I am as anti-gun as anyone can be, but I'm troubled that we are focusing so heavily on gun control  after Sandy Hook.  According to reports I heard, the killer's mother went through at least two rigorous and  significant checks and procedures to obtain some if not all of her guns.  Further evaluations of potential gun purchasers is not a bad idea, but it is not clear to me that these new rules and regulations would have prevented this particular event, no matter how much I approve of stringent requirements for potential gun owners, which I do.

I am absolutely in agreement that we need to understand and restructure the way we handle mental illnesses; however, again I'm not sure earlier intervention or stricter controls over the mentally ill would have prevented this event.  What strikes me that I am not seeing addressed so far is that we live in a culture of violence in which movies, advertisements, TV shows and video games create super exciting "action" scenarios that are replete with horrific violence.  In less graphic times a disturbed person with issues such as those which must have prompted this killer he might have taken his own life quietly and though tragic, such a taking may well have spared the other 27 people who died in this event.  What I see influencing this event much more significantly than his access to his mother's weapons "of mass destruction" is the excitement of going out with a huge bang.  Just like a video game, or like the movies or upcoming TV shows (even series)  that I shut my eyes and mute my TV to avoid the previews for.

Frankly, I can think of no other really strong reason why he should go to an elementary school and take the lives of innocent and defenseless children and their teachers.  Can you?