Shooting at CT elementary school leaves at least 27 dead, 18 of them children

[Boris]

For those playing Internet Detective, sources are simultaneously reporting:

1. That the Ryan Lanza who's a Quinnipiac grad from Newtown, and lives in Hoboken, N. J., is alive and upset, contacting friends and posting on Facebook, upset that his face is being plastered on cable news.

2. That police are searching the shooter's home in Hoboken, N. J.

In other words:

1. None of this makes any sense, and it will be a while before it's sorted out.

2. What is the point of this anyway?  What's happened has happened, and if you really want to know the gory details, wait a few days.  Hell, wait a few hours.  Seriously, what are you doing?

3. I know this is an emotionally trying time, but some of this obsessive news-watching in this thread comes across as almost excited, as does the outraged politicking/anti-politicking.  I know no one is genuinely glad this happened, and I think reasonable people can calmly disagree over the politics here (and whether they're appropriate to talk about)...but, really, this is nothing to get excited about.  Let's not subconsciously turn this into sport.

Fox News is reporting that the shooter is actually Adam Lanza, 20. Apparently he had Ryan's ID and the police and media f'ed up. I checked out Ryan's FB page like everyone else and was wondering how there could possibly be two people named Ryan Lanza in their mid-20s with connections to both Newton, CT and Hoboken, NJ.

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Read more at http://www.travelerstoday.com/articles/3938/20121214/ryan-lanza-wrong-facebook-page-sandy-hook.htm#VLVPs2GRoWXDAJBJ.99

[Boris]

http://myfox8.com/2012/12/14/elementary-school-shooting-suspect-is-20-year-old-with-ties-to-school/

and thus the facebook f'up is explained, for now. poor guy.

[Boris]

I haven't read enough about this horrible, horrible case but is it the case that the suspected shooter actually had publicly known mental health issues before this? Because that hasn't been the case with many of these spree shooters.

and, again I reiterate, we are talking about a place where it is more normal to be deemed psychiatrically abnormal than otherwise.

You live in a society - as do I - where nobody wants to be normal. Yet most of us are, funny that, isn't it?

But I can't think of a single spree shooting in Irish history. What is wrong with you people?

Probably a topic for another thread but I think the Irish societal sicknesses manifested themselves in greater than normal incidences of sex abuse, alcoholism and religious/sociopolitical murder.

There is quite a bit wrong here and with the structure of of modern society. I wish I had something more profound to say but like Joe I'm just wondering how long until the next one.

I don't think this would qualify as a "spree killing" since that entails murder at two or more different locations within a "short" period of time. There have obviously been incidents of mass murder in relatively recent Irish history with the UVF bombings and whatnot.

Edit: Apparently the shooter killed family member(s) at a different location, so i guess this would qualify

[Boris]

It's not a coincidence that 90% of these mass shootings happen in the US.

Too lazy to check wiki, but is that true? Off the top of my head in recent US history we've had:

1. Connecticut
2. Aurora
3. Sikh Temple
4. NIU
5. Virginia Tech
6. Indian Reservation
7. Columbine

Europe we have:

1. Breivik
2. Cumbria
3. Toulouse
4. Winnenden, Germany
5. 2008 Finland
6. 2007 Finland
7. Dunblane

[Boris]

It's not a coincidence that 90% of these mass shootings happen in the US.

Too lazy to check wiki, but is that true? Off the top of my head in recent US history we've had:

1. Connecticut
2. Aurora
3. Sikh Temple
4. NIU
5. Virginia Tech
6. Indian Reservation
7. Columbine

Europe we have:

1. Breivik
2. Cumbria
3. Toulouse
4. Winnenden, Germany
5. 2008 Finland
6. 2007 Finland
7. Dunblane

Where do the smaller shootings happen. The US. There are so many smaller shootings in the US that it vastly outnumbers Europe.

Yessir! But the term "mass killing" is specifically delineated by Franzl.