Topic : 10/12 Homecoming Shooting

I sure am glad I don't live in a country where the government can just decide one day to take away the citizens' rights. The NRA doesn't have anything to do with the fact that we can have guns here. It was given to us by The Bill  of Rights that are part of  our constitution. Those of us who live in a "right to carry " state must have our concealed weapons permit with us when we have our gun with us.

Guns are safe. It is the criminals who are unsafe. If you take the guns from law-abiding citizens, the criminals will still get their guns illegally.

The bottom line is that you people from Australia and Canada, or any other country, need to quit telling us what our government needs to do in the area of our gun ownership. Our elected official here know that the quickest way out of office is to start messing with our right to own guns.

In a town near where I live, an elderly couple were awakened in the night by a noise. The husband got his gun that he kept loaded and in a bedside table(not stuck up in a closet with a stupid lock on it) and went to  investigate. He discovered that the person was in the hall bath. The elderly man told the intruder that he had a gun and to come out. The intruder told him not to shoot he would come out. The bathroom door opened and he came out with his hands behind him. Just as he was out of the bathroom he brought one hand out from behind him and cut the old man. Then the older fellow shot and killed the intruder. Of course he was not charged because it was evidently self-defense. The pollice had to take his gun, of course, and he went right out and bought another. He said he didn't know when he would need it again. This man who was exercising his God-given right to defend his home was a retired minister.

Like a lot of cities now, there is a lot of drug activity around where we live and home invasions are increasing. The incident I described is not unusual at all. There is news coverage of one or two a month. The intruder realizes he has made a big mistake right before the home owner pulls the trigger. And you know what? A lot of these home owners are elderly  folks like in the incident I related.

I know not ONE teacher/colleague who wants to arm teachers!

Those of us women shudder to think of a large male student overpowering us to get the gun!

We may be smaller in stature; but we are larger in intellect.  If a student has access to a gun, a gun may end up killing someone at school.  Period.      Ask police officers if they support arming everyone!

The gun-toting public seems to be people filled with fear and paranoia!   They have revenge fantasies!

The rest of us are not so fearful; we want to live in a world that does not seek/use violence as an answer.

It was apparent to me that despite all the analyzing as to "how do we prevent this from happening?" no one really got to the HEART of the matter of the real reason it happened in the FIRST place-it happened because of the feelings of powerlessness that the shooter felt when being bullied!!!. The reason the shooter did what he did was because he wanted to exercise power (get revenge) over the people who bullied him. He wanted them to feel the same fear and powerlessness that he felt while being bullied by them-and he succeeded in that end, didn't he?. Revenge is a very common theme, how could you miss that?

Everyone seems to want to excuse the hateful meanspiritedness of the bullies and then feel sorry for themselves as if they were completely innocent when it was the bullies who got the ball rolling in the first place.

Dear Dr. Phil viewers:

I watched the Dr. Phil show in horror as I learned about these American school shootings. When the survivors of  Collumbine were interviewed by Dr. Phil, they all said that they remember the incident anytime they see another school shooting in the news.

Well, these events trigger my own sensibilities for another reason. Of my total time being alive on God's earth, my high school years were by far the toughest. These school shootings remind me of the darkest period of my life.

What prevented me from committing a rampage killing like the one Tyler Peterson did  was that I had an angel in my life at the time. Her name was Orna. She reached out to me when nobody else gave a damn.

Her profound influence connected with my sense of loniliness and desperation. If it weren't for Orna, I might have committed the same sort of rampage killing that Tyler Peterson did.

I like to take the gifts that Orna gave me and pay it forward. I am now a Christian with a caring heart and strong morals. I like to spread love whenever I can. Perhaps, such a subtle act of kindness can change someone's day.

Also, the United States of America isn't the only country where school shootings occur. In 1989, a man stormed into a francophone engineering school and slaughtered plenty of innocent women. Just last year, a gunman bombarded Dawson College in Montreal and killed this beautiful woman who had high aspirations in life. I get sad whenever I think about these incidents, such as now.

Just last week, I made a donation to Canada's Coalition for Gun Control so that we can save lives instead of wasting them. I resent organizations such as the N.R.A. who believe it's peoples' God given right to own guns. What they don't consider is that owning a gun is a privlidge, just like driving a car. I'd like to see countries such as Canada and the United States take greater measures of taking guns away from residential communities. My values for pro-gun control rapidly increased when Ottawa sportscaster Brian Smith was shot at a parking of his job more than ten years ago. While it may be possible to murder other people by other means, taking guns away from future offenders will unquestionably save more lives.

Well, I'll leave it at that. My heart goes out to the friends and families of the victims of all sorts of gun violence. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my friend Orna again for the profound impact that she had on my life. Thanks to her, I can now have be a positive influence in the lives of other lonely and depressed people.

And once again, society must get pro-active in taking guns away from people who aren't supposed to have them.

Sincerely Yours,

Fred T.

From Kingston, Ontario, Canada

I sure am glad I don't live in a country where the government can just decide one day to take away the citizens' rights. The NRA doesn't have anything to do with the fact that we can have guns here. It was given to us by The Bill  of Rights that are part of  our constitution. Those of us who live in a "right to carry " state must have our concealed weapons permit with us when we have our gun with us.

Guns are safe. It is the criminals who are unsafe. If you take the guns from law-abiding citizens, the criminals will still get their guns illegally.

The bottom line is that you people from Australia and Canada, or any other country, need to quit telling us what our government needs to do in the area of our gun ownership. Our elected official here know that the quickest way out of office is to start messing with our right to own guns.

I  live in Crandon,and I am 39  years old,and I have been living here since I was 3 years old. I know all of the families involved in this tragedy,and I will tell you this,we have come together as a community.I was so worried that this great community would go after the shooters family for what HE did,but thank God, no has blamed his parents.We as a community,has come together as ONE,and I am so thankful for that. I can tell you that we had a candelight vigil on Wed. evening,and Tyler was included in the vigil,and I was so thankful.This community is mourning the loss of 7 of our young adults,and it is has been a very rough week to say the least. The lines for the viewings are unbeleivable,having to wait at least 2 and half hours to get to the families,and it takes at least 5 hours to get everyone through.I do have to say, I am very impressed with my community,as I was afraid we would have some of our members try to take advantage of the tv crews and try to get into the limelight,but so far,most have declined,and I am so proud of my community for not giving into the media. This community is suffering,and we don't need someone going on tv and adding "fuel to the fire". The only ones who know what really happened are sadly the victims. There have been a lot of speculations,and that is what they are speculations,and for someone to go in front of a tv reporter and say what they have "heard"would be very wrong on so many levels. I have seen many other communities go through similiar situations as we are,and you see alot of the citizens trying to tell you what happened,when you know deep down,that 99% of it is speculation,and that they are only doing it to get on tv,and I can proudly say that Crandon has basically "shut out" the media. Yes, I know a lot of you want to hear from the victims families,but you have to remember, this is a small town,and they just truly want to mourn "alone". I hope that doesn't offend anyone,but if you live in a small community,you will understand.

    This shooting did not take place in our school,it was at the home of one of the victims,and yes it did include students,but it had nothing to do with what happened at the other shootings that Dr. Phil was talking about. This wasn't about a student who was upset because he was being bullied by other students or by his teachers. I feel like we are being included what happened in PA and OH,but it isn't even close. I am not going to go into details,but I don't think we should be included as a "school shooting". It is great that Dr. Phil did offer his help,as some will need it,but I feel the story shouldn't have been included in the description of "school shootings". Our school system is great,and I have never felt unsafe when I was student,nor do I feel my own two children are unsafe at our school. My children understand that this did not happen at the school,and that our school is safe for them to attend.

   Again, please remember the victims

A proud Crandon citizen.