I will remember Sunday December 16th and the early hours of the 17th for the rest of my aware consciousness. In the evening I celebrated again the wonderful summer of sport with the BBC review of the year and the public award of personality of the year and then switched to the news and learned that the President of the United States was to speak at a vigil organised by the interfaith community of Newtown where twenty children attending the Sandy Hook Elementary school aged between six and seven were shot and killed several times in a planned massacre of the innocents by a twenty year old man Adam Lanza, who had first killed his mother and is known to have also killed the school principal, the school psychologist and four teachers and support staff who are understood to have tried to stop him.
The personal statement by President Obama should be listened to in full, if possible as part of the whole interfaith led vigil and which attempted to include those of no religious faith because only by doing so and witnessing the way the residents in the community applauded and hugged the first responders as they entered the hall of the High School, greeted their local community leader, the state governor and their President together with the tears of the local leaders who will understand the potential significance of the way this community is responding to the shock and horror of what happened.
This was no ordinary politician saying what was expected of him but an individual parent moved by what had happened and able to immediately identify with his immediate audience and many in his country and across the world. He spoke of the responsibilities and duties of parents to provide security and to protect, accepting that this is something which parents had to share with others as the children grew, and with their community. Turning to the role of politicians, legislators and governments he spoke of their primary responsibility in this respect and of their failure. He said that arguments about the complexity and continuing political viewpoints and perspectives were unacceptable. There had to be change and he would use all the power and time of his office to assist in this process, arranging to meet leaders at all levels in the coming weeks. He promised unconditional support to the bereaved families and to the community.
The state governor was one of a trio of other interests who received spontaneous applause from those present with the loudest when he mentioned the local community leader who had rushed to the School as soon as she heard the news, who while thanking everyone for their support including the media, emphasised the strength of the local community and how they would support each other and get through rather than be crushed.
There was something remarkable about the way the vigil was conducted with everyone, the clergy, civic leaders and the President sitting with the rest of the community and then going to the dais on the stage to contribute sometimes alone but usually in twos and three of all the local churches with Ministers and congregations. The most moving was Jewish hymn of mourning, a wail of grief and also the Muslim adolescent who sung from the Koran with the Muslim leader standing part with tears and did others bringing comfort to everyone and themselves. It is one of ironies of this happening that it occurred in perhaps one of the stronger and integrated and previously safe communities of a country divided by ethnic origins, religion and politics.
I was and remain distressed by what happened although I am no longer surprised or shocked as throughout recorded history children and babies have been slaughtered by men as they waged war and with individual men singling out the young to kill, injure and harm. Sometimes the massacres are deliberate acts by nations and their leaders and during the first five years of my life German people and their collaborators murdered an estimated one and a half million children, predominantly Jews but also Romany children and also German children with physical and mental disabilities.
Nor are attacks on primary school children a unique event for in 1970 twelve children were killed and some twenty five injured in a school bus in Israel by Palestinian militants, believed to be in retaliation for the unintended bombing of a school in Egypt a month before by the Israeli airforce killing forty six children and wounding of fifty others, more than half the school pupils.
Four years later a small group representing the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took hostage a school in Israel, killing twenty six children and injuring over fifty others.
However in terms of numbers in 1994 an Angolan Pilot misdirected a bombing attack which killed eighty nine children and the worst, the Beslan massacre where the numbers remain censored by Russia whose military are considered to have provoked and caused the majority of the killings where the total dead is reported to have run into hundreds.
In the UK we have Dunblane where Scout Leader Thomas Hamilton murdered eighteen children injuring another fifteen.
All these events occurred outside the USA and indeed on the same day as Newtown a man stabbed twenty two children in a village school in China although it is believed none have died. However previously in China there have been a number of incidents where children have died 12 in 2006, 7 in 2010, 4 in 2004 and 2 in 1998 with others where the children were injured. Other child deaths at schools during in my life time include Brazil with 13, Germany 8, The incidents in Japan with 8 children in one instances and one each in Hong Kong with 3 child deaths, Latvia 3, Thailand 3 and Belgium 2 Japan 1 and Phillippines1 together with many other incidents involving the deaths of teachers or other adults in school with children present or where children were injured without a death being reported.
It is against such a background that what has happened in the USA in Newtown has to be considered. There have been attacks on primary schools within the country before although fortunately only single deaths in 1940 1944 1984 1988 and 2000 although others were sometimes wounded and there were two incidents where 3 children died in 1959 and 2007.
It is therefore important not to single out the USA because of its second amendment to the Constitution, the right for individuals to bear arms.
I have also looked at the number of weapons and people trained to use weapons by States although in many of these countries the weapons are held in secure conditions rather than in private homes.
This is latest available information about countries where over a million people are officially trained to use weapons at the request of the state is (1) North Korea 9.45million (2) South Korea 8.69m (3) Vietnam 5.49m (4) India 4.76m (5) China 4.58m (6) Iran 3.83m (7) The USA 2.92 (8) Russia 2.23m (9) Taiwan 1.96m (10) Pakistan 1.43m (11) Cuba 1.23m (12) The UAE ) 1.21m (13) Brazil 1.67m (14) Egypt 1.34m (15) Ukraine 1.21m (16)Turkey 1.19m (17) Iraq 1m (18) and Indonesia.98m in comparison to the UK with 410000 of which only half form the standing military and where to keep an unlicensed is a serious offence.
The first general conclusion I would make is that the training to use and possess guns and other weapons by one nation compared to another is not factor why children are targeted.
Those where the killings are ideological and sanctioned by the state are the most horrendous in terms of numbers or where they are a product of war such as bombing of Coventry by the German High Command or Dresden by the British and where what has happened in Israel and Palestine has always to be placed in perspective.
The engagement of adolescents in violence involving killing and injuring of others of a similar age has always been a feature of urban areas sometimes because of race, religion and politics but more often related to territory and over the past two to three decades with drugs,
Going into a school, including primary schools and kindergartens by individual to harm children is also not unique but in most countries rare and even in the two nations with the greatest number of attacks, China and the USA the number of deaths has been comparatively small with in China the main weapon used being the knife.
What happened in Newtown, Connecticut on December 2014 had several distinct features, but also with similarities to Dunblane. The first is that a man entered the school with planned intent to kill children. The second is that weapon(s) were legitimately purchased, registered and held although I have read reports that in relation to Newtown they were owned by the killers mother. Since Columbine in the USA and Dunblane in Scotland the entry to schools has become more controlled so at Newtown I believe the killer blasted his way through a window to bypass the official entrance.
Why he did so may emerge from the Inquest and subsequent enquires, especially with the help of his brother and those who knew his mother with the suggestion that she was part of supported a sect who believed the world would end with a cataclysmic event on December 21st and one of my regular emails comes from the authority of one such group whose beliefs are tied in with the last day of the Mayan Calendar. It is true that within the past weeks a large mass bypassed the earth which id directed would have destroyed the planet. The recent extremes in weather condition is also to do with heating the planet by man made gasses. I suspect we will find that the young man acted from some distortion of thinking and belief than a hatred or anger, Understanding why the action was taken may not help to ensure that action is taken to try and prevent a similar happening again. That the President‘s call for change may be answered could prove a good thing in general terms with or without changes in gun laws in the USA,
However I believe the slaughter of twenty six and seven year olds in one school has already had impact within the United States and the world at large, especially as the killings happened within a few Days of Christmas and where schools with a Christian tradition hold nativity plays, and most arrange concerts and events involving parents.
However it should not be assumed, especially in the USA that this will not lead to any significant reduction in the holding of personal hand weapons or such horrors being perpetrated in the future
The only likely development is an inter state agreement to ban the sale of automatic machine gun style weapons and for ammunition clips of 30 rounds. The more likely development is the proliferation of schools hiring or making use of community volunteers, former police officers and ex servicemen to patrol grounds and man sit in the school lobby’s in civilian clothing and with a discrete weapon but available. The media will move on to the next war, weather disaster, financial crisis or human tragedy. The Political Party masters will assess the polls and weight up competing interests and move on tot he next dominating issue. The emotional pain will continue, the psychological scars will become life long.
The personal statement by President Obama should be listened to in full, if possible as part of the whole interfaith led vigil and which attempted to include those of no religious faith because only by doing so and witnessing the way the residents in the community applauded and hugged the first responders as they entered the hall of the High School, greeted their local community leader, the state governor and their President together with the tears of the local leaders who will understand the potential significance of the way this community is responding to the shock and horror of what happened.
This was no ordinary politician saying what was expected of him but an individual parent moved by what had happened and able to immediately identify with his immediate audience and many in his country and across the world. He spoke of the responsibilities and duties of parents to provide security and to protect, accepting that this is something which parents had to share with others as the children grew, and with their community. Turning to the role of politicians, legislators and governments he spoke of their primary responsibility in this respect and of their failure. He said that arguments about the complexity and continuing political viewpoints and perspectives were unacceptable. There had to be change and he would use all the power and time of his office to assist in this process, arranging to meet leaders at all levels in the coming weeks. He promised unconditional support to the bereaved families and to the community.
The state governor was one of a trio of other interests who received spontaneous applause from those present with the loudest when he mentioned the local community leader who had rushed to the School as soon as she heard the news, who while thanking everyone for their support including the media, emphasised the strength of the local community and how they would support each other and get through rather than be crushed.
There was something remarkable about the way the vigil was conducted with everyone, the clergy, civic leaders and the President sitting with the rest of the community and then going to the dais on the stage to contribute sometimes alone but usually in twos and three of all the local churches with Ministers and congregations. The most moving was Jewish hymn of mourning, a wail of grief and also the Muslim adolescent who sung from the Koran with the Muslim leader standing part with tears and did others bringing comfort to everyone and themselves. It is one of ironies of this happening that it occurred in perhaps one of the stronger and integrated and previously safe communities of a country divided by ethnic origins, religion and politics.
I was and remain distressed by what happened although I am no longer surprised or shocked as throughout recorded history children and babies have been slaughtered by men as they waged war and with individual men singling out the young to kill, injure and harm. Sometimes the massacres are deliberate acts by nations and their leaders and during the first five years of my life German people and their collaborators murdered an estimated one and a half million children, predominantly Jews but also Romany children and also German children with physical and mental disabilities.
Nor are attacks on primary school children a unique event for in 1970 twelve children were killed and some twenty five injured in a school bus in Israel by Palestinian militants, believed to be in retaliation for the unintended bombing of a school in Egypt a month before by the Israeli airforce killing forty six children and wounding of fifty others, more than half the school pupils.
Four years later a small group representing the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took hostage a school in Israel, killing twenty six children and injuring over fifty others.
However in terms of numbers in 1994 an Angolan Pilot misdirected a bombing attack which killed eighty nine children and the worst, the Beslan massacre where the numbers remain censored by Russia whose military are considered to have provoked and caused the majority of the killings where the total dead is reported to have run into hundreds.
In the UK we have Dunblane where Scout Leader Thomas Hamilton murdered eighteen children injuring another fifteen.
All these events occurred outside the USA and indeed on the same day as Newtown a man stabbed twenty two children in a village school in China although it is believed none have died. However previously in China there have been a number of incidents where children have died 12 in 2006, 7 in 2010, 4 in 2004 and 2 in 1998 with others where the children were injured. Other child deaths at schools during in my life time include Brazil with 13, Germany 8, The incidents in Japan with 8 children in one instances and one each in Hong Kong with 3 child deaths, Latvia 3, Thailand 3 and Belgium 2 Japan 1 and Phillippines1 together with many other incidents involving the deaths of teachers or other adults in school with children present or where children were injured without a death being reported.
It is against such a background that what has happened in the USA in Newtown has to be considered. There have been attacks on primary schools within the country before although fortunately only single deaths in 1940 1944 1984 1988 and 2000 although others were sometimes wounded and there were two incidents where 3 children died in 1959 and 2007.
It is therefore important not to single out the USA because of its second amendment to the Constitution, the right for individuals to bear arms.
I have also looked at the number of weapons and people trained to use weapons by States although in many of these countries the weapons are held in secure conditions rather than in private homes.
This is latest available information about countries where over a million people are officially trained to use weapons at the request of the state is (1) North Korea 9.45million (2) South Korea 8.69m (3) Vietnam 5.49m (4) India 4.76m (5) China 4.58m (6) Iran 3.83m (7) The USA 2.92 (8) Russia 2.23m (9) Taiwan 1.96m (10) Pakistan 1.43m (11) Cuba 1.23m (12) The UAE ) 1.21m (13) Brazil 1.67m (14) Egypt 1.34m (15) Ukraine 1.21m (16)Turkey 1.19m (17) Iraq 1m (18) and Indonesia.98m in comparison to the UK with 410000 of which only half form the standing military and where to keep an unlicensed is a serious offence.
The first general conclusion I would make is that the training to use and possess guns and other weapons by one nation compared to another is not factor why children are targeted.
Those where the killings are ideological and sanctioned by the state are the most horrendous in terms of numbers or where they are a product of war such as bombing of Coventry by the German High Command or Dresden by the British and where what has happened in Israel and Palestine has always to be placed in perspective.
The engagement of adolescents in violence involving killing and injuring of others of a similar age has always been a feature of urban areas sometimes because of race, religion and politics but more often related to territory and over the past two to three decades with drugs,
Going into a school, including primary schools and kindergartens by individual to harm children is also not unique but in most countries rare and even in the two nations with the greatest number of attacks, China and the USA the number of deaths has been comparatively small with in China the main weapon used being the knife.
What happened in Newtown, Connecticut on December 2014 had several distinct features, but also with similarities to Dunblane. The first is that a man entered the school with planned intent to kill children. The second is that weapon(s) were legitimately purchased, registered and held although I have read reports that in relation to Newtown they were owned by the killers mother. Since Columbine in the USA and Dunblane in Scotland the entry to schools has become more controlled so at Newtown I believe the killer blasted his way through a window to bypass the official entrance.
Why he did so may emerge from the Inquest and subsequent enquires, especially with the help of his brother and those who knew his mother with the suggestion that she was part of supported a sect who believed the world would end with a cataclysmic event on December 21st and one of my regular emails comes from the authority of one such group whose beliefs are tied in with the last day of the Mayan Calendar. It is true that within the past weeks a large mass bypassed the earth which id directed would have destroyed the planet. The recent extremes in weather condition is also to do with heating the planet by man made gasses. I suspect we will find that the young man acted from some distortion of thinking and belief than a hatred or anger, Understanding why the action was taken may not help to ensure that action is taken to try and prevent a similar happening again. That the President‘s call for change may be answered could prove a good thing in general terms with or without changes in gun laws in the USA,
However I believe the slaughter of twenty six and seven year olds in one school has already had impact within the United States and the world at large, especially as the killings happened within a few Days of Christmas and where schools with a Christian tradition hold nativity plays, and most arrange concerts and events involving parents.
However it should not be assumed, especially in the USA that this will not lead to any significant reduction in the holding of personal hand weapons or such horrors being perpetrated in the future
The only likely development is an inter state agreement to ban the sale of automatic machine gun style weapons and for ammunition clips of 30 rounds. The more likely development is the proliferation of schools hiring or making use of community volunteers, former police officers and ex servicemen to patrol grounds and man sit in the school lobby’s in civilian clothing and with a discrete weapon but available. The media will move on to the next war, weather disaster, financial crisis or human tragedy. The Political Party masters will assess the polls and weight up competing interests and move on tot he next dominating issue. The emotional pain will continue, the psychological scars will become life long.
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