Nobody else will say it. Fine. I will.. Part Deux

[♥ COVID-19♥]

You don't have a constitutional right to own an assault weapon either, but some people choose to interpret it that way for some oddball reason.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Dec 18, 2012 14:38:38 GMT -6 Tex said:

Dec 18, 2012 9:12:43 GMT -6 Ardbeg... innit said:

Anita- That is where the free market is involved. Improve your house to the standards that, say, the NRA promotes, locked storage and mechanical locking devices. OR store at a gun club locker.

Or improve the situation to whatever level the insurance company is willing to insure and you can afford... whatever suits your pocketbook

So the wealthy have a right to bear arms, but the working poor, who often have no choice but to live in rough neighborhoods, cannot?

Aside from the hilarity of you of all people suddenly defending the working poor, the thing to point out is that the requirement would exist for their safety as much as owning a gun would. And if they are owning a gun, don't they have to pay for training and practice as well?

[Ardbeg... innit]

Dec 18, 2012 14:38:38 GMT -6 Tex said:

Dec 18, 2012 9:12:43 GMT -6 Ardbeg... innit said:

Anita- That is where the free market is involved. Improve your house to the standards that, say, the NRA promotes, locked storage and mechanical locking devices. OR store at a gun club locker.

Or improve the situation to whatever level the insurance company is willing to insure and you can afford... whatever suits your pocketbook

So the wealthy have a right to bear arms, but the working poor, who often have no choice but to live in rough neighborhoods, cannot?

Perhaps it would give the poor an incentive to improve themselves, OR maybe divert money that they would otherwise have used on Thunderbird and cigarettes.

[Chicago Jake]

Maybe the government can issue Gun Stamps to help those who can't afford the gun, training, and insurance on their own.

[Tex]

Dec 18, 2012 14:52:01 GMT -6 ♥ COVID-19♥ said:

Dec 18, 2012 14:38:38 GMT -6 Tex said:

So the wealthy have a right to bear arms, but the working poor, who often have no choice but to live in rough neighborhoods, cannot?

Aside from the hilarity of you of all people suddenly defending the working poor, the thing to point out is that the requirement would exist for their safety as much as owning a gun would. And if they are owning a gun, don't they have to pay for training and practice as well?

I've been the working poor, though thankfully for two short periods in my life. I owned a cheap .38 Special. I did not spend a dime or a minute on training or practice, having learned how to shoot well when I was eight years old

[New Mama]

Here is some very interesting information....

synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/12/connecticut-killings-its-the-shooter-not-the-guns.html

In part...

Connecticut has the fourth toughest gun control laws in the US, and any 20-year old is banned from buying or carrying pistols – and turn into a mass murderer?

Among 165,000 permits, there was one mass killer. The state is on the edge of New York, so you can bet there are plenty of drugs, too. Yet the other 164,999 permits to own a gun in Connecticut produced no mass killers.

News reports say he had a history of mental instability. At least one report mentioned ‘mood altering drugs.’ That is likely. The presence of legal drugs, the kind prescribed by psychiatrists, in the blood of the killers has been a feature of mass murders in America.

Both of the Columbine High School killers, Eric Harris (described as ‘a classic psychopath’) and Dylan Klebold, were on psychotropic drugs.

So was 17-year old Jeff Weise, the 2005 Red Lake High School killer in Minnesota who killed nine people then committed suicide.

So was 19-year old Robert Hawkins who murdered eight people then killed himself in Nebraska in 2007.

‘The US has the highest gun ownership rate in the world… but the US does not have the worst firearm murder rate – that prize belongs to Honduras, El Salvador and Jamaica. In fact, the US is number 28, with a rate of 2.97 per 100,000 people. Puerto Rico tops the world’s table for firearms murders as a percentage of all homicides – 94.8 percent. It’s followed by Sierra Leone in Africa and Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean.’

Number three on the global list of civilian gun ownership is Switzerland, a country with an historical understanding of the importance of an armed citizenry. The Swiss have 46 firearms per 100 of population. Yet there the rate of homicide by firearm per 100,000 of population is just 0.77 percent.

Fourth on the list is Finland with 45 firearms per 100 population. The rate of homicide by firearm in Finland is 0.45 per 100,000 of population.

Fifth on the list is Cyprus with 36 firearms per 100 of population. Homicide by firearm in Cyprus is 0.46 per 100,000 people. (For contrast, in Venezuela, the homicide by firearm rate is 39 per 100,000 population.)

Number 13 in global terms of private gun ownership is Canada with 31 firearms per hundred people, then Austria, Iceland and Germany with 30 guns per hundred of population. These are all amongst the most safe and orderly countries on earth. The fact that that they also have high concentrations of privately-held guns may be connected.

It would be great if ObamaCare can provide the mental health therapy our children and young adults need to prevent more of this behavior.

[Merlot Joe]

Dec 18, 2012 7:51:11 GMT -6 Ardbeg... innit said:

Free Market Solution- EVERY homicide/suicide/accidental shooting that involves a gun costs us taxpayers $$$.

Stick with me here to the finish.

Require gun owners to have insurance to cover the costs associated with any of the above. The insurance company would set the rates based on an inspection of how you store your gun, just like they inspect your house for fire insurance. You keep the guns locked up in a gun club locker, probably very cheap insurance. If you keep the gun under you bed with no locks, a lot higher. If you have a certificate of gun training, cheaper. If you have a recent psych test, cheaper. The insurance company would be required to microchip the gun as proof that it has been inspected and its "lockup" status confirmed.

That is the simple part.

Now how this effects the bad guy. To buy a gun, ammunition, or the components to make ammunition you must present your certificate of insurance. This certificate would be like a passport with high security chips that make it difficult to forge. For the seller to not validate possession of this certificate would be a felony.

Yes it would still be possible for the bad guys to sell this stuff on the street, but it would make it more difficult for the street sellers to get the materials, and it would therefore drive up the cost on the street for the illegal purchase, a good thing.

For the person holding the certificate, the background check has been done, and that part of current law could be repealed, they have been preapproved.

Possession of a gun without a microchip, a felony.

Since all of this would be done by the insurance companies, the government would not be involved in the registration of the guns.

Edited: AND the insurance company would be responsible for all of the investigation and clean up costs of all gun related violence/suicide/accidents.

Gordon I like your idea but one question. Is this for new guns purchased after a given date or for or all guns in the USA now?

You just can't tell some one they are a felon on 1-15-whatever if they own a gun and don't run to the local gun control office staffed by non english speaking government employees. The reason I say this is that 90% of current gun owners would tell the Federal Government to go fuck itself.

1. The government does not have the qualified man power to enforce it unless the used the military which they can not. 2. You can't put that large of a population behind bars all at one time, no room and note enough money to do it.

I will go along with the idea for all new guns sold or resold as of a specific date. This would include private sales of guns.

As a gun owner be damn if I would run down to the local gun control office and do that for guns that I previously own or inherited. The government is not going to go door to door and search every home in the USA looking for guns or seeing if you have registered. Under our laws hey would need individual warrants for each and every person iand address in the country. If they do not then we have just become a NAZI state. The USA cannot just start kicking in doors when ever the hell it feels like it.

there is no easy way to control guns. The horse has been out of the barn since Colombus landed here. It's to late to close the barn door.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Fine. Then stop shaking your head and saying "Tsk, tsk" whenever you hear about a shooting at a school, mall, theater or place of worship. Welcome to America -- now d.u.c.k. !

[♥ COVID-19♥]

The governor of Colorado gets it.

Mental Health Reform in Colorado After Shootings

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will ask the state general assembly Tuesday for $18.5 million to help “redesign and strengthen” the state’s mental health services and support system.
...

Hickenlooper’s plan would include ch-ch-changes to state law allowing the judicial system to instantly transmit mental health commitment records to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation so the information would be immediately available for firearm background checks. The plan would also establish a statewide mental health crisis hotline and would open five 24/7 walk-in mental health crisis centers. Services for “seriously mentally ill” people would be expanded, including help with housing as patients transition from mental health hospitals back into the community.

Good for him.

Other states should follow suit.

[Tex]

I would be willing to put more resources into mental health facilities. This is no quick magic bullet, but right now a 15 or 20 percent improvement is looking attractive. I haven't heard any better ideas.

[Robin Hood]

Dec 18, 2012 14:47:32 GMT -6 ♥ COVID-19♥ said:

You don't have a constitutional right to own an assault weapon either, but some people choose to interpret it that way for some oddball reason.

I totally disagree... let's look at the 2nd Amendment and break it down and put it into the context of the time it was written.

First let's look at the language of it:
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

The first part is basically saying "yes, we understand that we need a standing Militia to protect our nation as a whole" then we have something that is definitely deliberate in the language, a comma. I have seen this nowhere else in the constitution or the bill of rights where it was something "to just make a pause in the sentence" as most anti gun folks would like you to believe, these were educated men that wrote this... it is a great big stop sign to also say HOWEVER "even though we have a militia we understand that gov'ts and armies can become tyrannical so the right of the PEOPLE to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Now let's look at the historical context of it... these were men that had just fought a war against a tyrannical King who had tried unsuccessfully I might add to disarm them and by God it wasn't going to happen again. If you read the letters and documents of the time period it becomes crystal clear what the Founding Fathers meant.

If we take the Founding Fathers in the context of their time and what they were protecting against, they absolutely wanted the American people to be as well armed as any gov't entity... End of Story.

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. "

[♥ COVID-19♥]

In Other Countries, Laws Are Strict and Work

Australia is an excellent example. In 1996, a “pathetic social misfit,” as a judge described the lone gunman, killed 35 people with a spray of bullets from semiautomatic weapons. Within weeks, the Australian government was working on gun reform laws that banned assault weapons and shotguns, tightened licensing and financed gun amnesty and buyback programs.

At the time, the prime minister, John Howard, said, “We do not want the American disease imported into Australia.” The laws have worked. The American Journal of Law and Economics reported in 2010 that firearm homicides in Australia dropped 59 percent between 1995 and 2006. In the 18 years before the 1996 laws, there were 13 gun massacres resulting in 102 deaths, according to Harvard researchers, with none in that category since.

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Even the ultra-conservative Rupert Murdoch-owned NY Post ...

Adam Lanza’s weapons

Has technology rendered the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution obsolete?

That is, has the application of modern military design to civilian firearms produced a class of weapons too dangerous to be in general circulation?

We say: Yes.

From Murdoch himself via Twitter:

Even Rupert Murdoch wants tighter gun control

Rupert Murdoch
✔
@rupertmurdoch
Terrible news today. When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons? As in Oz after similar tragedy.

To those of you who believe that nothing should be done on our nation's gun laws: hold your hands under scalding hot water for as long as you can stand it and you still will not be able to wash off the blood. You and I helped to kill the children in Newtown because we did not vote for stronger gun control laws in years past when we could have prevented this.

[Tex]

Will everyone in favor of killing first graders please raise your hand and be recognized?

Look, someone can have an honest difference in opinion in what could be effective in preventing tragedies like this in the future without favoring murdering young children. Tarring those who may disagree with you with the brush of being indifferent about the murder of children is intellectually dishonest. You are smart enough to know better and choose to do it anyway.

[Chicago Jake]

Dec 18, 2012 22:27:05 GMT -6 Tex said:

Will everyone in favor of killing first graders please raise your hand and be recognized?

Look, someone can have an honest difference in opinion in what could be effective in preventing tragedies like this in the future without favoring murdering young children. Tarring those who may disagree with you with the brush of being indifferent about the murder of children is intellectually dishonest. You are smart enough to know better and choose to do it anyway.

It is not only intellectually dishonest; it is the hallmark of liberal debate.

[Robin Hood]

Here is the short article I wrote tonight and posted on Facebook, please feel free to share, the misinformation has to stop!!

The utter hypocrisy of the left wing gun grabbing zealots totally amazes me, I have been sitting here listening to how we have to do "something" so that we protect the children from any more gun violence. I understand why people are pissed off and saddened right now, I myself sat here at my desk and cried the other night over the tragedy in Newtown, CT. But how can someone that supports unrestricted abortion even begin to say that they care about children? Am I missing something? How can an administration that allowed weapons to flow freely into Mexico to the drug cartels sit there and lecture me, a law abiding citizen and a United States Marine Corps veteran on how irresponsible it is for me to own a particular type of firearm simply because they are so called "assault weapons"?

The media has been flooding the airwaves with tons of misinformation about these weapons to further their leftist gun grabbing agenda, as a former United States Marine Corps Marksmanship Instructor I feel it is my duty to clear up some of that misinformation and take a look at these "powerful" weapons for what they really are, an AR-15 is chambered in NATO 5.56mm or .223, simple ballistics tests show us that that particular standard full metal jacket cartridge fires a 55 grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of around 3200 feet per second with 1260 ft lbs of energy. Now those figures can go up or down a little bit depending on the load, but for the most part they are a fair representation of the cartridge. Now lets take a look at a standard 30-06 Springfield cartridge very common for hunting. That cartridge fires a 125-220 grain bullet but for the sake of my argument here I will pick something in the middle say a 165 grain bullet, it fires at a muzzle velocity of 2800 feet per second, that is slower than the .223, however let's look at the energy, it is 2872 ft lbs of energy... that is over TWICE the energy that the .223 has... don't get me wrong, both will very effectively kill especially at close range but some simple math tells us that the rifle firing the .223 cartridge is not even close to being as powerful as a standard hunting rifle.

So it must be something with how the rifle functions then right? A standard hunting rifle and a legal AR-15 function almost identically. The are both semi-automatic weapons, one pull of the trigger one round fires. True automatic weapons have been illegal to manufacture and sell since 1986. With this information we can honestly say it isn't how they function. Well if the hunting rifle fires a more powerful cartridge and they function the same what does that leave us with? The only thing left is the cosmetic appearance of the rifles, a standard hunting rifle is usually something that is fairly attractive in nature. Most of the so called "assault rifles" are more utilitarian in nature, nothing but the basics and they look "scary". Well the large capacity clips you can fire lots of rounds without stopping you say... First off they are called MAGAZINES, anyone that practices routinely can ch-ch-change a magazine in less than a couple of seconds and continue to fire... the large "clips" are a strawman argument at best.

Now that we have cleared up a few facts about "assault weapons" let's examine a bit of our culture. Here is where the problem lies in my opinion. We now live in a culture that has no respect for human life. We have been desensitized to the violence from the video games we play to the movies we watch. I will be the first to admit I love to play Call of Duty and like to watch action movies, however my brain is mature enough and healthy enough to understand that these are fictional and not real. We have parents in this country that allow their children to watch whatever they want, play whatever games they desire and when they act up instead of disciplining them they take them to a doctor and get them diagnosed with ADHD and then pump them full of mind altering drugs... they then allow these young drugged minds to continue to sit in front of these electronic babysitters. Is it any wonder why we have violence?

If we are going to have a discussion in this country it needs to be about parenting, our culture and mental health... not about guns. If we are to have any kind of meaningful discussion about guns it should be about more safety classes and more concealed carry permits so when some nutcase does goes off the deep end there is someone there to stop him in his tracks, while I am on the topic of concealed carry, please get rid of these "Gun Free Zones", all they do is make massacres like this even more deadly. If you look at the history of these mass shootings they usually end the second the shooter is confronted with armed resistance, the case in CT was no different, when the cops showed up, he shot himself.

In closing I ask that you please share this with your friends the misinformation perpetrated by our media has to stop! I also ask that you please pray for those innocent children and teachers that were taken from this world way to soon.

[Ardbeg... innit]

Again:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

[Ardbeg... innit]

Michigan's Republican Gov put the brakes on more concealed guns yesterday:

Concealed weapons bill vetoed by Gov. Snyder

Governor Rick Snyder has vetoed a bill that would have allowed people with concealed pistol permits to carry their guns into schools.

The governor says the Connecticut school shootings only reinforced his skepticism about the legislation, especially that schools would no longer be "no-carry" zones.

"It didn’t allow individual organizations to decide they didn’t want guns," said Snyder. "And that’s something that I always felt strongly about, and then this terrible tragedy happened -- and my thoughts and prayers are with the people in Connecticut – and this gives you even more pause."

And the governor says he is concerned that, technically, Michigan still allows people to openly carry guns into schools.

“There is an issue about this ‘open-carry’ that most Michiganders don’t realize, I think, where people can currently under law open carry in any of these institutions, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing,” said Snyder.

Michigan allows people to openly carry firearms anyplace they are not expressly forbidden, but principals and administrators do still have wide authority to control who and what is allowed in a school building.

The governor says he’d like the Legislature to revisit the state's open carry law next year.

[Ardbeg... innit]

Regarding Mental Health. I dont know about other states but in both Michigan and Wisconsin, most facilities were closed in the 90's by Republican Governors and Legislatures as cost saving measures.

[Tex]

Regarding mental health, let's take a walk down memory lane, say to around the time "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" came out. The left in the US at the time was protesting "warehousing" (institutionalizing) the mentally ill and promoted a whole new concept of "mainstreaming" the mentally ill. We mainstreamed them, they are among us, and some of them are ticking time bombs and do horrible things. You can't have it both ways

[Ardbeg... innit]

OK, So the left came up with the idea and the right put it into action with no "outpatient" follow up. Where do we go from here?

[Ardbeg... innit]

BRAVO! Well written

An Open Letter from a PTA Mom to Mike Huckabee: A Message for Those Who Long for God’s Presence in Schools

Dear Mr. Huckabee,

We all share in great sorrow and grief from last week’s horrific events in Newtown, CT. I would like to think that it was overwhelming sadness from the loss of life that led you to state on Friday that the reason behind the mass killings of first graders and their educators was we have “systematically removed God” from public schools. I would like to think profound sorrow and shock were the reason for your misguided remarks. Unfortunately, cynicism leads me to believe that you made such statements for political posturing or perhaps to keep up with the conservative radio shock jocks.

Regardless of your motivation, I want to suggest that you visit your local public school before passing such judgment in the future. If you visited a neighborhood elementary school like Sandy Hook, or any public school for that matter, you would see that God’s presence and the teachings of Jesus Christ are well represented by the works of the people in those buildings. Now perhaps His presence isn’t seen in the way you want – there aren’t readings from the Bible (or any other religious texts for that matter) and the Ten Commandments aren’t posted in classrooms (nor are the Pillars of Islam, actually), but His presence and teachings are instead practiced, demonstrated, and felt. You see, Mr. Huckabee, if you visited the schools you quickly denounce for removing your symbols of God, you’d find that His work actually takes places there every day.

For many students, that public school you deride is their only constant; their only refuge; their only normalcy. Like educators across the nation, my elementary school principal husband and his staff work daily with homeless children, hungry children, abused children, broken children. He and his staff feed their bodies, characters, minds, and souls. They do it every day. They do it for little pay and they do it for lousy benefits. They do it despite the disrespect they sometimes feel from parents and the public. They do it in the face of disdain from politicos that claim they’re fleecing taxpayer money and don’t contribute revenue to the economy. They do it even as they’re called “union thugs.” Educators are God’s workers – there’s no other reason to think a person would endure so much to receive so little.

These educators, aided by school support staff and parent/community volunteers, are God-given, Mr. Huckabee. Through them God’s miracles happen every day. Through education, God’s children are provided a shot at a better life. In my state of Texas, 25% of children live in poverty (the statistics in your home state of Arkansas are similar). For some of these children, these educators are the only chance they have of breaking the poverty cycle. In those Godless government schools, they have a chance at a better tomorrow. The school is a place where they can not only explore their life’s dreams, but be provided the tools to achieve those dreams. It is the tireless men and women of the school systems that will give them those tools.

And these educators wear many hats – not only do they educate and lead, they serve as role models, protectors, life coaches, and cheerleaders. They’re in loco parenti. They’re friends and counselors. Unfortunately, some in Connecticut even served as human shields – coming between bullets and six year olds. If serving children and the community in this way isn’t the work of a higher power, I don’t know what is.

Perhaps your efforts would be better spent, Mr. Huckabee, not in trying to bring your particular brand of religion into schools or dictating how God should appear in a classroom, but instead supporting public schools and the work He does through them. Education budgets have been slashed nationwide. Our students learn in over-crowded classrooms with outdated technology. Our teachers are being pushed out of the profession by unrealistic accountability systems and the profit-driven thirst to ch-ch-change classrooms into testing factories. Our state legislatures are bowing down to special interests seeking to privatize our education systems – turning a noble profession and public commitment into little more than a profitable pick for a hedge fund manager. Through systematic defunding, the decline of critical thinking skills to make way for rote memorization to pass the next benchmark test, and the political prostitution of public education for profit, the war on education is clear and ongoing. God’s work through these schools and educators is under attack, but your concern is reciting scripture in the classroom. Really?

Mr. Huckabee, why are you and other sanctimonious detractors more concerned that educators don’t lead children in prayer instead of sharing concern for the many challenges that schools and impoverished children face daily? Why are you saddened that children aren’t taught Biblical parables instead of uplifted by the miracles that occur in schools every day? If you don’t see God in the efforts and works of schools and educators, I’m afraid you’re not really looking.

You see, Mr. Huckabee, schools don’t need to preach the Gospel or read the Bible every day to bring God into the classroom. He never left.

Sincerely,

PTA Mom

[Ardbeg... innit]

American Guns cancelled by Discovery Channel

[Tex]

Dec 19, 2012 8:07:57 GMT -6 Ardbeg... innit said:

OK, So the left came up with the idea and the right put it into action with no "outpatient" follow up. Where do we go from here?

Half truth would be dignifying this, so 10% maybe.

The case at hand: The murderer's dad makes over $1,000,000.00 per year. He paid the mom $350,000.00 per year. So we should have had taxpayers making $50,000.00 per year paying for more outpatient follow up and this would have never happened?

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - two more rich kids whose families could have paid for the best care.

Major Hasan - well paid psychiatrist of all things - did he not have access to adequate free mental health care?

Maybe it's time to ditch the template. It isn't a good fit.

[Tex]

I sympathize with the kid, but pre-schoolers packing heat might not be such a good idea either. This is the county seat for Kilgore:

www.news-journal.com/news/local/kindergarten-student-brings-handgun-to-longview-isd-school/article_203f2615-a9fc-55ee-bb16-fac6c6e8ec30.html

[♥ COVID-19♥]

A former NYPD Commissioner appears to like Gordon's idea ...

Former NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir: Right to arms – yes, but also responsibility

www.nydailynews.com/opinion/safir-arms-yes-responsiblity-article-1.1223223#ixzz2FW7TTVIH

First, eliminate the purchase of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, and do so with no exceptions. These weapons are made for one and only one purpose: to kill people.

Second, require that all gun owners obtain liability insurance on their weapons. This will require a larger investment to own a weapon, and it will put the onus of careful ownership on the individual.

Third, require a yearly inspection of all guns. The initial purchaser would have to bring their gun to a government facility once a year. This would ensure that the purchaser still possesses it, and if not, he or she would have to explain what happened to it.

[New Mama]

This woman is a bit wacked.

“God’s presence and the teachings of Jesus Christ are well represented by the works of the people in those buildings.“

The teachings of Jesus Christ? Along with Christians, there are Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and atheists working in schools. The good work that they do is not evidence of God. It proves that many good people exist in all faiths. Since these religions have conflicting theologies, it isn’t Christianity at work or any other religion. It is the inherent goodness of the individuals alone that deserve credit.

“His presence and teachings are instead practiced, demonstrated, and fell.”

Does she think that people being good did not exist prior to god and Jesus?

I could go on but I hope you get my point. I’m not defending Huckabee and am not familiar with all that he opined on regarding this shooting but this letter is a bit ‘out there’.

[New Mama]

Now Obama has set up a gun violence task force.

The guns used at Sand Hook were not what most refer to as 'assault rifles'. I'm guessing we will get some feel good legislation that will do nothing to stop the killing.

Where was Obama during the daily gunning down of children in his claimed home town here in Chicago? No task force then or now.

[Chicago Jake]

I like Obama's original idea: get guns out of the hands of American nut-jobs by sending them to Mexican drug lords. He's a genius!

[♥ COVID-19♥]

Bulletproof backpack sales spike after Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Sales of bulletproof backpacks for schoolchildren are through the roof days after a masked gunman's rampage left 20 kids dead at a Connecticut elementary school.

Parents began snapping up the high-tech bookbags Friday, the same day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, Elmar Uy of the Massachusetts-based armor company BulletBlocker told the Daily News.

In fact, the sudden spike in sales is how Uy, vice president of business operations, found out about the shooting.

"Part of my daily activity is to monitor the numbers," he said. "I was seeing numbers I'd never seen before and I thought it was a glitch. Our web traffic was ten times more than normal.

"I turned on the TV and there it was on CNN."

BulletBlocker's child safety backpack is on sale for $199.99.