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Showing posts with label Sandy Hook Elementary School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandy Hook Elementary School. Show all posts
I have to say, I admire Erica Lafferty for her courage. She should make the cowardly Senators like Sen kelly ayotte r NH face the people who are harmed by the their votes against reasonable gun control legislation. I hope she continues her personal campaign challenging Senators like ayotte, and that more victims and survivors of gun violence as well as the families of survivors take the same kind of action.
TILTON, NH — The daughter of the high school principal who died during the Sandy Hook shooting walked out of a town hall with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) on Tuesday after the event erupted in chaos over the lawmaker’s answer to a question about gun regulations. Ayotte was one of 46 senators to vote down a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks to gun shows and online purchases.
Erica Lafferty left in frustration as Ayotte attempted to answer a question about framing the gun safety debate as a public health crisis. The first-term senator began saying that she would concentrate on “criminal activity with guns” before Zandra Rice Hawkins, a member of the group Granite State Progress, interrupted and asked, “So why do you let them get the guns in the first place?”
The questioned led to a round of booing and cross argumentation between gun safety activists and the largely pro-Ayotte crowd. Lafferty walked out as other proponents of stricter gun laws held up signs reading “shame on you.”
After the event was over, Hawkins attempted to approach Ayotte to ask if she would hold a town hall about gun violence. But she was shoved away by a large man who did not appear to be a law enforcement official. ThinkProgress asked a local sheriff who was attending the event if the man was in fact a police officer and the sheriff admitted that he was not.
At an earlier town hall, Lafferty directly confronted Ayotte over her vote. “You had mentioned that the burden to owners of gun stores that these expanded background checks would cause,” Lafferty said. “I’m just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the hall of her elementary school isn’t as important as that?”
“You had mentioned that day the burden on owners of gun stores that the expanded background checks would cost. I am just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the halls of her elementary school isn’t as important as that,” Erica Lafferty said.
“Erica, I, certainly let me just say, I’m obviously so sorry,” Ayotte replied. “And, I think that ultimately when we look at what happened in Sandy Hook, I understand that’s what drove this whole discussion — all of us want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The senator said expand criminal background checks wouldn’t have prevented the Sandy Hook school shooting, which left 20 young children and six adults dead. She said she supported efforts to restrict the mentally ill from purchasing firearms.
The Senate voted 54-46 in favor of a bipartisan amendment to a larger gun bill that would require background checks on firearm sales at gun shows and on the Internet. However, the Senate failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Republican-led filibuster.
Ayotte’s approval rating has dropped 15 points since October, according to Public Policy Polling. Half of the voters in New Hampshire said her “no” vote would make them less likely to support her re-election, while only 23 percent said it would make them more likely to support her.
FROM Sojourners, a response to the unholy reaction of the nra to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and their attitude to sane and reasonable gun control.
Tuesday was the 84th birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I don’t know about you, but I miss his words, so I offer a few. King said “people often hate each other because they fear each other, they fear each other because they don’t each other, they don’t know each other because they cannot communicate, they cannot communicate because they are separated.” I would add to his words: ‘and in that separation they seek guns.’ As an evangelical Christian, I’m going to make this theological.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said this as his response to the massacre of children at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Conn.: “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
That statement is at the heart of the problem of gun violence in America today — not just because it is factually flawed, which of course it is, but also because it is morally mistaken, theologically dangerous, and religiously repugnant.
The world is not full of good and bad people; that is not what our scriptures teach us. We are, as human beings, both good and bad. This is not only true of humanity as a whole, but we as individuals have both good and bad in us. When we are bad or isolated or angry or furious or vengeful or politically agitated or confused or lost or deranged or unhinged — and we have the ability to get and use weapons only designed to kill large numbers of people — our society is in great danger.
As we have just seen again, when such destructive weapons are allowed to be used out of powerful emotion without restraint or rules, that is bad. In dangerous situations, we as parents cannot tell our children they are safe. We cannot, because they are not. After Sandy Hook many child psychologists were counseling parents like us (I have a 9-year-old and 14-year-old) to hold and love our children, tell them they were safe. We can and did hold and love them, but we cannot tell them they are safe. Not as long as such weapons are available to human beings when they are acting badly.
When we are good, we want to protect our children — not by having more guns than the bad people, but by making sure guns aren’t the first available thing to people when they’re being bad. Being good is protecting people and our children from guns that are outside of the control of rules, regulations, and protections for the rest of us.
Let me be personal and theological again, this time with Rev. Phil Jackson, a young pastor from Chicago who I talked with earlier this week. A young, dynamic street pastor, he told me that Chicago had 2,400 shootings in 2012 — 505 of them resulting in death. More than 100 of them were children from elementary to high school. Almost all of the murdered ones were people and children of color — African-American and Latino. That’s more gun deaths in Chicago than American troop deaths in Afghanistan last year. One city.
Rev. Jackson thinks that God cares as much about murdered children of color in Chicago as God cares about murdered white children in Connecticut. But it seems that mostly the white children get our attention and break our hearts. He thinks those murdered black and brown kids also get God’s attention as much as murdered white kids. But he wonders why they don’t get ours. It’s morally mistaken and also religiously repugnant.
Finally, what will make a difference this time? Only two things I can think of. First, is if people of faith respond differently just because they are people of faith — that our faith overcomes our politics here, and that gun owners and gun advocates who are people of faith will act in this situation as people of faith, distinctively and differently. Second, that we act differently as parents. What has hit us all so hard — what caused the president’s tears and my own on that day — was looking at all our own kids, feeling their own fragility. Parents across the spectrum, gun owners or not, must demand a new national conversation on guns.
I was putting my 9-year-old to bed a few nights ago. He said, “Dad I heard you talking on the phone about guns and the press conference you’re talking at tomorrow. “
“What do you think about it Jack? What do you think about it Jack?” I asked him.
And here’s what Jack said:
“I think that they ought to let people who, like licensed hunters, have guns if they use them to hunt. And people who need guns — who need guns for their job like policemen and army. But I don’t think that we should just let anybody have any kind of gun and any kind of bullets that they want. That’s pretty crazy.”
I agree with Jack. Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. His forthcoming book, On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned about Serving the Common Good, is set to release in April. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
PROVING the need to increase scrutiny of people who may want to buy guns consider the pathetic and outrageous claimes by the "Sandy Hook Truthers" who are spreading rumors the mass murders of students, teachers and the shooters mother was a plot planned and carried out by the government to outrage the nation and bring about stricter gun control laws. This from Salon....
(Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer)
Yes, there really are Newtown truthers.
But in the crazy world of Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, this one may be the worst yet. (Maybe you’ve already heard some of the others, like the one about fantasy ties between the gunman’s family and the LIBOR banking scandal and a related theory about the Aurora shooting and the “Dark Knight Rises.”) Most of the theories are really pieces of a larger meta-theory: that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, perhaps by the Obama administration, designed to stir demand for gun control.
In the latest angle, theorists think they have found “absolute proof” of a conspiracy to defraud the American people. “You reported in December that this little girl had been killed,” a reader emailed Salon in response to a story. “She has been found, and photographed with President Obama.”
The girl in question is Emilie Parker, a 6-year-old who was shot multiple times and killed at Sandy Hook. But for conspiracy theorists, the tears her family shed at her funeral, the moving eulogy from Utah’s governor, and the entire shooting spree are fake. Welcome to the world where Sandy Hook didn’t really happen.
There are dozens of websites, blog posts and YouTube videos extolling the Emilie Parker hoax theory. If you Google her name, the very first result is a post mocking her father for crying at a press conference after the shooting. One popular video, which already has 134,000 views, was made by the producers of a popular 9/11 Truther film. “Just as the movie ‘Operation Terror’ shows the 9/11 attacks were a made-for-TV event, so too were the mass shootings … There can be no doubt that Sandy Hook was a staged event,” the narrator intones. He goes on to say that the adults who participated in the media coverage of the shootings “should be prosecuted as accessories after the fact in a mass murder” — i.e., the parents whose children were murdered in the massacre should be thrown in prison.
The crux of the theory is a photograph of Parker’s sister sitting on President Obama’s lap when he visited with the victims’ families. The girl is wearing the same dress Emilie wore in a pre-shooting photograph of the family shared with media, so she must be Emilie, alive and well. “BAM! I cannot believe how idiot these people are [sic]… That’s her,” one YouTuber exclaims as he watches the two images superimposed on each other. (Apparently missed by these crack investigators is the possibility that the sister wore Emilie’s dress and that they look alike because they are sisters, after all.)
The supporting details to the hoax theory explanation are reminiscent of the arcana of any well-developed conspiracy theory. What about the car? What about the rifle? Why does someone off camera allegedly tell Parker’s father to “read the Card” (as in a cue card) before he goes on CNN? Why is he laughing? Who is the guy running into the woods? Why is there police audio referring to multiple shooters? Why does one boy who survived the shooting tell Dr. Oz it was like “a drill”? Why was the principal quoted by a local paper after she died? Why do some of the parents look like some of the victims of the Aurora shooting — are they “all actors”? All of these questions have simple explanations, but in each case, the theorists have sided more with less likely, but more nefarious possibilities.
One man has taken it upon himself to catalog all of the theories at SandyHookHoax.com. By way of credentials, creator Jay Johnson explains: “I am the only person in the world to solve LOST,” he writes (yes, the TV show).
In an email exchange with Salon, Johnson said he initially “wanted to help the kids express their feelings and memorialize the victims … But then I saw how the local paper interviewed the principal after she was dead, and I realized it was 99% odds another psychological operation that was going on,” he explained.
Noting that he started the website on “12/21/12” he explained, “since I am the New Age Messiah, with my Look Your Heart in the Mirror™ as the new revelation from the Goddess Tefnut, aka Ma’at, of Egypt, I thought the date was significant.”
But the hoax theory has even earned the backing for some presumably more credible sources. James Tracy, a tenured professor of communications at Florida Atlantic University, sparked controversy this week after he wrote a blog post suggesting the parents were “crisis actors.” “While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place — at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation’s news media have described,” he wrote.
Websites owned by Alex Jones, the conspiracy theory pundit who helped start the 9/11 Truther movement and has millions of readers, are a virtual one-stop shop for Sandy Hook “false flag” miscellanea. So far, mainstream conservative figures haven’t hopped on board, though Gun Owners of American head Larry Pratt told Jones this summer that he thought there was a good chance the Aurora massacre was perpetrated by government agents.
Then there’s just the downright bizarre subgenre of theories. One posting on the community forum of Jones’ website connects Sandy Hook and Emilie Parker to Satanism, postulating that the school was a “recruiting center” for the Church of Satan. There’s even a low-budget slasher flick called “Sandy Hook Lingerie Party Massacre” — could that be connected?
Whether there is a connection or not, we can count on the Internet’s conspiracy theorists to find one, even if it means denying the legitimacy of the mourning families’ grief.
FROM The PBS NewsHour. On occasion, at the end of the news broadcast they do the Honor Roll of members of the US Military killed in action. It is a silent tribute of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, showing the names of the fallen, their age and hometowns. On Monday night they presented a Honor Roll of the children and teachers murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School and in Newtown, CT. God be with these families and Newtown.
Published on Dec 17, 2012
In a special honor roll, we remember the 27 victims -- 20 children and seven adults -- of the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
THERE is a nationwide push for stricter gun control laws concerning military assault style weapons and high capacity ammo clips in the wake of the mass murders of children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Sen Dianne Feinstein D CA is bold and well spoken in her proposal to reinstate the ban on assault style weapons, planning to introduce the law her office wrote in 1994 (and expired in 2004) in the Senate and Pres Obama has expressed support for this legislation. Sen Warner D VA showed just what is wrong with so many politicians in expressing his opinion on gun control. He mouthed all the politically correct expressions of sorrow about the deaths of children and teachers in Newtown and then reverted to being a political coward, spewing meaningless, non-committal, wait to see how public opinion shakes out comments. His performance on The PBS NewsHour disgusted me, he showed he is spineless and has been morally corrupted by his years of kow-towing to the nra. I am ashamed he is one of Virginia's Senators on Capital Hill. Here are Sen Feinstein's and Sen Warner's interviews from The PBS NewsHour, judge for yourself who is the real leader....
GWEN IFILL: In the wake of the shootings, the
debate in Washington turned immediately to how and whether new limits
on gun ownership can, and should, be enacted.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has pledged to revive a
law banning assault weapons. She is chairwoman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee. And she joins us now.
Welcome, Senator. SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-Calif.: Thank you very much. GWEN IFILL: With half of the members getting an A
rating from the National Rifle Association, do you have any sense that
things will be different now for the assault weapons ban than it has
been in the past? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Well, I have every sense that it's an uphill road. It was in the past when we did it in the past.
I wrote that bill. My office wrote that bill. It went through. It
wasn't amended. It went through the Senate, the House. It was signed by
the president. And it was the law for 10 years.
I think what is unique about this is, it's really just one class of
gun, the assault weapon. The assault weapon is developed for military
purposes, to kill in close combat.
And it doesn't belong in the streets of our cities. And it doesn't
belong where it can be picked up easily by a grievance killer, who can
walk into a workplace, a mall, a theater, and now an elementary school
and kill large numbers. GWEN IFILL: Explain to our viewers how what you are planning to introduce would have changed what happened in Newtown, Conn. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Well, over time, that weapon would be much less available.
What we're trying to do is ban the sale, the manufacture, the
transfer, the importation of assault weapons. And it gets quite
technical. And I won't go into that right now.
Grandfathered weapons that people already have, subject those weapons
either to licensing or to a trigger lock, and spell out those
grandfathered weapons, which would be over 900 in the bill, so nobody
can say, oh, we took our -- their hunting weapon away.
Then I would be able to say, here's your hunting weapon. It's specifically exempted in the bill. GWEN IFILL: So, we're talking about a prospective law, not one... DIANNE FEINSTEIN: That's right. That's right. GWEN IFILL: ... gun people already own? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: It would ban approximately 100 weapons by actual name and then weapons by physical characteristics. GWEN IFILL: Let's talk about the politics of all of this.
Today, we saw three pro-gun-rights Democratic senators, Sen. Reid,
Sen. Manchin, Sen. Warner, all say that what happened in
NewtownConnecticut has changed everything. Do you have a sense that
there's a shift under way? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Oh, yes. I think this is the straw that broke the camel's back, to be very honest with you, Gwen.
I don't see how Americans can want, you know, a situation where a
20-year-old gets a gun from his mother, kills his mother, goes into a
school, shoots his way through the glass, goes in and puts three to 11
bullets in 6-year-olds, 20 of them.
Now, if you just do an average of six bullets -- five bullets, that's
100 bullets. So it's the big clip, drum or strip that is also banned
from sale, manufacture, importation, transfer. So it's the clip that
enables you to have the firepower.
And I gather this particular Bushmaster, you can actually sort of
dial down the ease with which you pull the trigger and its frequency. So
you can just pump those bullets out in a very few seconds. GWEN IFILL: Do you -- have you gotten any sense of a change of heart among the Republican members of the Senate? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: I haven't had a chance to talk to Republicans. I certainly will be doing that.
I have really kind of been busy just fielding calls, which is
unusual, some 20 calls to my house yesterday at home and calls today
from members of the House and others that want to help with this. GWEN IFILL: You called the White House today to talk to the president. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Yes. GWEN IFILL: Has that conversation happened? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: No. No. GWEN IFILL: And do you believe he support you on this? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: I haven't gotten a call back. But I
will be persistent. I'm trying now to call his chief of staff to say,
please, may I speak with the president briefly. GWEN IFILL: You -- gun control activists have said that they believe that the president's first term was a failure.
And people who are gun rights activists have said that the president
wants to legislate the Second Amendment out of existence. Which is true?
Or is neither true? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Oh, neither is true.
I think the president now has an open mind. At least, I hope he has. I
think the fact that I have authored something before which became the
law hopefully will have some credibility with him.
And we're very happy to sit down with his staff, which is what I want
to offer, to go over the specifics of the legislation, options, and get
his views. I would like to do that sooner, rather than later, because
we're working with others.
I want to work with members in this body, members in the other body,
and try to see that, by the beginning of the year, we have got something
where there is some very good support. GWEN IFILL: What do you say to people who support
the right to own arms that this is the camel's nose under the tent, and,
the next thing, you will be after concealed-carry weapons, you will be
after other kinds of gun rights? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Well, that's just not true.
It wasn't true with the prior bill that was the law for 10 years. And I just think, candidly, that dog doesn't hunt. GWEN IFILL: Why shouldn't it be true? Why wouldn't you want to go after those other laws? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Because that's not what I have done in the past. And it's not what I'm doing right now. GWEN IFILL: How much do -- as we have this debate
now, how much are we focusing on guns, and how much are we focusing or
should we be focusing on the things that drive people to use guns in
these horrific ways? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Well, I think you concentrate on
both. You concentrate on mental illness and what we can do. You
concentrate on safety in schools and those kinds of things.
But small children have a basic right to go to a school and feel
safe. And these guns, because they kill large numbers of people very
quickly, they aren't used for hunting, they aren't hunting weapons. You
don't need them for defense. They are military-style weapons. And they
don't belong in the streets of our cities or our towns. GWEN IFILL: And, finally, Sen. Feinstein, we have
been here before. The president, as he said last night, has spoken at
four different memorial services for shooting victims since he's been
president.
And each time, there's been discussion that this is the moment --
especially after a congresswoman was shot, this is the moment when
everything will change. Why is this the moment? DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Well, this is the moment because I think people have had it. They have had it in fear.
You know, look at Aurora. That man came in with a 100-round clip --
excuse me, drum. If that drum hadn't jammed, he would have killed many
more people. Look at Virginia Tech. Look at Jonestown. Look at --
Jonesboro, rather. Look at Columbine. Look at what's been happening.
It's got to stop.
Our schools have to be safe places. These guns are the guns that the
grievance killer, the gangs, that people who want to do real damage look
for and find very easy to obtain in our society. And we need to change
that. And that's what I'm trying to do. GWEN IFILL: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, thank you so much. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Thank you, Gwen. GWEN IFILL: An administration official told the
NewsHour today that the president began talking with White House staff,
the vice president and some members of the Cabinet about ways the
country can respond to the tragedy in Newtown. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/feinstein_12-17.html
Gun Rights Supporter Sen. Mark Warner Says Tighter Firearms Laws Needed
JUDY WOODRUFF: We turn to the aftermath of
the shooting in Connecticut, as the community continues to mourn its
losses in Connecticut, resume some routine, and consider its own role in
a national conversation on what steps should now be taken.
Ray Suarez begins our coverage with this report.
RAY SUAREZ: A hearse arrived this
morning at Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown carrying the
body of 6-year-old James Mattioli, one of the slain first graders from
Sandy HookElementary School.
Hours later, a church bell tolled as mourners greeted another small white casket at the funeral for Jessica Rekos, also 6.
Meanwhile, students from other local schools returned to class, in
buses adorned with ribbons bearing Sandy Hook's colors. Police were on
hand, as were counselors. JOHN SOLLAZZO, Connecticut Police Officer: Making
the kids safe and happy, that's all we're here for, is to make sure that
they are safe and happy. RAY SUAREZ: Sandy Hook itself remains closed. Plans
call for its students to be sent to a now vacant school in nearby
Monroe, but it was unclear when.
Back in Washington, a string of Democratic members of Congress took to the House floor, calling for new gun legislation. REP. JANICE HAHN, D-Calif.: We need to pass bold, necessary, overdue gun control legislation. If we do not, this will happen again. REP. GERRY CONNOLLY, D-Va.: Twenty innocents and
their six teachers. More tears. More burials. But will we heed its
meaning? Will we break the gun lobby's spell? RAY SUAREZ: Outside the Capitol, the head of the
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said Sandy Hook has altered the
political equation on guns. DAN GROSS, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence:
They say Friday's horrific mass shooting at Sandy HookElementary School
changed everything. And it has. It is a tipping point. RAY SUAREZ: And White House spokesman Jay Carney announced President Obama will back a push for new legislation. JAY CARNEY, White House: He is actively supportive
of, for example, Senator Feinstein's stated intent to revive a piece of
legislation that would reinstate the assault weapons ban. He supports
and would support legislation that addresses the problem of the
so-called gun show loophole. RAY SUAREZ: Late today, the National Rifle
Association offered its first statement on the killings, saying it was
shocked, saddened and heartbroken. The group called a Friday news
conference and promised meaningful contributions to prevent any future
massacres. GWEN IFILL: We interviewed Sen. Dianne Feinstein
last night about her push to renew the assault weapons ban. Now we hear
another perspective.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner is a Democrat who received an A-rating from the National Rifle Association.
Sen. Warner, welcome.
We heard that yesterday after the shootings in Newtown, you said that this was a game-changer. What do you mean by that? SEN. MARK WARNER D-Va.: Well, Gwen, I'm a strong
Second Amendment rights supporter. I own firearms. On my farm, I have
actually got shooting range.
But Friday afternoon, my daughters, who had all come home from
college, said, dad, you know, how did this happen? And what are you
going to do about it?
And just as a father, the horror of what happened in Connecticut
coming on the heels of tragedies at Virginia Tech years before, the
tragedy in Colorado, and it seems like about every six or nine months,
one of these incidents happening in America, makes me say, you know,
enough is enough. There's got to be a rational way to sort through this.
I'm not saying I have got a perfect piece of legislation. I don't
think there is a single perfect piece of legislation. But in a country
where we have got 30,000 gun deaths a year, there's got to be a way that
we can do a bit more. And I hope that responsible gun owners around
America will join in this conversation as well.
I think we have got to recognize that it is about rational,
appropriate gun rules, but also about mental health issues. And my hope
is our country takes a deep breath and doesn't just simply get exercised
by this for a few moments and then push this horrible tragedy back into
the background and forget about it. GWEN IFILL: Assuming that there is not one single
solution here, let's talk about what you mean when you say rational gun
control. Sen. Feinstein says an assault weapons ban would be rational.
Would you agree with that? MARK WARNER: I think that, from the evidence I have
seen, that a lot of the challenge comes around the speed by which you
can shoot, in effect, these multiple magazines in terms of how rapidly
they can be discharged.
Now, there's a whole series of different negotiations about what
qualifies as an assault weapon and what doesn't. I think there will be
time for that kind of conversation.
We have got to find a way to sort through to where there is an
ability for law-abiding citizens still to possess firearms -- nobody is
going to take away your shotgun -- but to make sure that these kinds of
weapons that in many cases were developed for our military and have
become extraordinarily, lethally effective killing machines for our
military are now in the hands of people that are just not appropriate. GWEN IFILL: The governor of your home state of
Virginia has said that he thinks that maybe you should consider arming
teachers in classrooms. The governor of Michigan, who is another
Republican, said today -- decided to veto a conceal carry law in
Michigan.
Which of these is the right approach? MARK WARNER: Well, quite honestly, I'm not sure either of those are the right approach.
I don't -- I think what we need is to be able to have a conversation,
and be able to have a debate about this. But I'm not sure the notion
that, as I have heard some members of Congress say, that if each teacher
had been armed that somehow this would have prevented a tragedy.
I believe that we need to look at mental health issues. I think we
need a reexamination of some of our gun restrictions. And my hope is, is
that this doesn't break down on kind of a red shirt/blue shirt,
Democrat/Republican kind of issue. GWEN IFILL: You mentioned the NRA. Let me ask you about that.
They put out a statement today, after having not said much about
this, saying that they -- the National Rifle Association of America is
made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters, and that they
are planning a news conference to talk about that, but they are
prepared to make what they describe as meaningful contributions to help
make sure this never happens again.
What would you like to hear the NRA -- you're a member of the NRA.
You're supported by the NRA. What would you like to hear them say as --
contribute as a meaningful contribution? MARK WARNER: What are the instruments here that are
being used? Are there guns that were developed by the military as
technology has advanced and has allowed our soldiers to become better,
more effective in Iraq and Afghanistan? Should all of those weapons be
able to be slightly modified and then sold on a commercial market?
What kind of -- how much restraint does it put on a lawful target
shooter if they want to have to change out a clip after every 10 shells
or -- 10 or 15 shells? I'm not sure what the right number should be
here.
But I think the NRA ought to have a voice in this conversation as
well. I think they can go ahead again, reassure that nobody is going to
be out trying to say we need to take away your shotgun or take away the
kind of components that are part of American culture in terms of the
right to hunt, the right to enjoy the outdoors with firearms.
But I do think that simply saying that the status quo is acceptable
and bemoaning another tragedy six or nine months from now, without any
real close examination of seeing what laws and rules and regulations
need to be changed, would be a real mistake and wouldn't do -- wouldn't
be the appropriate honoring the legacy of those poor kids that lives
were taken.
And, quite honestly, I have to give my three daughters a better
answer than I gave them on Friday night. I have got to be able to say,
you know, I was part of trying to at least get some level of solution,
so this kind of tragedy doesn't happen again. GWEN IFILL: Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, thank you so much for joining us. MARK WARNER: Thank you, Gwen. JUDY WOODRUFF: Tomorrow night, we will talk with Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/warner_12-18.html
BOLD PROGRESSIVES are taking the lead on the emerging national debate on revising our nations gun control laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass murders in Newtown, CT. The families of the victims in Newtown as well as the families of all victims of gun violence in our nation deserve more than words of sympathy, they need to know the horror of what happened to their families will be the catalyst that moved the nation to enact strict but reasonable gun control laws in an attempt to prevent this from happening again. Please sign on to this campaign for new gun control laws, and share with family and friends. By the by, I own a rifle and a shotgun, and I support stricter gun control laws.
Hours before 20 children were tragically killed in Connecticut, a man
attacked 22 school children in China. None of those kids died -- the
attacker only had a knife. Guns kill people. Now's the time to say it -- and to promise kids in our communities that we will keep saying it until there is action. Sign a promise to kids in your community: "I will call the White House and Congress once a month until common-sense gun legislation is passed." Click here to sign.
You can also pledge to attend congressional townhall meetings and help defeat opponents of gun control.
Every time our country faces a gun tragedy, big gun manufacturers
fund the National Rifle Association to frighten Congress into inaction
-- even though regular NRA members join most Americans in supporting new
gun laws. This time, we need to do things differently. We must make a solemn promise together. Promise to call our government every month -- and not let this moment fade away until we win common-sense gun legislation. Click here.
Then, pass this email to Democrats and Republicans you know, friends
in rural and urban communities, and even gun owners. We're all part of
this together.
Thanks for caring about our country. And for being part of the solution.
-- Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor, co-founders, Progressive Change Campaign Committee
A woman prays at Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, Conn., on Saturday.
Joshua Lott /Reuters /Landov
The day after one of the worst mass murders in the nation's history, Americans are learning more about Friday's horrific attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and six adults lying dead.
The
man authorities have identified as the killer — 20-year-old Adam Lanza —
also died at the scene, possibly from a self-inflicted gunshot. One
other person was found dead at a home in Newtown. Authorities have told
NPR and other news outlets it was Lanza's mother.
Today, a
spokesman for the Connecticut State Police told reporters that the
gunman forced his way into the school. And, Lt. J. Paul Vance said, all
victims have now been identified and their bodies removed from the
scene. It may still be a couple days, however, before investigators
finish working at the bullet-ridden school.
We followed the story as it developed on Friday. Today, we'll update the news in this post and look for related stories. Update at 12:55 p.m. ET. All Three Guns Were Used, Senator Says:
Asked
on CNN moments ago about the two handguns and one rifle found in the
school, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said "all of them were used
in some way." Blumenthal was Connecticut's attorney general before being
elected to the Senate in 2010. He was in Newtown when he spoke with CNN
and earlier in the day was with the police who are investigating the
shootings. Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. Will The Shootings Shift Public Opinion On Guns? Polling in recent years
indicates that the news may not have a significant, lasting impact on
public opinion — unless the murders of 20 school children at their
school is just such a shock. Update at 11:15 a.m. ET. On Nancy Lanza:
Though
State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance has not yet publicly named the
deceased woman found in a Newtown home, he has said that she was a
relative of the gunman. Federal law enforcement officials have told
NPR's Carrie Johnson that the woman was Nancy Lanza, Adam Lanza's
mother. It is not clear yet if she had any connection to the school,
though there have been reports she may have done some kind of work —
possibly volunteering — there. Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. State Police Statement On The Attack And Investigation:
Along with the news briefing the Connecticut State Police just held, the agency has also posted a statement about the shootings and the investigation.
It's the first such document from that agency. Much of the information
had already been stated during Lt. J. Paul Vance's news briefings. Here
two sections that add to previously reported information:
—
"The deceased victims have been transported to the Office of The Chief
State's Medical Examiner where a post mortem examination will be
conducted to determine the manner and cause of death."
— "A
second crime scene was located by investigators at a residence on
Yogananda Street. A female was located deceased inside the residence.
... Preliminary information determined that the deceased was a relative
of the 'shooter' at the Elementary School.
Another detail:
During his news conference this morning, Vance told reporters that "the
weaponry that was recovered by our investigators was recovered in close
proximity to the deceased." Earlier today, NPR's Carrie Johnson was told
by a "law enforcement official on the ground in Connecticut" that there
were three weapons found in the school — two handguns and a
.223-caliber rifle. On Thursday, there were reports that the rifle was
found in the car that the gunman drove to the scene. Update
at 10:25 a.m. ET. State Police: When Victims' Names Are Released,
"Please Respect Their Privacy;" Shooter "Forced His Way Into The
School."
At a news briefing, Connecticut State Police
Lt. J. Paul Vance just said that the names of all the deceased and the
gunman are going to be released soon by the local medical examiner's
office — perhaps within the hour. All the families of the victims, he
said, have asked that news outlets "respect their privacy. ... I'm
asking you and I'm pleading with you ... to please abide by their
requests," he said.
Vance told reporters that the evidence
indicates that the gunman "was not voluntarily let into the school at
all. ... He forced his way into the school." There have been reports of
broken windows (some were smashed by police when they arrived on the
scene because the school had been locked down) and that the gunman may
have shot his way into the school through a window.
Investigators will likely still be working at the school through Sunday and into Monday, Vance said. Update at 9:50 a.m. ET. Connecticut's WSHU Plans Live Special Coverage Today:
Our colleagues in the state say there will be a "2-hour, live, call-in special today, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., on all WSHU frequencies." Update at 9:40 a.m. ET. How To Help? Governor's Office Points To United Way:
At the official website of Gov. Daniel Malloy, D-Conn., a "how to help Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims" headline links to United Way of Western Connecticut's Sandy Hook School Support Fund. Update at 9 a.m. ET. All Families Have Been Formally Notified:
"By
early this morning, we were able to positively identify all of the
victims and make some formal notification to all of the families of the
victims," Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance tells CBS This Morning: Saturday. He also confirmed the earlier reports that all the bodies have been removed from the school. Update at 8:50 a.m. ET. Video Of News Conference:
The
cable news networks are planning to broadcast the news conference that
authorities are supposed to hold any time now. It's also being streamed
by several news outlets in Connecticut, including WTNH-TV. Update at 8:35 a.m. ET. "No Sense Of Motive," Local Police Official Says:
"Newtown police Lt. George Sinko, the department's public information officer, told Patch Saturday morning that investigators have no sense of what prompted the gunman to act. 'There is no sense of motive at this time,' Sinko said."
We're still waiting for a news briefing to begin in Newtown. Update at 8:15 a.m. ET. Victims Have Been Identified:
State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance is due to brief reporters shortly. Fox Connecticut says
it spoke with him and that Vance says investigators have identified all
the victims, that the bodies have been removed from the school, and
that he expects to be able to publicly confirm the killer's identity.
Adam Lanza's name has been relayed to news outlets, including NPR, by
law enforcement sources. Vance, the public spokesman on the
investigation, has not yet formally released that information. 6:45 a.m. ET: As the day dawns in Newtown, here's a look at some of the overnight headlines and developments:
— Stories of heroism:
A custodian "ran through the school halls making sure classroom doors
were locked from the inside." Library staffers rushed students into a
storage closet and barricaded the door with file cabinets. Principal
Dawn Hochsprung "warned several colleagues who were about to step into
the hallway behind her, and into the shooter's direct line of fire"
before being shot herself. (The Newtown Bee)
— "The shootings took place in two first-grade classrooms." (The Hartford Courant)
— "No motive known." (The New York Times)
— "Police say it's clear that the gunman who opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday was on a mission to kill as many people as possible." (CBS News)
— Adam Lanza was a "quiet, shy" boy growing up, says school bus driver and neighbor. (The Boston Herald)
— "Two federal sources told ABC News that identification belonging to Ryan Lanza
[Adam's brother] was found at the scene of the mass shooting." That may
be why some officials initially said the gunman's name was Ryan. (ABC News)
— In Newtown, "the peace and quiet has been shattered, and residents are trying to make sense of what's happened." (Weekend Edition Saturday) http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/12/15/167320059/in-connecticut-prayers-grief-questions-and-stories-of-heroism?ft=3&f=1001&sc=nl&cc=nh-20121215
GOD be with Adam Lanza's father and brother and other family. Nobody raises their children to do evil things like the mass murder of children and teachers and family members and then commit suicide. Pray hard for all the victims of this horrible tragedy and leave judgement to God. From the Washington Post....
Adam Lanza was his name.
Adam P. Lanza, 20, obscure in life, infamous in death.
A
really rambunctious kid, as one former neighbor in Newtown, Conn.,
recalled him, adding that he was on medication. He was a son of an
accountant and a schoolteacher. A family member told investigators that
he had a form of autism, a law enforcement official said.
And he will long be remembered.
On
Friday morning, police say, he shot and killed his mother in their
home. And then, carrying firearms and an abundance of ammunition, he
drove to Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School and started shooting. By
the time he turned one of the guns on himself, police say, he had
killed 20 children, many of them kindergartners, and six more adults.
Adam
Peter Lanza — a new addition to a dreadful list, the roster of killers
who targeted students: Seung Hui Cho at Virginia Tech (32 dead); Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High in Colorado (13 dead),
Charles C. Roberts IV at a little Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania
(five dead). The litany of massacres goes on.
As scores of
investigators worked Friday to piece together what happened at the
school and why, the barest details of Lanza’s life began to emerge.
His
parents, Nancy and Peter Lanza, separated about a decade ago, and his
mother, a kindergarten teacher at Sandy Hook, remained in the family’s
home with her sons, Adam and Ryan Lanza, according to Ryan Kraft, 25,
who was a neighbor.
The separation hit the children hard, Kraft recalled.
When
Nancy Lanza would go out to dinner with friends, she sometimes relied
on Kraft to watch Adam Lanza, who was too boisterous for Ryan Lanza to
manage. “He would have tantrums,” Kraft said. “They were much more than
the average kid [had].” Yet he was not prone to violence, Kraft said.
“The
kids seemed really depressed” by the breakup, Kraft said of the Lanza
brothers. Ryan Lanza, 24, now lives in Hoboken, N.J. Police questioned
him Friday, but law enforcement officials said he was cooperating and is
not suspected of having anything to do with the shootings.
For
several hours Friday, authorities and the news media misidentified the
shooter as Ryan Lanza, who, like his father, is an accountant, a law
enforcement official said.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a friend
of Ryan Lanza’s as saying that Lanza works for Ernst & Young. “He
[is] a little shy, but very nice and sweet,” the friend, Katie Colaneri,
24, of Hoboken, told the Journal.
Nancy Lanza put the best face
possible on her domestic troubles, the former neighbor said. “Nancy was
really pleasant,” Kraft said. “She would come by the house and have a
glass of wine with my mom.” The couple’s divorce was finalized in 2009,
according to court records.
Beth Israel, who lived for a time on
the same street as the Lanzas, recalled Adam Lanza as withdrawn but not
threatening in any way.
“Overall, I would just call him a socially
awkward kid, I don’t know, shy and quiet. Didn’t really look you in the
eye,” Israel said in a telephone interview Friday night. “Just kind of a
weird kid, maybe. I can’t tell you any specific incidents why [I
thought so],” she said.
At a vigil in Newtown, a man of about Adam
Lanza’s age was visibly distraught. “I knew Adam in high school,” he
said, declining to give his name. “He always seemed like a quiet type.
He was never really sociable. When you try to communicate with him, he
would just kind of like have one- or two-word responses.
“He was a wicked smart kid, he excelled in everything,” the man said. “He graduated high school three years early.”
The
man defended Adam’s mother and objected to some reports about her. “I
know her. My family knew her. She was a respectable collector [of guns].
She used them responsibly. It’s not her fault that any of this
happened.”
At the vigil, Catherine Urso said her son went to high
school with Adam Lanza, who “was very remote, reclusive.” Lanza and his
friends, she said, “always gathered alone in a corner in the school.”
A
law enforcement official — who, like others, spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the investigation is far from finished — said Adam
Lanza fatally shot his mother in her home, then drove in her car to the
school where she worked.
He had two semiautomatic pistols and a
.223-caliber rifle, law enforcement officials said. He apparently used
only the handguns, which were later found in the school. The rifle was
found in the vehicle.
Peter Lanza, a vice president and tax
specialist at GE Energy Financial Services, is remarried and lives in
Stamford, Conn., according to the Stamford Advocate. When he arrived
home Friday and was approached by a reporter, the paper reported, he
appeared “surprised and horrified” and declined to comment on the
massacre.
A woman who is a close friend of Peter Lanza’s became
highly emotional in a brief telephone interview Friday. “His son was
doing wonderfully,” she said of Adam Lanza. “This is inconceivable.
Peter adores his children. His son was doing so well.”
Lynch reported from Newtown, Conn. Sari Horwitz and Alice Crites contributed to this report. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/adam-lanza-is-recalled-as-a-rambunctious-kid-with-family-problems/2012/12/14/795ad0fe-4641-11e2-8e70-e1993528222d_print.html
HERE is a piece on Sandy Hook Elementary School principle Dawn Hochsprung. God be with her family and friends as they struggle to deal with her murder. To send a message of condolence to the families of the victims and the people of Newtown, CT go toSEND A MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCE; Shooting at Connecticut Elementary School 14DEZ12
Two years ago, Dawn Hochsprung took over as principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School
in Newtown, Conn. In an interview with a local paper, the Newtown Bee,
she talked of her excitement at running a school she had already come to
love.
"I don't think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day," she said.
Hochsprung was one of 27 people, including 20 children, who died in a
mass shooting at the school on Friday, according to officials.
Prior to running Sandy Hook, Hochsprung already had 12 years of
administrative experience, including six years as an assistant principal
at a local middle school and one year at Connecticut's Danbury High
School.
Judging from the Bee's coverage, Hochsprung brought a fun and lively
presence to Sandy Hook. In November, for instance, she arranged for a
"book fairy" to visit the classrooms, thank the children for reading and
sprinkle them with "fairy dust." Hochsprung tweeted
a photo of the fairy spending time with the kids -- she maintained an
active Twitter feed, populated with articles on hot-button education
policies -- and a news brief from the Bee suggests the fairy was the
principal herself.
Hochsprung was a union member -- not exactly a common thing for U.S.
principals, who as managers often find themselves sitting across from
unionized teachers. In a statement on the shooting, her union, the
American Federation of School Administrators, described Hochsprung as a "leader and innovator."
"She loved her career and her students, just as she loved her family," the statement read.
Local news reports suggested Hochsprung had a lot of enthusiasm for
trying new things at her school. When the staff raised money for an
adopt-a-family program, she tweeted a picture of their efforts. When the school welcomed military veterans to a breakfast, she was there
to celebrate it. The school library had begun an ebook lending program.
And last week, Hochsprung and other staff launched an "Appy Hour" to
discuss mobile applications that supported school curriculum.
Earlier this year, she approached first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig
about forming a running club, according to the Newton Bee. Roig created a
"Marathon Mondays" group that ran one mile at a time over the course of
many weeks.
Through her Twitter account, Hochsprung rejoiced at the sight of her Sandy Hook students writing under a shady tree in the "beautified courtyard."
She was also concerned with their safety. In mid-October, the school
went through an evacuation drill, which she documented on Twitter.
"Safety first at Sandy Hook," she tweeted with a picture.
As CNN reported, Hochsprung sent a letter
to parents earlier this year notifying them that visitors would need to
ring a bell at the school's door and show identification to gain entry
after 9:30 a.m. "Please understand that with nearly 700 students and
over 1,000 parents representing 500 SHS families, most parents will be
asked to show identification," she wrote
At a school board meeting in September, Hochsprung explained the
finer points of the school district's new bus drop-off policy, which
stated that students between kindergarten and fourth grade would be let
off at the bus stop only if a parent or older sibling were around.
Apparently, several parents had expressed concern about young children
walking home unattended, so Hochsprung and other principals had had
children brought back to school rather than dropped off alone.
"We thought that was the safer route than allowing children to be
dropped off with no one at the stop to meet them if that was not what
they were accustomed to," she said in the meeting, according to the Bee.
Hochsprung was exuberant about the new school year. "Special welcome
this morning to all families new to Sandy Hook, and welcome back to all
students coming in to Meet The Teachers!" she tweeted in late August.
That month, the Bee reported on the first day of school at Sandy
Hook. It rained in the morning, but Hochsprung said everyone was upbeat.
"Students are excited to be back and everyone is ready to learn,"
Hochsprung told the Bee. And when the sun came out, she said, "We knew
that our first day was going to be wonderful in every way." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/sandy-hook-principal-dawn-hochsprung_n_2303944.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications
IT is disturbing the level the extreme right wing is willing to lower themselves to at times of national tragedy. One has to wonder if they would have the same callous attitude if a member of their family was one of the victims. Here is just a sampling from Mother Jones....
As news broke of the Newtown school shooting,
horror and grief transcended party lines. But for some conservatives,
the shooting—and the ensuing calls for reassessing gun policies—also
presented a political challenge. Some notable tweets:
Somebody else shooting that guy would have stopped him. Yes. Dead in his tracks before the tragedy grew larger. @PatchesMC
In just the past four years, the NRA has helped pass weaker gun restrictions in 37 states, making the weapons easier to own, carry and conceal. At the same time, gun violence has increased in America.
Mike
Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate, told
Fox News the shooting happened because "we removed God from our
schools. (h/t ThinkProgress)
HUCKABEE: Ultimately, you can take away every gun in America and
somebody will use a gun. When somebody has an intent to do incredible
damage, they’re going to find a way to do it… People will want to pass
new laws, but unless you change people’s hearts, they’re our transition
to the pastor side. This is a heard issue, it’s not something, laws
don’t change this kind of thing.
CAVUTO: How could God let this happen?
HUCKABEE: Well, you know, it’s an interesting thing. When
we ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically
removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools
have become a place for carnage because we’ve made it a place where we
don’t want to talk about eternity, life, responsibility, accountability?
That we’re not just going to have to be accountable to the
police, if they catch us. But one day, we will stand in judgment before
God. If we don’t believe that, we don’t fear that.
Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association took a similar tack
on his radio show today, claiming that God has abandoned our schools
because prayer is no longer allowed.
Blogger Mike Vanderboegh offered an elliptic Biblical reference on his blog, quoting a Wikipedia article about the ancient Ammonite god who demanded child sacrifices.
Conservative radio personality Steve Deace took to his Facebook page to complain about politicizing the tragedy while also blaming public schools.
Deace wasn't the only one who lashed out against people who
speaking against gun laws. Michelle Malkin's aggregator account,
Twitchy, offered this:
And even as we speak, the Drive-By Media and the Democrats are
attempting to politicize the issue to advance their own agenda. In this
case, probably an assault on the Second Amendment again. I guarantee you
that they are overturning everything they can in their quest to be able
to blame this on Republicans. This, to them, is an opportunity.
(After the Aurora shootings, our colleague Adam Serwer weighed in on why national tragedies are political.)
Brandon Darby, an one-time radical leftist turned FBI informant had yet another takeaway:
Jonathan
Krohn is a freelance writer who has contributed to VICE, Salon, and the
New York Times' East Village Local site. In a previous life he was a
teenage conservative pundit. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanLKrohn.
TILTON, NH — The daughter of the high school principal who died during the Sandy Hook shooting walked out of a town hall with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) on Tuesday after the event erupted in chaos over the lawmaker’s answer to a question about gun regulations. Ayotte was one of 46 senators to vote down a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks to gun shows and online purchases.
