THEBLAZE’S WILL CAIN RILES UP CNN’S DON LEMON OVER GUN CONTROL: ‘IT DOESN’T STAND UP TO CRITICAL THOUGHT’

TheBlaze’s Will Cain appeared on CNN Monday morning to discuss the recent tragedy that unfolded at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, where a crazed 20-year-old shot 20 children and 6 adults.  And in arguing that while everyone debates gun control, there are other factors at play that need to be evaluated (especially the shooter’s mental health), Cain riled up CNN’s Don Lemon — enough so that Lemon issued quite gun diatribe.

Cain explained:

I think that our focus on guns, it’s just, it’s too narrow.  It doesn’t stand up to critical thought.  Here’s the deal…gun violence [is] down from a peak in the 1990′s, and yet these mass killings are up.  Six of the deadliest 12 have happened since 2007, and so if guns are somewhat constant, what is the determining factor?  What has changed?

And we must figure out a way to address mental health, analyze mental health– something has changed in our country in the last 40 years…this process of de-institutionalizing mental health, or the rise in psychotropic drugs.  This seems to be the only thing that I can pinpoint now that is the delineating factor, and that’s what we must focus [on].

From there, CNN’s Don Lemon reported live from Newtown, Connecticut.  In his opinion, mental health is only a “secondary” issue, while the main focus needs to be banning certain types of guns.

Lemon argued (transcript via Newsbusters):

Who needs an armor-piercing bullet to go hunting?  Who needs an assault rifle to go hunting?  You can’t even use the prey that you kill with an assault rifle if you indeed do it. No one needs an assault rifle to go out and shoot a deer.  No one needs an assault rifle that’s capable of shooting 10, 20, 30 rounds off at the same time to shoot a duck, or to shoot quail.  It does not make sense.

Our first – the first thing that we need to do – and according to everyone that is here, even gun enthusiasts, is talk about what we’re doing with assault rifles, why should guns that should only be available in war zones, why are they available to people who are mentally healthy and people who are not mentally healthy.  That’s the issue that we need to deal with.

To say that gun violence is down, Lemon continued, “is insulting to everyone who lost a loved one here and is dealing with that.”

“Guns, bullets, and automatic weapons” should only be available to those who “hunt al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” and not “elementary school children.”

Watch the clip, via Mediaite, below:

THE TOUCHING STORY OF HOW ‘COMFORT DOGS’ WERE SENT TO NEWTOWN, CONN. TO CONSOLE THE HURTING

Although nothing can take away the pain that the families of victims in Newtown, Conn. have been experiencing for the last three days, a group has traveled 800 miles to at least try and offer comfort through cuddling.

A group of “K-9 Comfort Dogs” from the Lutheran Church Charities made their way from Chicago to Newtown over the weekend, according to the Chicago Tribune. It was in Newtown, Conn., that26 people were shot and killed Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School, 20 of whom were children.

The Tribune reported the organization’s president, Tim Hetzner, saying that the dogs create “the atmosphere for people to share.” Lynn Buhrke who handles “Chewie,” a female golden retriever, seconded this sentiment.

“The dogs have become the bridge. People just sit down and talk to you,” Buhrke said, according to the Tribune.

The LCC website stated that the dogs arrived in Connecticut Saturday, where they went to Christ the King church. The dogs also were at the Newtown High School for the event that President Barack Obama attended as well. You can see the dogs that went to comfort the grieving townhere.

According to the Tribune, the Comfort Dogs program has 60 dogs in six different states that travel to comfort people in light of national tragedy, but also those in the hospital and nursing homes.

According to an article in National Geographic, research has found that dogs used such a way can help patients feel less lonely. A recent study has also shown that dogs might be able to sense when someone is in need of comfort.

Find more pictures from the Comfort Dogs initiative on their Facebook page here.

EX-BABYSITTER SAYS CONN. SCHOOL SHOOTER’S MOTHER CAUTIONED: DON’T TURN YOUR BACK ON HIM

The mother of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooter Adam Lanza warned the boy’s babysitter not to turn his back on the child, not to even “go to the bathroom.”

Ryan Kraft, who now lives in California, reportedly babysat Adam when he was around 9-years-old. Krafttold CBS News he was horrified when he found out that the child he once looked after had shot his mother in the face before killing 20 children and six adults on Friday.

“I’m just numb to it, I haven’t really processed the fact that this happened right where I used to be, and that, 15 years ago, it could have been me,” he said.

He remembered Nancy Lanza warning him never to turn his back on Adam. She said “to keep an eye on him at all times…to never turn my back, or even go to the bathroom or anything like that,” Kraft recalled.

Kraft described young Adam as an introverted boy, but very intelligent and always in “his own world.”

“Whenever we were doing something, whether it was building Legos, or playing video games, he was really focused on it. It was like he was in his own world,” he told CBS News.

Kraft has since started a fundraiser to help the victims in Newtown, Conn. He hopes the money can be used to help those dealing with psychological issues and with funeral expenses. Money may also go towards establishing a scholarship fund in honor of the victims.

Kraft’s fundraising page raised more than $53,000 in one day.

Adam suffered from a physical disorder that left him unable to feel pain, according to, Richard Novia, the school district’s then head of security. He would have to be supervised whenever he handled equipment in case he accidentally injured himself and didn’t realize it.

“Novia recalls that Adam also seemed to have spells where he experienced a psychological corollary to his physical condition, withdrawing so much that his mother would have to be summoned,” The Daily Beast reports.

Nancy Lanza took Adam out of high school during his sophomore year. He is thought to have been homeschooled where he took college-level computer courses at Western Connecticut State University.

So, was Nancy Lanza’s warning to Kraft an ominous prediction of things to come or was it just her way of preparing him for the all the duties that come with supervising a young child?