There is an assault weapons ban? There's no gun show loophole on background checks? Those high capacity magazines are unavailable? View Comment

Joedell: There are at least three practical measures that most NRA members agree with. Regulate weapons of war, the size of magazine clips, and institute background checks on the purchase of all guns. This isn't "feel good'' or "knee jerk" ; it is reasonable. We can improve technology to make schools safer and pass sensible gun control at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive. Passing these laws will cost money? Okay. Remember how you dared impugn my motives, saying maybe I didn't think the children were worth the effort of your technology fix? I do think the children and others who will lose their lives to future gun violence are worth the money. The next shooting may take place at a mall or a movie theater or a parking lot. Your buzzer won't help there. Ask the people of Newtown how they feel about sensible gun control. By the way, you know nothing about me. I've been on this "bandwagon" a very long time. You know nothing of my efforts. View Comment

Harpoon, By golly you did get that anti-Obama anecdote from FOX! They aired a segment on O'Reilly where his hatchet man was sent to Hawaii to "expose" the president's upbringing as a lazy kid with a big Afro who was always talking about Kenya. He asked random people, particularly girls in bikinis on the beach. Truly frightening. What a bombshell of investigative journalism. You forgot to wish everyone a Happy Festivus tomorrow! You might enjoy it, especially the traditional "Airing of Grievances" where you get to tell the world how disappointed you are, especially with people who try to end hunger. Bah, humbug to that, since we're all going to starve anyway. Because of the government or something. View Comment

One can be assaulted by scissors with deadly consequences for sure. I seriously doubt though that 26 people could be stabbed to death in a matter of a few minutes. In fact, as others have mentioned, a man in China stabbed something like 23 people in a rampage at almost the same time as the shootings at Sandy Hook. Not one of the stabbing victims died. We don't have to remove scissors from art class. Scissors have a legitimate purpose. What purpose does a weapon of war have in the hands of civilians? What is it for? View Comment

"No matter where it came from, the point is the point." Whee! An anecdote from the fact-free zone, or the Twilight Zone, or who cares as long as it slams the president. Wait, that wasn't an anti-Obama anecdote? Well gosh darn it, you coulda fooled me. Congratulations. You hate government. View Comment

On FOX maybe? Evidence? Context? C'mon....Give us another anti-Obama anecdote. You know you've got one. View Comment

Tighter gun control? Yes. View Comment

Here we go, conflating two unrelated issues: school safety and the Mountview project. Not the speed of light. The Mountview Building Committee has been working for a year or more. As for an armed security officer at each school? Making school an armed camp is not the answer. Get rid of assault weapons in the hands of civilians. Get rid of monster magazine clips. Do background checks on everyone who purchases a gun. Those are the recommendations of most law enforcement officials not just supporters of sensible gun control. Your concern for school safety is touching....also exploitative because the purpose of your post is to sink the Mountview project. View Comment

How? The parents were probably using technology while the incident was in progress. Do you stop them from texting or phoning? Do you tell them what you don't yet know? How could the person making the call have clear information in an unfolding situation such as this? It sounds to me as if everyone in authority both in the school and in law enforcement acted responsibly. View Comment

Bravo. View Comment

Thank you Mr. White and Mr. Ethier. Mr. Ed is so predictable I could have written his opposition for him. The only part he forgot is his call for resignations. No worry, he'll remember in his next post. "This" will never stop. We have to build schools, we have to improve infrastructure, we have to pay our taxes in order to live a decent existence in our common spaces and our public lives. Parents, awake. Organize and fight because Holden Associated Taxpayers and its leadership of numbers man Meyer, drama queen Ferguson, and his appendage James Jumonville, are out to sink this project. View Comment

The type of assault rifles under discussion are deadlier, faster, more lethal, than other methods. The weapons used at Sandy Nook killed 26 people in about 20 minutes. They should be banned. No civilian needs that kind of killing machine. I don't care whether they have been purchased legally or illegally, for suicide, homicide, hunting or protection. I don't care how he got them. We can study other aspects of these mass killings but right now, as we bury these children and their caretakers a week before Christmas, while it's raw and painful and outrageous, let's agree to get rid of these lethal weapons and enact other sensible gun control measures. View Comment

Murder, theft, speeding do still happen but that doesn't mean we don't try to stop them. With guns we stopped trying. We can't fix all that is wrong with society overnight. We can make background checks mandatory overnight, though. We can ban high capacity assault rifles overnight. All it takes is the American people demanding that their representatives be responsible to us rather than to the leadership of the NRA. Even many NRA members agree we need reasonable gun control. The freedom to own any and every sort of weapon does not trump the freedom of a 6-year old to remain alive in her classroom. If the country with the most guns is the safest, why do we have over 30,000 gun related deaths a year while Britain had about 50 last year? I can be logical and emotional at the same time. I hope I never get past the emotion. View Comment

How is anyone being "punished"? The inconvenience of background checks? The inability to buy an assault weapon that fires multiple rounds in a flash? No one needs that kind of militarized weapon to hunt or for self-protection. Every one of the children in that massacre suffered multiple wounds. One little boy was shot eleven times. A young man who was undoubtedly severely mentally ill had access to an arsenal of weaponry and ammunition that could cause maximum casualties in a sickeningly short period of time. We may not be able to stop every episode like this but surely we owe it to our children to make such horrific incidents less likely to occur and with less damage. We're not helpless. There may be societal issues involved, prominently, our public neglect of mental health, but the extent of the fatalities in Newtown occurred because of a weapon that could fire that fast, that lethally, that instantly. Why do we tolerate this? We're not helpless. Tell your representatives they will be held accountable if they don't vote for sane gun control measures. View Comment

By all means donate, send condolences and teddy bears. Every gesture of support will undoubtedly be deeply appreciated. Please also write and call your representatives in Congress and demand that they pass common sense gun control measures such as mandatory background checks and the banning of assault weapons. No one outside the military and law enforcement needs to own weapons this lethal. Ask your legislators also to provide funding to address mental health issues. Easy access to weapons that can slaughter a classroom full of tiny children in minutes plus our societal neglect of mental health are a deadly brew. I hope no one will say that the answer is to arm the teachers. We need a safer environment, not more weapons. Please take action. We must try. View Comment

Mr. Lipka asked a relevant question last night. Who will be reading the 7,000 pages of documents that account for every pencil purchase? It will be Mark Ferguson's numbers man Ed Meyer, who will then step to every podium in town to say that this music teacher or that language teacher makes too much money. Then, of course, he will demand resignations from the school committee. How lame that the more reasonable members of the select board could not even chastise Mr. Ferguson for his hysterical and unprofessional display two weeks ago. And then to allow a further speech from the podium by Mr. Ferguson as if he didn't already have the bully -- and I mean bully -- pulpit as a selectman. Might as well turn the gavel over to him now. He's running the show. View Comment

You haven't seen grandstanding until you have seen the meeting. Verbal descriptions don't begin to convey the cringeworthy contempt shown by Mark Ferguson toward Duncan Leith, the school committee, the district, and his own chair. No one with an ounce of self-respect would have remained standing at the podium after that bullying temper tantrum. Watch it, then ask yourself if, as an elected official, you would have remained to answer "accusations" and subject yourself to any further abuse. View Comment

He was invited to speak by the majority on the select board. Then he was told not to speak by Mark Ferguson or Mark would "exit the room!" That's an odd way of soliciting information. Plus it demonstrates a breakdown of select board protocol, good order and plain old manners. You do realize this sets a precedent. Whenever a select board member objects to a speaker, even an invited one, he sticks his fingers in his ears, turns over the table, and flounces out of the room. Makes for good soap opera but it solves no problems and in fact erodes the credibility not of the school committee but of the select board. Watch the tape. View Comment

The select board invited Duncan Leith to the meeting in order to report on district matters. He was on the agenda. When he went to the podium Mark Ferguson loudly proclaimed that the school committee is not in good standing, that Chair Leith is in denial, that the select board should not give him podium time. He threw around further accusations then issued his threat if Mr. Leith spoke: I turn my chair, I exit the room. And he did. Mr. Renzoni then offered Mr. Leith the opportunity to respond to Ferguson's accusations (Mr. Renzoni's word). Not surprisingly, Mr. Leith declined, objected to the treatment he had received, and left. Holden, you have elected a bully in Mark Ferguson. Watch the meeting. "Courage of his convictions"? Rather, grandstanding, bellicose, destructive behavior that does nothing to promote a productive partnership with the school district. What the citizens and especially the parents of Holden must keep in mind is that Mr. Ferguson doesn't want a partnership with the district. He wants Holden out of the district K-8. Watch the meeting. Is this how an elected representative who has been invited to the meeting by the select board should be treated by one of its members? What if you had been invited to a select board meeting and had then been subjected to a browbeating ambush such as this? Watch and decide for yourself if this is how business should be conducted at the Holden Select Board. View Comment

You seriously believe that lower-income people have babies in order to keep that piddly check coming in? You think that's the threat? The tax rate on the rich is historically low. It was 70% in Eisenhower's time and we still had rich people plus a healthy economy. Trickle down doesn't work. We just tried it. The job creators kept their wealth. Quit whining. You lost the election. Get over it. View Comment