Gallingly tendentious and biased report. Hockenberry promotes the view that a) school shootings related to gun regulation or lack thereof b) NRA responsible for frustrating sensible regs. Thinking done. Issue solved.
Anyone who imagines that these shootings have more to do with changes in our laws regarding the institutionalization of the mentally ill and privacy reforms that make it difficult to legally report such people to police (or parents) get only a grudging hearing at best. Liberals like Hock. will talk mental health but only if the conversation is about increasing funding. The truth is that there are powerful interests arrayed against these issues as well only liberals like those interests (ACLU, teacher unions, lawyers in general).

Assault weapons are already available in such great numbers that a ban will make little or now difference. The genie is out of the bottle and cannot be put back in. These horrific tragedies that take place, seem to happen when someone who does not own the weapons, easily acquires them from a family member or friend.
Something that seems forgotten in the debate, is that there is little or no accountability for the person who was the owner of the weapon. Gun safes, and single key gun trigger locks would be a place to start, coupled with stiff penalties, including prison, for gun owners whose guns are used in the commission of a crime. Gun advocates, and those who want to ban guns entirely, should be able to find common ground to make gun owners responsible for securing their lethal weapons making it more difficult for anyone wishing to misuse the weapons.

In face of something like this, the only thing to do is to turn to God and ask for his mercy and help. For Christians, it is to contemplate the Crucifix with the same prayer. This is the only place to go for consolation. Robert Frost's reflection on the Crucifix was 'It had to be meaningless/ To have meaning.', to which one could add 'It had to be hopeless/ To give us hope', 'It had to be treatment without love/ To show us love.'
If the report is correct that the shooter was a Goth, this is not insignificant, since Goth is a variety of Satan worship.

60 minutes has re-released a segment from 2000 that looked into the minds
of the assassins, from within the Secret Service.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57559462-10391709/from-the-archives-school-shooters/

It may, hopefully, help to shed some light and some answers.

It's not, given what has happened since this story aired, most notably, 9/11, what we KNOW, but what is DONE with that information, with our ability to separate the useful and significant from the useless and insignificant.

What has happened since then demonstrates the extent to which there is
room for improvement. THe extent to which we are doing an inadequate job
with the information we have. The extent to which we are either reaching wrong conclusions or taking inadequate, unhelpful action.

This doesn't rely on or depend on which side of the fence you happen to be on. If the actions, the answers, the conclusions, the information is wrong, something like Newtown happens.

We either need better information or better listeners, taking better (pre-emptive) action. This might be a start. Again.

Hi, So sad! no more guns! Eugenia

If someone looses his mind, anything could happen. There is not a reason to kill for revenge, because the dead doesn’t pay and doesn’t suffer. If an Insane ambushes you, he is going to get you, no matter who you are, a SWAT, GSG-9, or SPETSNAZ with 2 years basic training and 3 more to master. If he is able to group 5, in 200 yards 4” with open sight, there are no survivors in 30 yards. Do not blame the weapons. We need weapons for Haunting and Self Defense. If someone decides to go, he can load a van with one ton AMMONITE, crush inside a building and detonate. This happen in the past, this can happen anywhere.

My sincere condolences to all of the children and familes. My prayers are with you all.

"Today not the day for gun control debate", so says the president.

No matter how many times this happens, it's not about the guns.

It's not. It's never about the guns.

Until we can read minds, that whole "Minority Report" thing, how do we do a better job of preventing tragedies like this without having some pre-emptive means of keeping guns out of the hands of people who do things like this?

Everyone is assumed to be law abiding until proven otherwise. After the fact, we now know that the man who did this was a risk.

Could we kindly do a better job of determining risk and taking necessary preventive action WELL before something like this happens?

It's not enough to know that it's not the guns, never the guns.

Tell that to the loved ones, the survivors, the victims, the police, EVERYONE who has to come to terms with a tragedy like this.

I'm pretty sure it's just not enough to know. And of precious little comfort.

John Hockenberry: "So far, there is no evidence of mental illness in this situation." A more idiotic statement I cannot imagine.

This is as much about our culture of celebrity as it is about guns.
The media must consider how its reporting contributes to placing this sick individual on a pedestal - even in infamy in a culture that worships celebrity.

At the start of the 3:00 version John spoke about how unspeakable this story is, the shooting. I wish he would think about the inanity that is coming out of his mouth. Obviously he's going to talk about it for an hour. So it's speakable.

If he needs a word there, maybe horrible, surprising, but it's certainly not unspeakable. Anything discussed in the media is all too speakable.

If a gun used in a mass shooting is traceable to an improper or illegal sale, can the seller be indicted as an accessory? If so, it should be a deterrent to irresponsible sale of guns.