We don't need to see pictures of grieving parents

[Prism]

Especially mere moments after learning their children are not coming home.

We're adults. We can imagine and empathize with their anguish without illustration.

The media need to back the eff away.

[Little Star]

1. I agree we don't need to or even want to. None the less, we will see them I think. ugh.

[Bad Thoughts]

2. Yes, we do

Gun nuts need to face the broken lives caused by their zealotry. they need to see the parents and firemen in tears and explain why there we need no gun laws. They need to be shamed.

[JanMichael]

4. The president of the NRA needs to be given a mop

and forced to help clean the school....and videos, bloody ones...posted of it all the hell over Facebook, DU, Twitter, etc.

[Vietnameravet]

6. I agree we must show the full horror of this to bring home exactly what has happened..

but dont expect the gun nuts to be shamed..they think this just means there should be more guns ...even in schools..

[RebelOne]

3. And the children are still being interviewed by the media.

We don't need that either.

[chrisau214]

5. I Think We Do Need to See Them

Last edited Fri Dec 14, 2012, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

And I think we need to see the pictures of the murdered children laying in pools of their own blood.

And we need to see these images made into posters and waved in the face of every elected official in this country and in the face of every person who even hints at the idea that their right to own a murder device is more important than the rights of a child to live.

[Whisp]

7. they are all trained to be vultures in matters like this - the media

I hate every fucking one of them right now.

they are all competing for the one special extra special awful personal story to exploit.

why are they interviewing kids, for gawd's sakes and why are the parents allowing that (if they are even asked).

[Marrah_G]

8. I think we do, but not today

We don't often disagree. But I think maybe people do need to see the names, faces and stories in the days to come if we are ever going to get congress to address this problem.

[EastTennesseeDem]

9. I gently disagree.

When I was in high school, my history teacher showed us a video of German civilians seeing the concentration camps right after the surrender.

I remember, in the video, one man who was so shocked at the sight that he looked as if he were a gargoyle, soul completely sapped from him. One young lady screamed and broke down in anguish. Virtually everyone had similar reactions, but those are the two I remember most vividly.

Perhaps these Germans were not sympathizers of the cruelty being levied by Nazis (perhaps they were), but they certainly were not particularly sympathetic to the plight of WWII-era Jews on the receiving end of it either.

There are those gun proponents who subscribe to the belief that our Founding Fathers, with no frame of reference, would want them to have automatic or semi-automatic weapons (vs. the woefully inaccurate smooothbores, longrifles, and muskets of their own time period, which took about as much time to load as you could expect to spend at the DMV). There are others who do not tend to care one way or another about gun rights. Some may just not know anyone who has died because of it; some may just look the other way every time there is a massacre.

It is not punishment for them to see these images. Ideally, it would be a sobering alarm. When you see someone moments after the 80 years ahead of them are instantly spirited away, or the facial expressions of loved ones of them, you never want to see it again. You never want to conceive of it again. Ever.

On the facade, it does seem tasteless, I agree. But it could make many people invaluable allies to this cause.

[Prism]

10. I understand all the objections in this thread

But when I see someone in that level of pain, my instinct is to respect their privacy. Exploiting them, at this point in time, feels like a deep violation.

If the parents are ok with those pictures after they have collected themselves, ok then. But at the moment in time when they are suffering such devastation, I feel like it almost descends into pornography. Especially given out country's spectator culture of media consumption.

But I respect everyone else's thoughts here. Each of you have fair and valid points.