The Slaughter in Newtown

The news stories are still coming in about the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, CT.  Twenty-seven dead, most of them children.  Small children.

My two daughters attended Sandy Hook Elementary when we lived in lovely Newtown from 1985 through 1998.  We still have friends in Newtown - a village, really, with all the postcard charm of a typical New England town.  We know the streets, the driveway, the school.  The teachers and especially the principal during my children's years there were exceptional.  I have no doubt that they still are.  We considered ourselves blessed to live in such a lovely town - peaceful, friendly, filled with bright, talented children and engaged parents.  Our tears and torn hearts are with them.

A few days ago, I blogged about the killings here in Portland, OR.  The point of that blog was, in essence, that there are too few guns in America.  You see, Connecticut law protected the shooter by insuring that no law-abiding citizen - teacher, aide, parent - could stop him. The law created the "psychopath free-fire zone" that opened the door to children dying at the hand of a deranged, sick individual.  Not unlike the "gun free zone" at the mall in Portland.  These laws and restrictions leave good people helpless while evil people wreck havoc and misery.

My wife and daughters are sick with the news coming from Connecticut.