ROCKLAND, Maine — The sidewalks were bustling Saturday evening with holiday shoppers who bundled up against the cold in search of the perfect present, walking in the glow of the brightly lit shop windows.
Many of them passed a different kind of light — a small knot of people standing on Main Street who used chilly fingers to hold onto candles and their voices to speak out during a vigil against gun violence.
Rep. Elizabeth Dickerson, D-Rockland, who also is a Rockland city councilor, said she wanted to give her constituents a chance to join in a concerted nationwide effort taking place at 5 p.m. that evening in the wake of the horrific school shootings Friday in Newtown, Conn.
“To talk about gun violence, to share their thoughts, their grief, their rage, their ideas for how we can prevent these acts,” she said.
Greg Marley of Rockland, one of the dozen or so people holding candles on the sidewalk near Planet Toys, was succinct when asked why he came to the vigil.
“Outrage kind of says it all,” he said. “It’s time. It’s time.”
Though the group was small, it was a start, he said.
“Everything’s got to start someplace. If you read the newspapers, you can see the outrage,” he said. “I hope that the NRA council is shaking in their boots.”
Marie Paschke of Rockland had a different take.
“Those poor little children — they’re six and seven years old,” she said of the victims of the shootings. “And I think we need to talk about mental health funding. We keep trying to protect ourselves and protect ourselves, but we’re not getting to the core issue. People are hurting, and we’re getting violent.”
Kyle Reniche of Rockland said that Americans may be getting desensitized to violence.
“There’s a personal responsibility element,” he said.
I wonder if Mack Page made it there?
All the gun laws in the world probably would have not stopped this disturbed individual.. Drugs are illegal but there is plenty of drugs out on the streets, plus he stole the guns from his mother’s house. Why don’t we ban cars because over 16,000 people a year are killed by drunk drivers? It’s the same logic being applied by those against the 2nd Amendment.. The issue with all this senseless violence has much deeper roots in our society and is way more complicated than the knee jerk reaction to punish law abiding citizens.
Agreed! Ban cars because cars kill people,we can’t even use a horse and buggy,the horse might kick someone.
Energy drinks have killed people.
What next ? Ban energy drinks?
Questions are raised about how much he and his brother Ryan spend playing violent online games? And how that he is / was an obvious misfit who graduated 3 years early from high school but then didn;t have anywhere else to go !
questions should be raised about what prescription drugs he was prescribed throughout his life and starting at what age…
The moral of this story is, if you have had a smart 20 somethinghanging around your house for a few years, living off the fat of the land,
you are an enabler. Kick his arse out so he will have to work, have some goals, go to school, etc.
So lets license guns like we do cars. Lets ban hollow point bullets and ban assault rifles and multiple magazine and 5 day waiting period. Doesn’t have a thing to do with 2nd amendment.
Do the research and you’ll see it’s not that difficult to manufacture firearms. A hobby-grade home machine shop could produce a submachine gun. It’s far from being rocket science.
Look at the way things were 40 or 50 years ago when we had so much less gun control. It’s obvious to me that people are looking in the wrong direction. We didn’t have these type of massacres when we had very little gun control.
Agreed. It is the decay of society, NOT guns. These guns were purchased legally. This is a tragedy that the libs will use for their gun control agenda.
Also: We’ve got both liberals and conservatives with a lot of misplaced faith in modern psychiatry/psychology. If the quackery they believe in has improved and become so effective, where are the fruits? Seems like we wouldn’t need to ban guns if we were so good in the mental health department. It’s definitely the decay you mention. Our technology and science will not cure moral decay.
40 or 50 years ago we weren’t pumping our kids full of prescription drugs, to the monetary benefit of massive corporations, all in the naive hope their ‘abnormality’ would just go away…
I seriously doubt the “NRA council” is shaking in their boots. People need to realize this is/was not about guns, but rather about a disturbed individual.
Yes and I do wonder what the “NRA council” would be. Maybe they were the ones secretly backing the Charles Bronson vigilante movies?
Too bad you can’t ban crazy.
Mental illness will not go away or be reduced ,it is part of our society, so lets give it the attention it deserves and maybe stop closing down the institutions that for so long helped these poor souls.
How about a vigil against violence. It is not the gun that kills. He could of had a sword or other weapons. Stop blaming guns for peoples reactions.
The anti-gun crowd puts their blinders on….
This guy was a sick pup…
The gun didnt pull the trigger itself.
What a sickening group of apologists for the killing industry!! You’d probably rationalize Hitler if given half a chance!
Now this would be the article for all of you that want to argue the pros and cons of Gun Control….geesh
Fortunately, our great Brother in the Prophet has a mandate to deal with these gun nut “freedom freaks” once and for all. Until they are concentrated for their own safety and ours, re-educated or dealt with in some other final solution fashion, we will never truly be a free people. Until we face the collective good and are willing to pay our 50-60% for a government with the resources to take care of us and properly protect us, there will not be a sustainable world and the deadly climate change will not be reversed.
Is this a made up story to rile people up?
This is the same town that invited a terriost to speak last year. With open arms I might add.
Where have all the drug ads gone the last 2 days. You know the ones that claim the side effects could lead to this type of insanity.. And if the side effects do accure call your doctor.. So the drug companies want a drug induced insane person to call their doctor.. I guess the disclaimer exempts them from libility
Timothy McVeigh didn’t use a gun.