Where are the photos of the dead kids?

NRA Headquarters, Fairfax, Va. What would happen if children of NRA members were among the dead in Connecticut? ( Wikipedia)

Don't you want to see photos of those dead kids, all 7 years old or younger, shot multiple times and covered in blood?

For the second straight day, The Record's front page  is dominated by coverage of the "grisly massacre" at a Connecticut elementary school, but where are the photos of the victims?

Instead, readers get an overlong, eye-glazing he said/she said story on whether the killings will change the debate over gun control.

Thanks to Editor Marty Gottlieb, a Times veteran, this A-1 piece goes on and on, spilling over to half of Page A-8. 

Is anyone going to read more than a few paragraphs of the same rehash we see after every school shooting?

And this story may be confusing a shooter capable of forming the criminal intent to kill with a mentally ill 20-year-old incapable of doing so.

Media and NRA 

Self-censorship by the media makes them complicit in allowing the National Rifle Association to dismiss shootings like the one at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The NRA is confident that politicians who accept its blood money won't do anything to tighten control over rapid-fire weapons.

The real horror of the Connecticut shootings would be evident in photos of blood-covered kids in classrooms with multiple bullet holes in them. 

The last thing we need after a horrific shooting is the media hosting another debate over the constitutional right to own guns. 

'Mentally disturbed'

A photo of Adam Lanza, the shooter, appears on Page 1 today, and he is described as "mentally disturbed."

A story by three Record reporters refers to his "troubled life" and describe his as a "mentally disturbed loner."

Was he treated for mental illness? The story is silent on that.

Was he insane?

If he was mentally ill and survived, Lanza might have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Yet, the first paragraph of the Record's story says, "Advocates for gun ownership rights denounce the 'politicizing' of the tragedy, and say criminals will still find ways to kill."  

In the eyes of the law, Lanza may not be a criminal, and the debate over gun control needs to recognize that crucial difference.

More road kill

On the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski refers to himself as a "know-it-all."

That's directly contradicted by all those error-filled columns in the past 9 years that have exposed just how little he knows.

Today, he corrects  a major error in Friday's column, which reported incorrectly that the increase in road deaths in New Jersey in 2011 was more than in any other state except California.

Now, he says, Alaska's increase was greater than New Jersey's. 

Biggest mistake

Cichowski's biggest mistake was transforming the Road Warrior column into a forum for drivers, and virtually ignoring mass transit and other commuting issues.  

He is so burned out that most of his columns are based on ideas from reader e-mails, such as today's "annual Christmas wish list."

Missing is what anyone who commutes by car desperately wishes for:  

The addition of tens of thousands of road reflectors to help them guide their cars, especially on rainy nights, when all but the brightest, painted lines disappear.  

The Local front also carries a story on new, expanded flood zones after Superstorm Sandy, but what good is the accompanying map, which identifies only a few streets by name (L-1)?

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, needed three gee-whiz photos of non-fatal accidents to fill today's local-news section (L-3 and L-7).

Fattening up readers 

Another columnist who ran out of ideas long ago is dessert-obsessed Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who writes a misnamed Sunday column, The Corner Table (BL-1).

Today, she says, all readers want for Christmas is more artery clogging butter and cream, and a lot more sugar in their diet, so she consulted "three local experts who provided tips for baking your way through the holidays."

What this has to do with readers' restaurant-going issues is unclear.

Readers who are diabetic, who have heart problems or are watching their weight can just turn the page. 

Let them eat cake, Ung says.