Topic : 10/12 Homecoming Shooting

I was not going to respond with a comment because people with opinions like yours are the ones who feed the ignorance of others.

Yes, you are permitted an opinion but opinions are like mouths, everyone has one. Just not everyone knows when to keep it shut.

Regulating guns has not made one ounce of difference in how many innocent people are killed by the stupidity of others. It is still happening everyday. There is nothing any one of us can do to change the way things are unless those of us who have children start doing better jobs of parenting and begin teaching our children the difference between right and wrong and  the value of life.  Everything comes down to free will and our ability to make the right decisions. God gave us all the ability to make the "choice". What you "choose" comes from what you are taught growing up. Too many of our children are left alone without supervision, abandoned, or learn from the examples shown by others.

So, I am not  going to take on the responsibility of being my brother's keeper or raise everyone else's child when it is a full time job tending my own family which includes a nine year old and three grandchildren.  Maybe if others tended their own "gardens"  and made sure that they were fed and weeded instead of worrying about everyone elses' then maybe we could start seeing some of the problems being solved before they take root.  Bring the Bible back to your homes/tables and into your children. As it has always been taught, "He is the Way, Truth and the Light".

I am beginning to get more and more concerned about letting my son attend college away from home. Just yesterday someone walked into a school in the town where my son is to attend technical college and shot 14 people. I dont want my son, who comes from a small town, to have to be in fear of his life durring this special time in his life. He won a $5,000 scolarship to Ohio Techinal College and is thrilled to death. He is a senior this year and has such a promising life ahead of him. I biggest dread is that phone call in the middle of the night telling me he has died due to some random stupid act of voilence.

I watch you every day and really get a lot of insight from your shows.

Bonnie K****, Niles Michigan

Ok, I'll accept that the officer in question was just one of the many who remain in honor and work honorably, protecting us and giving of their lives to serve the public safety.

I've always had at least a fair to good affiliation with law enforcement officers. I'm a Sergeant in the Guard so I have a pretty good idea what kind of pressure they are under

In our human condition we will always find a fraction of those of us serving in positions where we have no business being in.

This young (Sheriff''s) officer got through the screening process with deep set issues for one reason or another that went undetected or were ignored. That is another subject Wisconsin officials will need to have a look at. It's going to be interesting to see what they come up with and how that particular young man was employed in law enforcement in the first place. (Perhaps a tour in the Navy or Air Force would have been better for him to begin with, only those who knew him best would know)

I'll go along with the appeal that the immediate family should not be persecuted for these horrible acts of murder committed by one of their family members.

However, I do think they are very liable for not being close enough, connected enough, inquisitive and probing enough to continue to look into the life of that young officer as he progressed. How could they not know he had issues that could lead to violence ? Maybe he was an outstanding person while still a civilian but too immature to handle the responsibility of being a police officer once he got a good look at himself in the mirror and liked the look and feel of a deadly firearm on his service belt ? Maybe he got a new sense of power and prestige that got away from him when he was not appreciated for his new employment among those who he may have thought owed him the respect he had figured he earned ?

Pardon me but, I don't believe his immediate family was unable to prevent this or at least issue a warning of some kind. I think the family knew he was not the right man for the job regardless of the screening process, just hours or days after he became an officer perhaps witnessing a change in personality. I think they saw that he might have a propensity to gun violence and confused that with law enforcement procedures and training. I think he had respect and rage issues that needed to be dealt with long before being considered for a law enforcement position. I also think he needed to be at least 21, graduated from the state's law enforcement acadamy and paired up with a local training officer before allowing him even a provisional commission with authority to wear a uniform and equipment.....there are a lot of unanswered questions here.

We don't know what all transpired and in many instances, we're guessing. We can only go back and look over what was going on at the time just before the murders took place and try to ascertain what changes occured within that young officer to compel him to acts of murder....especially with his whole life and career in front of him. 

Any act of violence is horrible and when it is elevated to that which takes life...almost always there are signs and signals for us to see that someone we know is about to become violent.

Only the most cruelest and calculating evil can hide impending acts of violence from us. The closer I am to you and the more I know you and care about you, the more I will know if you've changed, your personality, traits, etc.

I'll see it coming and if violence is imminant I need to speak up and do something about it...before violence occurs.

This is what will happen if I don't. If I let fear and the possibility of being ridiculed for being too 'paranoid' 'silly' or 'wanting to start trouble' than I will have chosen....made a choice, than and there at that critical juncture....to ignore and forsake someone we love or are acquainted with whom has gotten into real trouble somehow and is about to make an insane mistake of monstrous proportions.

We have a duty to ourselves and to our families, to our community and the interest of justice to prevent friends and loved ones, anyone, from committing acts of violence whenever and wherever impending violence becomes a possibility. When we see it, bad as it makes us feel and yes, the damage this does to a family's prestige and well being is obvious, nevertheless, we still need to report. Far better our feelings, reputations and prestige are hurt than our fellow citizens, friends and loved ones are harmed or even killed.

I have no idea what could have been done or should have been done to stop that young man but I can't help but believe his immediate family did......and for that, I feel they ought bare some responsibility.....certaintly, they'll have to live with this for the rest of their lives.....certaintly, is punishment enough.

I was doing pretty good with your reply...

But I could not get around this.

You said,"

I was not going to respond with a comment because people with opinions like yours are the ones who feed the ignorance of others.

Yes, you are permitted an opinion but opinions are like mouths, everyone has one. Just not everyone knows when to keep it shut.

Sir,

The Christians I know do not speak to me like that whether they agree with me or not. How can you expect for me to respect you and consider your reply using that tone with me?

I agree with much of what you said, Parents are important beyond measure.

I will not accept or consider the replies of writers with bad manners.

Here in the UK we do not have the right to bear arms, even Police Officers here do not carry gun routinely. The only officers allowed to carry firearms are highly trained and in Specialist units. I was a Police Dog handler K9 unit, I had no access to firearms.

We had an incident in Dunblane Scotland a few year back, a youth who belonged to a gun club opened fire in the local school he killed and injured some children, Our British Tennis star Andy Murray was a pupil at the school and he still shows problems from that time.

Our Government banned all citizens from owning guns even if they belonged to gun clubs, There has not been a problem again since. That is not to say that we got rid of the reason why someone would want to carry out such an awful act, I believe the reasons in our society still exist. If you disenfranchise people for long enough they will snap and react as you have seen in your shootings at US schools.

So you have at least two things to deal with, Gun ownership and the bigger problem of how individuals are being treated by the community. The later is more difficult because perhaps we do not like to own up to the fact that somehow we are allowing things to happen in our schools like bullying, physically and physiologically. By the fact we focus on the winners and completely sideline those less capable.

We do not get the Dr.Phil show live here and I would be interested to hear what the good Dr has to say about the causes and the ways we can end the problems.

Dr. Phil talks more sense than any man I know, if he cannot help then what chance do the rest of us stand to solve the problem.

Dear Dr. Phil,

  This is such a sad story, those young children all dead. Senseless

 murder because of the system that turns their head. I hold the Wisconsin

Justice system accountable for not enforcing manitory MMPI tests to all

public employee's in the State of Wisconsin. According to Associate

Press Paper,  

 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5198386.html

Wisconsin does not have this requirement even for D.A's or other public positions.

Is it time to change the system's requirements? Police officers are human and

also need someone to talk to when stress is high in their life.

I believe anyone working with the public including Advocate's for Domestic

Violence must have MMPI testing and psychological access to quality treatment

with Mental health. The Mental health needs in Wisconsin is also in great need.

A Major Hospital in Marshfield, Wisconsin has a One to Two month waiting list

for those that seek help, counseling etc.

I am so grateful your doing this story on the seriousness of what is happening

in Wisconsin Mental Health care, much of this suffering these families are going

thru could have been avoided had there been help before the shooting. 

I am sorry to all the families that lost their loved ones. Your in our Prayers.

This is my feeling too...Parents need to stop being afraid of their children and start raising them properly. It isn't the governments job to raise our children,they have enough to do. It is us as parents and extended family who are to raise our children. By this I mean, it is my husbands and my job to make sure our daughters know right from wrong,that it isn't right to take break the law. That it isn't proper to us the "f" word ever in conversation or any other inappropriate word in conversation.

 As a society we seem to think that someone else will take care of everything...it does take a village to raise our blessings,but the village starts with the family unit(mom,dad or just mom or just dad) to take the responisiblity and to STOP making excuses,yes it is hard to be a single parent, I was one too..but my adult daughter,never disrespected anyone. Yes it is hard  to raise children, darn it is hard to keep a marriage going..it is call work. Life isn't easy, we have a lost generation of children because people have given up on training them well. I agree bring the Bible back, in our home it is the focal point...also monitor your children when they are watching television,on the computer and with their friends.

 Thank you for your time

Any shooting spree that has ocurred over the last 10 years has saddened me beyond belief.  I believe there are common denominators in all of them - the lack of hope, an absence of coping skills, a deep sense of despair, a belief system completely void of support,  the inability to ask  for help and/or the means to access that help - be it financial or otherwise.  Every case is different, but so often the person/s feels there is no other way out.  Certainly mental illness can also be a factor. 

In my prayers for all of the victims of such violence I ask God to comfort them, to heal all their wounds - physically and emotionally.  For the families and friends of those who have died, I ask for openness - to have an open heart so that they may allow, in time,  themselves to be embraced by those who love them.

As I pray I am also astounded by the lack of a deep and intimate faith in the lives of the perpetraters.  I personally cannot imagine what I would do without my faith to fall back on.  I'm  talking about an evergrowing spirituality, not necessarily a religion.  Suffering has often been my companion, my teacher, and my guide to wholeness and gratitude.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my thoughts.

Sister Diana