Arms manufacturers Smith & Wesson,  Cabela's and Big 5 all boasted sterling third quarter results in the post-Sandy Hook gun boom. A number of big retail chains moved to end sales of AR-15s and similar assault weapons in the wake of the shooting and Cerberus Capital, the New York firm that owned Bushmaster, sold the company, calling the Connecticut shooting a "watershed event." But a small number of hedge funds, accustomed to a sadly familiar pattern (gun massacre, leads to fear of gun bans, leads to mass gun sales), moved to make bank on the tragedy and this predictable trajectory.

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"That’s a tough thing to write about without minimizing it or exploiting it or just spreading cheese wiz all over it,” he told the audience. “You could stop before Sandy Hook. That is the only way you could do it. On the other hand, there are so many land mines to step on. You want to make sure you don’t do a disservice to the story that is very important to all of us.”

“So at the moment, I am sort of looking down the calendar at Sandy Hook and that is my fear there.” Although “I am not a hundred percent sure,” he added, “(But) I bet we do.”

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Not long after the shooting, young people, of all races took to the streets, to show their solidarity with Trayvon, in Million Hoodie Marches, saying, “We are all Trayvon.” In the ensuing year, the response to the case often shook out under two camps: those who identify with the young man, versus those who reflexively, insistently, perniciously identify with George Zimmerman. (“We are all George Zimmerman," they inherently believe, the potential victims of a nasty mugging.)

Also not long after the shooting, I appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to insist that Trayvon had been “shot in cold blood.”  The show’s host took great exception to my claim.  Bill O’Reilly vented surprise and outrage that I would be unwilling to shoot an armed assailant attempting to mug me.  “I would shoot a four-year old!” O’Reilly shouted at me.

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CBS:

“Face the Nation” highlighted a series of views on gun control. New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly, whose job involves fighting crime, said universal background checks on gun sales could have a measurable impact. “About 6 million weapons estimated were sold last year without a background check. So that’s a significant, that’s the loophole that they talk about. I think the background check will also be helpful in identifying store purchases, making them more aware of the fact that their now on record and you can record purchases that they make.”

Universal background checks aren’t the bills in play right now. (Or at least not yet.) Instead, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) defended the prospects of the assault weapons ban that she is sponsoring "because the American people are very much for it, " even though she acknowledged that it confronts an “uphill battle” to become law.

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Steel yourselves, kids. President Obama dared to stand in front of children -- "human shields," according to Rush Limbaugh -- when discussing gun control measures. Limbaugh straightened him out by making fun of those kids. (Weepy voice: "They don't want to die." Then he simulated crying.)

(Some Fox gasbag agreed: "Is there no level to which the left won't stoop ...") You know the drill.

Via Media Matters:

Rush also threw his weight behind the NRA's flying too close to the sun ad which called the president an "elitist hypocrite" for having a security detail while you don't:

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With their original school still being treated as a crime scene, the students will begin attending classes at a refurbished school in the neighboring town of Monroe on Thursday. Law enforcement officers have been guarding the new school, and by the reckoning of police, it is "the safest school in America."

Still, Newtown Superintendent Janet Robinson said officials will do their best to make the students feel at ease.

"We will go to our regular schedule," she said. "We will be doing a normal day."

On Wednesday, the students and their families were welcomed at an open house at their new school, which was formerly the Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe but renamed as the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Students received gift boxes with toys inside and shared joyful reunions with teachers.

One father, Vinny Alvarez, took a moment to thank his third-grade daughter's teacher, Courtney Martin, who protected the class from a rampaging gunman by locking her classroom door and keeping the children in a corner.

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After 20 children were killed with legally purchased guns in the Newtown massacre, Morgan must have questioned this country's laws. In response someone started a petition at the White House's "We the People" site demanding that Morgan be deported "for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens." In 10 days the petition has accumulated more than 96,000 signatures, far more than the 25,000 needed to guarantee a White House response.

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My aunt called the reporters “carrion birds.” My mom was too stunned to say much of anything about them. It fell to me to field their calls: “Columbine,” this thing that wounded 24 and killed 13 and almost took my mother, was an all-day, wall-to-wall media happening. A pair of journalists from the New York Times even used an enrolled student as a ruse. My mom arrived at a coffee shop to tutor a boy who’d been unable to return to school, and there they were, tagging along. Interrupting education. Seeking any small anecdote on murderers the 24-hour news cycle had already turned forever into figures of anti-heroic intrigue.

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When Westboro members planned to protest the funerals of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, they were met by counter-protesters, including a group of bikers called the Patriot Guard Riders, which specifically organized to “shield the mourning family [of fallen servicemembers] and their friends from interruptions created by any protestor or group of protestors,” i.e., Westboro activists.

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The Journal, in what may be the deepest account yet of the inner workings of the Lanza family reports that:

* Adam Lanza stopped talking with his father, Peter, during summer 2010, which coincided with the time a relationship with Peter Lanza's now-wife turned serious.

* That Christmas, Lanza stopped communicating with his older brother Ryan.

* Nancy Lanza let Adam use her guns at a local shooting range in order to bond with him and "teach him responsibility."

The story suggests Adam Lanza's problems started in first grade, at Sandy Hook (where he attended classes through fourth grade). After a stint of home schooling, he was back in the Newtown system for middle school, but remained shy, socially awkward and isolated from classmates.

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Frankly, I haven't heard a stupider idea since Donald Trump offered Obama $5 million for his college records. But let's put aside the ridiculous impracticality of implementing LaPierre's proposal to deploy a veritable army of gun-toting guards into every school in America to "blanket" our children. Let's just address the philosophical horse crap of it.

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But as Erik Wemple points out in the Washington Post today, Lott has not appeared on Fox News or its web site since the Newtown massacre -- but he has been a regular on CNN, on various panels and in much-talked-about arguments with Soledad O'Brien and Piers Morgan.

Wemple writes:

While Lott has been given ample opportunity on CNN to air his views on the Newtown massacre, he hasn’t yet spoken up on the matter on FoxNews.com. His last column surfaced Dec. 6, a second critique of Costas’ call for a new look at guns. He has written a column on the implications of Newtown — for U.S. News & World Report.

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District officials said that they didn't know about the weapon until 3 p.m., however. “Once the teacher knew there was a weapon in the classroom, the student was apprehended in 30 to 45 seconds and immediately brought down to the office and the police were on site within five to 10 minutes,” said Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley.

Parents were notified around 5:30, though many had learned the news from their children before then.

The student has been suspended and taken into a juvenile facility.

h/t Mediaite

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Over the weekend, a group of golden retrievers arrived in Newtown, Conn., to do exactly what they do best – to offer a little warmth and sweetness to a town shaken to its core with sorrow. The team of specially trained comfort dogs from Lutheran Church Charities traveled 800 miles to arrive at Christ the King Lutheran Church, where the funerals of two of the children killed in the massacre are being held. As Tim Hetzner, head of the organization, explained to the Chicago Tribune, "Dogs are non-judgmental. They are loving. They are accepting of anyone. It creates the atmosphere for people to share." In just a short time, the animals have already put in their share of work. Hetzner told the Tribune, "You could tell which [townspeople] … were really struggling with their grief because they were quiet. They would pet the dog, and they would just be quiet … I asked [one man] how he is doing. He just kind of teared up and said: 'This year, I've lost five loved ones and now this happened.' The whole town is suffering."

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I did not. Over decades my paralysis advanced, and I shifted from crutch to wheelchair. I was mostly out of work until my early 30s. Marriage came late. Today, my neurology remains fragile. Life seems tinged with loss, poignancy – and anger.

Anger is what takes over in the wake of mass shootings. After the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, I quit my high-tech job and went to work for a gun control nonprofit. For a while, there seemed to be hope for reining in the nation's amateur arsenal. When the nonprofit went broke, I drove my wheelchair to a quiet corner of a parking lot and cried.

Since then, I have watched the noisy aftermath of other mass shootings with a sinking heart. Virginia Tech. Aurora, Colo. The pattern is predictable and depressing. For days or weeks, outrage over gun violence dominates the media. But eventually every element of American's gun madness falls back into place. In the U.S., tracing a stolen car is relatively easy but tracing a stolen handgun is virtually impossible, thanks to the NRA. Now, in the wake of Sandy Hook, I despairingly ask: Is there any way out?

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Following a shooting at a school in England in early 2009, a forensic psychiatrist told the BBC about his plea to media outlets worldwide:

If you don't want to propagate more mass murders...

Don't start the story with sirens blaring.

Don't have photographs of the killer.

Don't make this 24/7 coverage.

Do everything you can not to make the body count the lead story … not to make the killer some kind of anti-hero.

Do localize this story to the affected community and as boring as possible in every other market.

Why don’t we listen?

There is compelling evidence that the way we cover mass shootings, especially in America, gives too much attention to the shooter, in effect turning him into a celebrity and creating a perverse incentive for other social outcasts to seek the spotlight through carnage.

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Inspired by other "millions" marches of the past, a movement to hold a One Million Child march on Washington in February to lobby for "sane" gun laws has sprouted up on Facebook. It's already garnered thousands of likes and RSVPs, because as the organizer, a father of two, asks, "Who could say no to a million kids? Not even Congress." Aside from the fact that Congress has a long and storied history of flipping the bird at kids, minorities, the elderly, the disabled — you get the point – the march has the potential to become a galvanizing moment not just in the debate over guns, but in the lives of thousands of families. It's an opportunity to teach kids the power of their voices, of their hope, of their love — and to show that power to the world.

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Nancy Lanza, whose gun collection was raided by her son Adam for Friday’s massacre at Sandy Hook school, was part of the “prepper” movement, which urges readiness for social chaos by hoarding supplies and training with weapons.

“She prepared for the worst,” her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza told reporters. “Last time we visited her in person, we talked about prepping – are you ready for what could happen down the line, when the economy collapses?”

It also emerged that Mrs Lanza had spoken of her fears less than a week before the attack that she was “losing” her son. “She said it was getting worse. She was having trouble reaching him,” said a friend of Mrs Lanza who did not want to be named.

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The tragedy brought forth soul-searching and grief around the globe. Families as far away as Puerto Rico began to plan funerals for victims who still had their baby teeth, world leaders extended condolences, and vigils were held around the U.S.

Relatives of the shooter, whose victims included his mother, were at a loss for words.

"The whole family is traumatized by this event," said a police official who knows the family. A family statement read: "We reach out to the community of Newtown and express our heartfelt sorrow for this incomprehensible and profound loss of innocence."

Amid the sorrow, stories of heroism emerged, including an account of the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal and the school psychologist who lost their lives rushing toward the gunman, Adam Lanza, in an attempt to stop him.

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