More blood shed and nothing will change. I hate my country on days like this...hate it.

Sad but I must admit my first response to reading about this tragedy was to yell to my housemate,

"There's another school shooting on landing".

"What's his diocese?"

"Hang on I'll check the back of his neck"...... "Seattle".

Are we finally going to outlaw the mentally ill?

There was a shotgun. Gun humpers are going to be so pleased. It gives them an angle to work.

Less than a mile from where I sat this afternoon, wondering why all the sirens. This has to stop. Where is the rage, people? Where is the courage to stand up to ignorant, reactionary lovers of violence and might? Why should my small city have to say goodbye to so many wonderful people in just the last few years? Why is our country content to bury ten thousand people a year? Where is our rage to say we've had enough? Where is the reason that says our people are more important than our guns? Why are we holding on to the past in fear and anger? Why are we content to mourn children, spouses, friends, members of our community? When is it enough?

@4: the shotgun made intervention possible. i'll take that over a semi-auto handgun with 40 clips.

god save america.

Well, nice political soundbyte. I'm more than a little skeptical that they will propose a workable, meaningful way to prevent violence.

@6 oh, good. No problem then.

Calls mean shit

Action not words

@4 you mean that no legislation or waiting period current or ever proposed, would have prevented this presumed a previous non felon from owning a pump action shotgun?

It would be more fun if we could skip over the knee jerk gun control part, and go to the fighting over gun free zones, and mentally ill people having or retaining rights.

Also, I LOVE the gun circlejerk the other huge issue is how are lockdowns, like the one that took place here legal at all? There were reports all over the place of people on Nickerson not allowed to leave work or go anywhere.

When did the police in swat gear get the right to suspend civil rights whenever they want? And since no one seems to care, can we expect to see it used more often and on protesters/homeless anyone soon?

@11 "There were reports all over the place of people on Nickerson not allowed to leave work or go anywhere. When did the police in swat gear get the right to suspend civil rights whenever they want?"

You can leave, and your employer can fire you, or suspend / expel you in the case of a student. You can head out into the street and debate your rights with a swat team member looking for a school shooter. That's sure to go well.

Being asked to make a wise decision isn't the same as imprisonment, and as always if you choose to ignore wisdom there will be consequences.

Waitaminte---now *is* the time to talk politics? It's time to call for legislative action, not to focus on respect to those mourning their losses? Well, then let's get back to talking about the greatest threats to peace. Shall we order those threats by rate of lives lost and start at the top, or head straight for those that fit our own agendas?

I hope the mayor, county exec and governor will, at the same time, call for comprehensive treatment of the mentally ill. Our society manufactures economic and social instability for the vast majority, essentially refuses to provide any kind of mental health treatment, then permits armament without restraint. This is a complex problem that doesn't have simple solutions, but it does have solutions, so long as we work together.

Leaders alone can't change the culture of "tolerance" that assumes fairness and respect goes both ways in the gun discussion. Guns kill. They don't belong in civilized company. AND ... Gun ownership does not equal the right to tote a gun everywhere, any time. No "rights" are being restricted when we say - "NO GUNS around me."

Seattle businesses are getting emails: Step up! Sign up NOW to prohibit guns on your property, or lose customers: http://www.gunfreeseattle.org/#how

@11: Exigent circumstances and probable cause. Look it up, Mac.

@15

You do realize that has no force of law, right? If a business which has 'prohibited' guns discovers I'm carrying my weapon, they can ask me to leave and not come back, but I wouldn't have broken any laws. Business don't have the power to suspend civil rights. You might want to consider all the ways in which that is awesome.

Besides that, I don't think criminals tend to pay heed to such warnings. Isn't SPU a gun free zone?

Do you have any ideas that don't depend upon a dangerous criminal or crazed madman honoring a little sign? An idea that might have some tiny chance of doing some tiny amount of good for example?

@16 Exigent circumstances don't nullify the 4th amendment.

@17 I repeat, "Leaders alone cannot change a culture ..." People standing up, speaking up, demanding change WILL get change. Attitudes change.

Businesses have the right to deny access to anyone behaving in an uncivil or dangerous manner. Just as each person has the right to NOT be subjected to personal threat. Basic SAFETY is also a constitutional and civil right.

BTW - regarding change -- talk to older cigarette smokers; they can tell you how attitudes change.

Gun owners can step up and address the responsibilities of gun ownership ... or they can look forward to being pushed to the fringes of society and to living their lives as pariahs.

@18
The next time a swat team is on your street looking for an active shooter, head straight for them while screaming about your rights.

@19
Yes, I'm sure all 85 million of us are terrified of being marginalized by strident supporters of irrational fear. 47% of the households in America will live their lives as pariahs.

Let me know when you have an actual plan, or legislation to propose. You've got the strident thing down, but merely yelling for change isn't going to do you any good unless people start throwing quarters and dimes at you. You can use it to buy a new shift key.

@20 Most responsible gun owners don't carry guns around in public. They don't need a law to tell them how stupid that is.

When the 'right to carry a gun around at anytime' trumps the right to safely attend school, civilization has taken a nosedive. I'd be willing to bet that far more than 85 million people in this country would agree with that.

BTW, no one is trying to 'strike fear in your heart' -- that is the NRA's go-to tactic.

@18, the hell they don't.

I'd like a moratorium on all photos of people hugging after these crimes. Those bathetic photos encourage people to just say "My heart goes out to family and friends of XXX blahblahblah" and cluck their tongues and go on with their lives, until the next one happens, calling for more hugs and hearts. What's needed is outrage and action, not bathetic, shallow sympathy.

We need to stop cutting mental health budgets for programs that provide vital assistance. We need to increase mental health benefits and coverage. It is sad that so many have been killed in shootings. It is people that are doing the shootings. Guns are merely a tool. These people need help.

The modern gun nut culture of victimhood and fear encourages people to think they can resolve their feelings of insecurity with guns. It has gotten way beyond caliber and access. The "responsible gun owners" who have stood at the sidelines looking down on those who HAVE had a growing sense of alarm, or who have actively participated in the growth of this fearful sense of entitlement, have grown tiresome. I don't want to pander to them any more either.

As a veteran of a long forgotten war, I detest guns and consider that amount of power evil, I have never touched another one after my war was over. We were meant for better things you and me. Unfortunately the constitutional fetish over something that was written in the time of muskets will keep change from ever happening. Now they have a new boogey man in the mentally ill and a new villain. Europe has mentally ill, but those shootings don't happen there weekly. There was before this a school of little kindergardeners shot up and nothing happened. Nothing will happen because a lot of Dems are gun enthusiasts and act like we live in an age where we have to hunt for our food.

@18: No, but probable cause does. If an officer sees a suspect run into your home, he doesn't need to get a warrant to enter and search because he has probable cause to believe that there is evidence of a crime within.