It was the day a young-delusional individual took the life away from 20 innocent children, six adults, and his own mother. He killed his mother before going to Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, CT., and murdering 26 other innocent people.
These young children will never get the opportunity to chase their dreams, have families of their own, or even get to spend one more Christmas with the one's they love the most.
It's bull shit.
It's time our country does something about this!
It was the second-deadliest school shooting in the history of the United States and one of the deadliest mass-shootings around the world.
Enough is enough.
Our country needs to take a stand together and work towards fixing this epidemic.
We can't depend on the government to solve gun control.
That is never going to happen.
We can't wait for the government to fix this.
It is up to us to take a stand and do something.
First it is time the media fixes their enormous fault in covering mass-shootings.
Why do you think individuals like Adam Lanza commit these crimes?
They want to be heard, even when it is for something as sick and disturbing as what we witnessed this past weekend.
In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Kiebold murdered 13 innocent people and wounded another 21 at Columbine High School.
In 2005, Jeffrey Weise killed his own grandfather and 10 more people at Red Lake High School.
In 2007, Seung-Hui Choi committed the deadliest school shooting in our history. He gunned down 56 people on the campus of Virginia Tech University, taking 32 innocent life's.
In 2008, Steven Kazmierczak opened fire in a lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University. He murdered six innocent people and wounded another 21. It was the fifth-deadliest university shooting in U.S. history.
Early this year James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 when he went into a midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Auroa, CO.
These are just a few of the horrific tragedies that our country has suffered through since Columbine.
According to an ABC News report, there have been 31 school shootings since the Columbine shooting in 1999.
Since 1982 there have been at least 61 mass shootings in our country, and this continues to skyrocket each year.
In 2012 there have been nine mass shootings alone.
The rate of people killed by guns in the United States is 19.5 times higher than similar high-income countries in the world.
This is not acceptable.
I understand there is no way possible to eliminate gun violence, but our country is failing miserably at taking the right steps on taming one of the biggest problems in our nation.
I believe the single biggest mistake our country continues to make is the level of media attention that mass-shootings get.
Kids like Adam Lanza have gone through their entire life being a loner, not having any friends, being socially awkward and they just want to be remembered, even if it is for something as sick as what we witnessed on December 14th, 2012.
I wouldn't be surprised if Lanza got an idea from seeing all the media coverage James Holmes received from his mass shooting during the premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises."
It is a way for them to finally make a name, even if it is for all the wrong reasons.
The media needs to realize they are not helping the situation by all of this media attention, they are making it much worse. I wonder if Holme's wouldn't have received all the media coverage for weeks on in after "The Dark Knight Rises" shooting spree, if this tragedy might not have occurred this past weekend.
It is an answer we will never know but all of the media coverage is not helping one bit.
By allowing this story to take over all the media outlets, Internet discussions, and all over social media sites it is playing right into what Adam Lanza wanted: to be heard.
Nobody knew who Adam Lanza was. He didn't have any close friends. No one outside of his family knew who he was.
He knew if he just took his own life, he would be one of 30,000 Americans who take their own life each year that no one ever hears about.
Lanza lived his life as not being recognized. He was always ignored. He was a loser.
The same could be said for Holme's. They didn't know how to act socially. They wanted to finally be heard, and by taking their own life, it would not solve their sick need in being recognized.
They had to take 38 innocent life's just to be heard.
It is time our media grows the fuck up! Who cares about having the best ratings. Life is much more than making the most money and being the most popular news station. I hate our country sometimes because it is OBVIOUS that money trumps life in the United States of America. It might be the land of opportunity, but it is also the land of being selfish and not doing what is best for the majority of people.
I just sit here and wonder why the media does not get any flack for all of the media coverage. It plays right into what the sick, delusional, lost individuals like Adam Lanza want.
Nobody knew who Adam Lanza was on December 13, 2012.
Now, a day later, everyone in the world knew who Adam Lanza was.
It is time we urge news stations, media outlets, any type of media to eliminate their coverage of any mass-shootings. It will eliminate these sick individuals of being made famous, they don't care that it is for the wrong reason, they just want to be recognized for once.
By eliminating all of the media coverage it will eliminate these individuals from being recognized in the public.
I understand that their should be media coverage, but they should eliminate the attention of the person in-charge of these disturbing acts of violence.
I can almost guarantee more people heard about Adam Lanza from the media than the 27 innocent victims who lost their life. The same goes for all of the other mass-shootings that have occurred over the past 30 years.
Also, it is important our young generation takes a stand at school. We all remember young kids being bullied and picked on in middle school and high-school.
Instead of walking by ignoring a kid getting picked on, TAKE A STAND. Say something and don't be like everyone else.
Be the kid that takes a stand to befriend the kid getting bullied. Sometimes that is all they need, they just want to be like everyone else and have friends.
I wonder if things might have been different if someone would have been there for Lanza when he was getting picked on every day of his life.
Teenage bullying is one of the biggest epidemics in our nation that continues to get pushed aside.
"Close to 30% of kids between the ages of 12-18 are bullied during their teenage years. 14% of them have a severe or bad reaction to the abuse." - bullyingstatistics.org
This plays a big part into the next big problem in our country.
There is not enough money that goes into the non-Medicaid state mental health budget.
"One in 17 people in America lives with a serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar disorder." - National Institute of Mental Health
"About one in 10 children live with a serious mental disorder." - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
From 2009 to 2011, $1.6 billion was cut from the non-Medicaid state mental health system. In 2011 and 2012 those cuts were even more significant.
While our country continues to fund wars going on all over the world, we continually see budget cuts that are worsening our nation.
Education, health, and many other budgets continue to get cut and we can see how this is deeply affecting our country.
It is time our country stops worrying about solving other countries problems, and fix the epidemics that continue to occur on our soil.
Our government, media outlets, and us, the people of the United States of America, need to take the proper steps to stop these epidemics that are occurring at an alarming rate.
It is equally on all of us to take a stand.
Adam Lanza is clearly to blame, but the fault is on us as a country too. We need to work on making this the best country in the world and it starts with keeping our future generation in good hands. We have a long way to go, but the proper steps can be made to help keep our young generation in safe hands.
My thoughts are prayers go out to every single person affected in this horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary school, the other 61 mass-shootings that affected families since 1982, and all of the other tragedies that have occurred in our history.
We need to take a stand as a nation and do everything possible to make sure these type of mass-shootings do not occur on our soil.
-To help donate to those who suffered in the Sandy Elementary school shooting you can donate money to the "My Sandy Hook Family Fund" to help the individuals that are grieving through this horrific tragedy.
