power by fomenting a deranged culture where a housewife found herself in local bars bragging about her personal attack arsenal.
Guns do kill people. This was a truly senseless tragedy, and the Connecticut gun industry bears direct responsibility for the mindless, legal promotion and distribution of the killing machines that took her life, and her hapless child’s, and so many others.
We can stop this madness. Let’s just do it, starting with gun regulations, and not stopping until we get our children to safety from this evil industry’s lies and propaganda.
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“We can stop this madness. Let’s just do it, starting with gun regulations, and not stopping until we get our children to safety from this evil industry’s lies and propaganda.”
Unfortunately, this may only help children who grow up in non-violent neighborhoods. I am for stricter gun control a complete ban on the sale and possession of semi-automatic weapons to non-service personnel, but the point that “criminals will still get their hands on these machines” has some merit.
Consider two things:
1. How do you confiscate every assault weapon that has already been obtained legally?
2. How do you protect children and adults who live in areas where violence is as much a daily occurrence as daylight?
What is necessary is to have a complete overhaul of the system, but you’d need a massive police presence that could potentially invade homes and businesses to enforce such laws. Are you ready for a police-state? You cannot simply rely on the good faith that citizens will register every single firearm in their possession. Granted, the firearms used in this tragedy were registered, but that would not always be the case in all areas. We cannot over-simplify this issue.
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thank you chemtchr; it’s best to say no to the thinking that “nothing’s going to change.” Even if that were so — and history shows us that it frequently isn’t — thinking that neither i nor anyone else could make a difference would corrode my ability to teach.
it’s true that the the rich, the elite, and the powerful hold most of the power in the usa, and everywhere else, but not all the time, and not forever. In just my teaching career, alone, I have watched the cruel control of misogynists and homophobes shrink to next to nothing in my school district. keep in mind that, 100 years ago, women couldn’t even vote in this country.
things change. not enough, not fast enough, and not the way we always want it. but they can — and we can help it along.
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I second the commenters motion.
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