Man Stabs 22 Children In China: Authorities 
December 14, 2012, 10:11pm

BEIJING (AFP) – A man stabbed 22 primary school students in a knife attack in China on Friday, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults.

The attacker "has been detained", said a spokesman for the Guangshan county government in the central province of Henan, where the stabbing happened.

"Twenty-two elementary school students were stabbed, so was an adult villager" but none of the victims died, the official, who declined to give his name, told AFP.

The state-run China News Service said a man attacked the students with a knife outside an elementary school, resulting in injuries which were "not life threatening". It did not give the children's exact ages.

China has seen several violent attacks against children over the past two years, including a spate of five incidents in 2010 which killed 15 children and two adults and wounded more than 80.

The assaults have forced authorities to increase security around schools and led to calls for more research into their root causes.

Violent crime has been on the rise in China in recent decades as the nation's economy has boomed and the gap between rich and poor has expanded rapidly.

Studies have also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, some of them linked to stress as the pace of life becomes faster and socialist support systems wither.

But authorities say that murder, which carries the death penalty, remains far less common than in most Western countries.

20 children among 26 victims of Connecticut school shooting 

Newtown, Connecticut (CNN) -- In one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, a gunman opened fire Friday in a Connecticut elementary school, killing 26 people -- 20 of them children, police said.

The suspected gunman, who was not identified by police, also was killed.

The mass shootings occurred in one section of Sandy Hook Elementary School and spanned two rooms, said Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police.

The mother of the suspected shooter, who was a teacher at the school, appeared to be the primary target, a federal law enforcement source said. The mother was among those killed.

Also among the dead were the school's principal and psychologist, according to a parent who was at the school when the incident happened.

Separately, another adult was found dead in a second location in Newtown, Vance said. A senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN the suspect's brother was found dead at a residence.
One person was wounded.

"Why? Why?" one woman wailed as she walked up a wooded roadway leading from the school.

Police recovered three weapons from the scene: a semi-automatic .223 Bushmaster, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, a source with knowledge of the investigation said. It's unclear whether police killed the suspect.

Police were questioning another man but are not calling him a suspect, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.

President Barack Obama addressed the shooting in an emotional statement Friday afternoon, saying, "Our hearts our broken today." Obama, a father to two girls, wiped away tears as he noted the nation has "endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years."

Despite the danger being past, federal officers in tactical gear were on the scene Friday afternoon, coordinating with state and local authorities. At least four ambulances remained at the school.

'I hope my mom is ok': Tweets from the Connecticut school shooting

Hospital officials in neighboring Danbury said they were treating three people wounded in the shooting. Mayor Mark Boughton said the victims were in "very serious" condition.

Police and teachers rushed students from the building as police swarmed the area shortly after the first calls came in, around 9:40 a.m. ET. Officials moved students to a nearby firehouse, where parents frantically sought information about their children.

Third-grader Alexis Wasik said police and teachers barged into her classroom and told students to hide in the corner.

"Everybody was crying," she said. "And I just heard the police officers yelling."

Other officers, some in tactical gear, stood around the school with guns drawn, CNN affiliate WFSB reported.
'It doesn't seem possible' -- parents shocked by school shooting

All schools in the city were on lockdown Friday as police assessed the situation, Vance said.

Gov. Dannel Malloy is "horrified" by what happened, a spokesman said. Malloy was meeting with families Friday afternoon, the spokesman said.

Obama ordered flags to half-staff nationwide in tribute to the victims.

If the number of fatalities holds up, the Newtown shooting would be the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, behind only the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that left 32 people dead.

In 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, two students shot 13 people to death before killing themselves.

What can one say when these type of troubled humans carry out horrible and despicable acts.

Originally Posted by: Pack93z 

Why couldn't he open fire in the US Congress instead?

Originally Posted by: DakotaT 

but just think of all the hostility or anger a person like this has to carry around before they explode?

Originally Posted by: DakotaT 

I can't imagine being that angry... you wonder if there were signs or warnings.. but then again, we probably would have hundreds of thousands of "patients" in care facilities if every depressed or angry person was reported for help.

Originally Posted by: Pack93z 

There are 300+ million people in the USA. There are 1.5+ billion people in the PRC.

To be honest, given the stresses of a fast-paced world where tomorrow is outdated before it becomes today, and people are inundated by 3,000 (or 30,000) messages a day. I'm surprised that spree killings don't happen more often.

Doesn't make these any less sad, of course. Elementary schools, for heaven's sake. Breaking in a shopping mall, or a public place, or a street corner, or even in a suburban high school like Columbine, all those I can sort of understand. (Not justify, mind you, only understand how it might come to happen.) But what makes someone walk into an elementary school? That is so profoundly wrong on so many levels.

Sad. Just profoundly sad.

Originally Posted by: wade