School shooting spurs C.O. reaction online

Across the country from the chaos in Connecticut, many here in the Northwest took to Facebook to express their shock disbelief Friday morning.

One Facebook user wrote, “Tears and prayers. Holding space and love for the families and community of Newtown.”

People on Twitter shared similar sentiments, but also to ask questions likely never to have answers, such as: “How could someone shoot kindergarteners?”

Some people used social media to spur debate on an age-old topic — others called for talk about gun control to wait for another day.

We use sites like Facebook and Twitter to get information as the story unfolds, but they also can serve as a main source for confusion.

Early reports had the shooter pegged as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza; as you can imagine, people went after him in any form they could on the web, many people writing threats and other cruel things.

But less than an hour later, police released the name of the real suspected shooter, Lanza’s younger brother, Adam.

Police say the 20-year-old was carrying his brother’s ID when he shot himself inside Sandy Hook Elementary. The AP reported the mistake at 1:30 p.m. stating police transposed the names.

Although this is, sadly, not the first school shooting to capture the world’s attention., pictures from the scene of crying children and families dealing with the devastation are sure to become iconic.

That’s a hard truth for some to swallow. One person tweeted, “Every time there’s a shooting, they make it all about the death toll and glorify the shooter.”

Others talking about tears and prayers remind us to focus on the 26 victims and their families, whose world is now changed forever.