The CT shooting spurs debates on gun control

The recent massacre of 26 adults and children at Sandy Hook Elementary School of Newtown, CT evoked horror around the nation even as it raised more and more questions about why the gunman could have been driven to such an extreme crime and how he chose his victims. Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza slaughtered 20 small children ages six and seven on Dec. 14, wielding at least two “sophisticated firearms”, according to CNN. Lanza committed suicide and was found dead at the scene after gunning down students, teachers, the school principal, and his mother who was killed at the home she shared with Lanza in an upscale Connecticut neighborhood.

This is just one of many cases of public mass shootings that have happened in the past year, and has initiated a huge debate on gun control.

Obama addressed the gun control debate head-on during a press conference on Friday afternoon after news of the shooting broke. In a quote from his televised speech, Obama pressed on the need for bipartisan work when he said, “We’re going to need to have to come together to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”

The heated debate has found its way to social media sites as well. Twitter overflowed with tweets concerning gun rights and arguments erupted between tweeters, and Facebookers as well, after what is being called the “largest massacre of school-age children in the nation’s history” by the Washington Post and other various news sources. Unlike the shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech or the Aurora movie theater, what happened in Newtown may represent a turning point for action because most of the victims were so young.

HHS junior Aubtin Heydari tweeted Monday morning: “…if gun control can prevent even one tragedy like this from happening, then I am 100% behind it.”

Senior Giancarlo Antonnicola also backed up more restrictive gun laws when he also tweeted Monday morning: “If the logic is [it’s] useless to have gun regulations because criminals will still break the law, [then] why have traffic laws? Why have any laws?”

Senior Marik Chepelyuk, however, wishes that at least one teacher had been armed at the time of the shooting.

“If someone stopped [Lanza] halfway through the rampage, it would have saved more lives,” Chepelyuk said in a Twitter argument Friday. “…[If] there were more concealed gun permit carriers, then tragedies like this one could be diminished.”