Five Towns leaders address post Connecticut security

As members of communities the world over remain saddened and shaken by the shootings of 20 children and six adult staff members at a Connecticut elementary school, schools and institutions are left to ponder if there is any way to learn from this and prevent this from happening again.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY4) released a statement noting that “There are a lot of unanswered questions right now, but one thing is clear – there’s too much gun violence in our country. These shootings are becoming all too common, and it’s too easy for dangerous people to get the weapons that help them perform mass executions like today’s. We owe it to our children to work harder to reduce gun violence. The Second Amendment is the law of the land but it was never intended to allow murderers to take the lives of innocent kids. It’s our moral obligation as policymakers and as parents to do more to save lives.”

It is “a very complex issue with no easy answers,” said Dr. Michael J. Salamon, Senior Psychologist and Director of ADC Psychological Services in Hewlett. He summarized what is known “about individuals who commit such acts”: the situations are carefully planned, the shooter has uncertain family connections and limited parental supervision, has difficult social interactions and problems in school, a mental illness diagnosis, possibly incomplete and untreated and more than one disorder making a violent tendency more likely since it is difficult to treat. These individuals may turn to brutal fantasies with the use of violent video games and movies and, with a compromised psychological background, might act out these fantasies. That, coupled with access to and lack of training or evaluation in the use of weapons, they are most likely to use weapons to harm others. “To prevent future episodes of these types of tragedies requires a concerted effort to identify and care for individuals with emotional, behavioral and psychological needs; to limit the degree of violence our children are exposed to,” he wrote, “and to restrict gun sales to only competent and well trained individuals. Even then we may never be able to prevent all such tragedies.”