world is gone mad ( Archived) (16)

So often after a tragedy such as this....we see "the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" measures taken by Government agencies.

Surely there were prior indicators that all was not right in this particular home? Where was the extended family? Friends? Social Services? Teachers? Neighbours?

A woman who is caring for 8 children needs a strong support system in place.

Too late now for these kids.

I agree. It's macabre.

...but the women may have been completely delusional, hearing voices....instructions to kill the children? In other words, totally off this planet. If so, surely there must have been outer signs visible to the community previously?? One wonders? More will come to surface in the next few days, no doubt.

Mental illness is an evil condition for those who suffer it as well as those who have to bear the consequences of it should it turn into a tragedy such as this.

'Excusing' does not figure in the equation, this mother will likely wish she had succeeded in her attempt to die and will live with the unbearable memory of what we can suspect to be an extreme psychotic episode for the rest of her days.

Meanwhile in America.In a piece that went up today on Mother Jones’ website, Mark Follman writes that at least 194 children aged 12 and under have been shot and killed this year in America. Follman’s piece is just one part of a larger package that also includes a downloadable spreadsheet of the death data, and an affecting interactive photo gallery that goes deeper into each individual child shooting death this year. Some of these were unintentional shootings. Others were suicides, or murder-suicides. None of them had to happen.

Child shooting deaths are a huge problem, and a specifically American problem at that. Follman cites a Children’s Defense Fund study that found that America’s rate of child shooting deaths is four times higher than Canada’s and 65 times higher than the United Kingdom’s. And he notes that, in cases of unintentional child shooting deaths, the relevant gun-owning adults are almost never held responsible:

While charges may be pending in some of the 84 accidental cases, we found only 9 in which a parent or adult guardian has been held criminally liable. And in 72 cases in which a child or teen pulled the trigger, only four adults have been convicted.
This is maddening, but not surprising. As I’ve said over and over again, America’s child access prevention laws—which aim to reduce underage gun incidents by penalizing adults who allow children to access those guns—are inconsistently written and rarely enforced. (According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

It's difficult to speculate what may have happened to trigger this tragedy until more facts are at hand.

....there is usually a marked deterioration prior to an extreme episode of psychosis(if that is what took place). A woman caring for 8 young children leading up to a stressful time of the year, Christmas....requires assistance.