Dannel Malloy Sandy Hook Gun Control Speech Never Happen Again
Summary: Obama'due south grand promise in a apprehensive setting
That 18-and-a-half minute-long address at a high schoolhouse hall in a small town in Connecticut has the run a risk of existence Barack Obama's about powerful speech, despite the many grand occasions he has had to speak in the past and despite the relative modesty of this one.
It was Obama at his best, still somehow better than his best: it was a more than clipped, spare oral communication than his usual rhetorical style. And its point was more than blunt than usual:
Can we say that we're truly doing plenty to give all the children of this country the run a risk they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?
I've been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we're honest with ourselves, the answer'due south no. We're not doing enough. And we will have to modify.
Obama obviously didn't want to overtly politicise an effect such every bit this. Simply perhaps he was stung past Michael Bloomberg'due south taunt made before in the 24-hour interval, that he could not simply be "consoler-in-chief". In this address, Obama managed to do both, which takes some doing.
The reaction over the next few days will exist interesting to lookout man, because that will dictate Obama'south chances of success in the Sisyphean task of promoting gun control. Merely hither'due south one reaction, from the deputy manager of communications at the Republican National Committee, that suggests Obama may accept touched a chord:
Tim Miller (@Timodc)"Let us make our country worthy of their retentiveness." An unimaginably daunting task. An first-class spoken language and impt challenge from the president
Dec 17, 2012
Updated
New York'southward Cuomo joins gun control call
New York governor Andrew Cuomo tells the New York Times that he supports the calls from Michael Bloomberg and President Obama for tighter gun regulation:
"I understand the politics and I understand the fright, but plenty is enough," Mr. Cuomo said. "This makes no sense, what we at present exercise, and we are improve than this. We are better than this. And so I hope people employ this moment to intermission and reverberate, and I hope the political leadership gets it."
Speaking to reporters in Manhattan, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, called the shootings "every parent'southward worst fear and worst nightmare." Asked if he thought they would be a tipping point in the push for more restrictions on guns, he responded, "I hope so."
Of grade, information technology would be more helpful if the governors of Texas or Florida joined in.
On a day of much sadness, hither's a photo released by the family of one of the victims that raises a grin:
West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport)No White House photos from family meetings. But the family of Emilie Parker, who was 6, released this on their own: twitter.com/WestWingReport…
December 17, 2012
Obama spoken language: central passage
A transcript of President Obama'due south remarks in Newtown has now been posted – and here is an extract of what might be termed the nigh "political" part of the spoken language, in which he makes an implicit telephone call for tougher gun control:
This is our first chore, caring for our children. It's our first job. If we don't go that right, nosotros don't get anything right. That's how, equally a society, we will be judged. And past that measure, can we truly say, equally a nation, that nosotros're coming together our obligations?
Tin we honestly say that we're doing enough to go along our children, all of them, prophylactic from impairment?
Can we merits, every bit a nation, that we're all together in that location, letting them know they are loved and teaching them to love in return?
Tin we say that nosotros're truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?
I've been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we're honest with ourselves, the answer'southward no. We're not doing enough. And we will have to alter.
Since I've been president, this is the 4th time we have come together to condolement a grieving community torn apart past mass shootings, fourth time we've hugged survivors, the fourth time we've consoled the families of victims.
And in betwixt, at that place take been an endless serial of deadly shootings across the country, almost daily reports of victims, many of them children, in small towns and in big cities all across America, victims whose -- much of the time their merely fault was being at the wrong place at the incorrect time.
We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must cease. And to end them, we must change.
We will exist told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the earth or prevent every senseless human activity of violence in our social club, but that can't be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do improve than this.
If there's even one pace we can have to save another child or another parent or another town from the grief that's visited Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek and Newtown and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg earlier that, then surely we take an obligation to try.
In the coming weeks, I'll use any ability this office holds to appoint my swain citizens, from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an attempt aimed at preventing more tragedies like this, because what choice practice we have? We can't accept events like this every bit routine.
Are we really prepared to say that nosotros're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?
Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year subsequently year after year is somehow the price of our liberty?
Updated
Video of Obama'southward remarks
Updated
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt talks to people in Newtown watching President Obama's address to the vigil tonight:
Phil Davis, 28, watched Obama's speech in a cafe next to Sandy Claw's Christmas tree. His daughter Aubree saturday with him, wrapped in a blanket.
"I thought he was speaking as a parent," he said. "He has the aforementioned feeling that those parents take considering he has 2 kids at dwelling."
Aubree had but turned five on Friday, Davis said.
"She's similar the aforementioned age [equally the child victims]. I tin relate to those parents. If that was to happen to her I don't know what I would do."
Father and daughter had driven from Hartford, Connecticut, to see the tributes to the victims. Davis said Obama had struck the right tone.
"Y'all want to e'er protect them but sometimes you can't."
Obama appeared to heighten the issue of stricter gun controls in his oral communication. Many politicians have chosen for tougher firearms laws over the past two days.
"This type of guns are not fit" for the home, Davis said. "At that place needs to be more restrictions on how yous store them, there should be a certain lock or something. Just [Adam Lanza's] mum should have had a fundamental. That could be a major change.
"That could have been prevented, because those guns were non registered in his name. They were hers."
Updated
From the pool report inside the hall in Newtown:
Deep sobs were heard from several sections of the audience, as the president started to read the names of the teachers who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school.
People are watching the president'due south speech quietly and intently, the eyes of some people are glistening with tears in the goggle box lights.
Obama: 'Brand our country worthy of their memory'
After invoking Matthew 19:14 – "Allow the little children come up to me, and exercise not hinder them. For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven" – President Obama and so reads out the first names of each of the children who were murdered at Sandy Hook school, and concludes:
God has called them all home. For those of us who remain let us discover the force to carry on and make our state worthy of their memory.
As he read the names, in that location was audible sobbing throughout the hall in Newtown – and many other places around the U.s.a. one imagines.
Updated
Obama: 'Nosotros can't tolerate this any more than'
After his moving tribute to Newtown, Obama takes a more serious plow, asking a series of rhetorical questions: "Can we say that nosotros, as a nation, are keeping our children safe from impairment?" He eventually answers:
I've been reflecting on this the last few days and if we are honest with ourselves, the answer is no. Nosotros're not doing enough – and we'll have to alter.
Subsequently noting that this is the fourth time he has had to appear at an event such as this – "Since I have been president this is the fourth time nosotros have come together to console a community of mass shootings" – Obama says:
We can't tolerate this whatsoever more. These tragedies must end. And to end them, nosotros must change.
If there's merely i step we can take to save the life of 1 child, Obama asks, "then surely nosotros have to effort," to avoid future events such as Columbine and Newtown:
I'll utilize whatever power this function holds to appoint my fellow citizens in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies similar this. Because what option practice we have?
Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage? That the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited upon our children year later twelvemonth is simply the price of our freedom?
In the coming weeks, Obama says, he will be raising the question of what tin can be done. This suggests that he does programme to make an effort to toughen gun command regulations, as Mike Bloomberg has urged him to.
Updated
Obama: 'Newtown, you are not solitary'
"Whatever measure of comfort nosotros can provide, we will provide," says President Obama, having detailed the sacrifice and bravery of teachers and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary Schoolhouse.
Newtown, you are not alone. Nosotros have wept with yous.
There's barely a dry out eye in the auditorium at this point, even after Obama slightly lightens the mood by telling the story of one student trying to cheer up a instructor by telling her: "Don't worry, I know karate."
Updated
Obama takes the phase
Afterwards remarks by Governor Dan Malloy, President Obama takes the stage in Newtown.
Earlier, the president met the families of those who were victims of the shooting. They included the grandchild of the Sandy Hook schoolhouse primary, Dawn Hochsprung:
Cristina Hassinger (@Chass63)My mom would be And so proud to run across President Obama holding her granddaughter. But not as proud as I am of her. twitter.com/Chass63/status…
Dec 17, 2012
Updated
Here was the rundown of the multi-denominational vigil service including speakers:
Gathering and Welcome by Rev Matthew Crebbin, senior minister, Newtown Congregational Church building, UCC
Scripture: Psalm 46 - Rabbi Shaul Praver, Rabbi, Congregational Adath State of israel
Prayer: For Those We lost - The Rev Mel Kawakami, senior minister Newtown United Methodist Church.
Scripture, Psalm 23, Spoken together in various translations - The Rev Kathleen E. Adams-Shepard, Rector, Trinity Episcopal Church.
Prayer: For the Children - The Rev Jim Solomon, Pastor, New Hope Community Church.
Reading of the Koran and Prayer - Jason Graves and Muadh Bhavnagarwala, Al-Hedaya Islamic Center.
Prayer: Emergency responders - the Rev Jane Sibley, Minister of Visitation and Spiritual Growth, Newtown United Methodist Church.
Reading/Prayer from the Baha'i Tradition, Dr John Woodall, leader, Baha'i Organized religion Customs.
Prayer: For Councilors, Clergy and Caregivers - The Rev Leo McIlrath, Ecumenical Clergyman, Lutheran Abode of Southbury.
Scripture; Romans viii - The Rev Pastor Jack Tanner, Minister, Elder, Newtown Christian Church.
Remarks
First Selectwoman Patricia Llodra
Governor Dannel P. Malloy
President Barack Obama
Prayer: For Our Community -- The Rev Monsignor Robert Weiss, Pastor, St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church.
Blessing/Sending: The Rev Rob Mossis, Vicar, Christ the Male monarch Lutheran Church
Endmost Music: Ms Fiona Smith Sutherland, Music Government minister, Trinity Episcopal Church.
President Obama attends memorial vigil
At that place is brief, respectful adulation at the high school auditorium every bit President Obama enters and takes his identify in the forepart row of seats.
A brief note about the programme tonight: in that location will be a series of addresses by members of the town'due south clergy, equally well equally hymns and psalms.
Finally, Connecticut governor Dan Malloy volition speak, followed by the president. There is some proposition that it could accept effectually two hours.
Updated
Watching the live coverage, families take filled up the loftier school hall in Newtown, which has a capacity of around 900. The presidential podium, including a presidential seal, is set up on a phase at the front of the room, with a blackness backdrop. In that location is one U.s. flag and one Connecticut flag behind the podium.
There is an overflow room that has been set up upwardly for people who cannot get into the master auditorium. There are also reports of long lines outside the Loftier School of people waiting to get in.
Earlier, the White Business firm pool reported:
The auditorium is at present filling up shortly before the acuity is due to start. Adults are continuing in small groups, talking to one another quietly, some are crying, some embracing, holding each other shut.
Earlier, several small groups of kids were standing in groups too, some chatting happily with their friends in contrast to the emotions shown by the adults.
Several kids were wearing "Sandy Hook School" sweat shirts, several others were in Scout uniform.
Updated
The president arrived in Connecticut just before 4pm this afternoon, and headed straight for Newtown.
A White Business firm official told the pool reporters accompanying the president that he spent most of the time before the vigil meeting the families of the victims of those killed in the shootings, likewise equally first responders.
Another White House official said that the president is the chief author of his speech this night, and worked on edits with speechwriter Cody Keenan on the flying from Washington.
Updated
Newtown pays its respects
The Guardian'south Adam Gabbatt is in Newtown, where the president'south arrival at the interfaith vigil is awaited:
The center of Sandy Claw is blocked off to traffic but that hasn't stopped a small crowd from forming at the town's Christmas tree to pay their respects.
"I'm a mother, a parent of iii," said Keisha Ruffin, 38. "Then it affects me a lot. It's deplorable, these children and adults were brutally murdered for no credible reason."
Ruffin placed flowers at the base of the town'due south Christmas tree. The area below was full of emotional tributes. People take left soft toys, cards and fifty-fifty Lego models.
Scores of people are leaving their cars nearby and walking down to the center of Sandy Hook. Many of the houses on the way had erected personal messages of support. On the lawn of one domicile stood xx wooden angels. Flowers and teddy bears had been left at the base of each one.
Downwards at the Christmas tree in Sandy Hook, a steady stream of wellwishers added to the tributes.
"Beingness a parent, you lot know it'due south hard for a female parent or begetter to lose their child's you put yourself in their shoes. It puts fearfulness in you for your children," said Nadia Tennyson, 35. She and Ruffin, who are cousins, had driven from Randolf, Massachusetts, to be here - a two and a half hr journey.
Tennyson said she appreciated President Obama being hither with families in Sandy Hook.
"It's existent adept for him to go far out here and be hither for the families," she said. "He's not only here as a president, but too as a parent, to show his condolences."
Updated
We are awaiting President Obama'south arrival and remarks at the interfaith acuity taking place in Newtown, Connecticut, where Obama will exist appearing presently, alongside Connecticut governor Dan Malloy.
Jay Carney (EOP) (@PressSec)Today, in Newtown, CT, President Obama met w/families of those who were lost & will speak at a vigil soon. Watch alive: wh.gov/alive
December 17, 2012
Newtown shooting: latest developments
As President Obama travels to Connecticut, hither'southward a summary of the latest news:
• Connecticut state police formally identified Adam Lanza for the first time as the gunman who carried out the assail on Sandy Claw Elementary Schoolhouse, and confirmed that Lanza committed suicide inside the school.
• Regime also confirmed that Lanza'south principal weapon during the attack was a Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, although he killed himself with one of the two handguns he was conveying. A fourth weapon, a shotgun, was later plant in the vehicle Lanza used to bulldoze to the school.
• Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, was officially identified equally a victim of her son's killing spree, after state authorities concluded an dissection.
• Lanza was plant to be still carrying "hundreds" of rounds of ammunition on him, officials said. Lt Paul Vance of Connecticut state police told a press conference that Lanza was also constitute to take "multiple" high capacity magazines for the rifle, and additional magazines for the 2 handguns.
• President Obama will visit with the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and volition speak at a multifaith prayer vigil in Newtown tonight, from 7pm ET.
• St Rose of Lima church building in Newtown was evacuated during a service this afternoon after an unspecified threat. Law and armed officers searched the church and grounds before the church was re-opened.
• New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg made an impassioned plea for tighter gun regulations as "number one priority". Actualization on Meet The Press, Bloomberg said that President Obama needed to prove leadership to avoid the estimated 48,000 deaths resulting from illegal firearms, and also called for existing laws to exist more rigorously enforced.
• Connecticut land police warned that false information beingness spread via social media was "becoming a business concern" in its investigation into the killing of 20 children and half dozen teachers.
We'll have coverage of President Obama's remarks at the prayer acuity in Newtown this night from 7pm ET.
Updated
The discovery that Newtown school gunman Adam Lanza was carrying hundreds of rounds of ammunition – and "multiple" loftier capacity clips for the semi-automatic rifle he used during the killings – suggests one area where tighter regulation could assistance.
The Guardian's Chris McGreal – in an article written in the wake of the Aurora shooting in Colorado – looked at how easy it is to buy huge amounts of ammunition:
There are no federal restrictions on how much ammunition an private can purchase. In many states, bullets are sold on supermarket shelves alongside everyday household goods....
Federal law does non require a groundwork check for people buying armament, and sellers are not legally obliged to report fifty-fifty big purchases of armament to the authorities. Yet, some states and cities do have restrictions. Los Angeles, for instance, requires a permit to buy ammunition.
Attempts in Congress to regulate net sales of ammunition take failed in the face of NRA-backed opposition.
Police: Adam Lanza carried 'hundreds' of bullets
Connecticut state police, at the press briefing just concluded in Newtown, reveal that four weapons were involved in the assail, the master weapon beingness the Bushmaster AR-xv, but that Adam Lanza took his own life with a pistol.
A fourth weapon, a shotgun, was afterward establish in the car Lanza drove to Sandy Hook Simple School.
Vance said that Lanza was carrying "hundreds" of rounds of ammunition, including multiple magazines capable of carrying thirty rounds. Asked how many, Vance replied "Several."
In response to a question about how many bullets Lanza was thought to have fired, Vance said it was incommunicable to say.
Vance again warned again about the use of social media to contact families of the victims, and said: "Harrassment will be enforced to the extent of the law." He continued:
We again are asking and imploring members of the media to respect the family'due south privacy.
Asked almost the church evacuation, Vance said there was "a threat at the St Rose of Lima church building hither in Newtown," going on to say: "Nosotros've initiated a criminal investigation along with the Newtown police for this item incident."
Vance said the threat was received via a phone call.
Updated
Police: Adam Lanza confirmed every bit Newtown gunman
Adam Lanza has been confirmed every bit the gunman in the Newtown school shootings, Lt Paul Vance of the Connecticut state police confirms at a press conference happening at present.
Vance likewise confirms that Lanza then killed himself.
Nancy Lanza – Adam Lanza's mother – was also confirmed every bit the 27th victim, and her death has been ruled a homicide.
The police also say that the primary weapon used by Lanza was a Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with what Vance describes as "multiple magazines," including one "high chapters magazine" and multiple magazines for the ii handguns he carried.
Vance said that Lanza was yet heavily armed when he committed suicide equally police approached:
There was a lot of ammo, a lot of clips. Certainly a lot of lives were potentially saved.
Updated
As reported before, on Play a trick on News today Republican representative Louis Gohmert of Texas was the lone voice arguing confronting tighter gun regulation – and claimed that "The facts are that every time guns have been allowed, concealed carry has been allowed, the crime charge per unit has gone down."
Not so, AP reminds u.s.a.:
A study by the California-based Constabulary Center to Prevent Gun Violence adamant that seven of the 10 states with the strongest gun laws – including Connecticut, Massachusetts and California – are also amid the 10 states with the lowest gun death rates.
"If yous await at the states with the strongest gun laws in the country, they have some of the lowest gun death rates, and some of us with the weakest gun laws accept some of the highest gun decease rates," said Brian Malte of the Brady Entrada to Preclude Gun Violence.
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt reports with more detail on the sudden evacuation of a church building in Newtown today afterwards an unidentified threat was received, bringing a Swat squad to the scene:
At that place is confusion as to exactly what happened at St Rose of Lima this afternoon.
Anne Spada, 52, was within the church when a state trooper walked in and told people to leave.
"He said there was a threat, so you need to get out the church," she said.
She said she was "just in that location praying" rather than in the middle of a service. "People were angry they had to get out the church building," she said.
Gailen Leon, 13, from Waterbury, said she was at the back of the church with her sister and female parent, who gave her permission for Gailen to speak to the Guardian.
"It was silent then everybody was saying there'southward a threat, go out out. That'south when everybody started running," she said.
Leon said police did not alert the family but instead churchgoers had warned each other. They hurried out to the car park.
"One woman fainted right beside the driveway," she said.
Constabulary confirmed a threat had been fabricated against the church. A spokesman could not confirm information technology was a bomb threat. He said the area had been secured.
Updated
Sites such as Buzzfeed and Gawker accept rushed to defend themselves for the stream of misinformation they and other sections of the media posted in the wake of the shootings in Newtown, blaming in office the blitz of "news" via social media.
Only Matt Bors, the cartoonist who revealed via his Facebook timeline that Ryan Lanza was being unfairly named as the shooter, has a brutal response:
'Social Media' didn't get annihilation incorrect or correct. Reporters got things wrong – people who made choices about what to post and how to headline it – and they looked similar fools for doing so. Yous might every bit well credit phones and typewriters for everything reported correctly before 1999.... Lanza's ability to post about his innocence, and mine to run across it and relay it to people, is only a social media success story if y'all don't question the necessity of dragging an alleged suspect's possible Facebook profile into the limelight where he'll be called a mass murderer of children.
Bors himself was heavily criticised on social media for even revealing the most tenuous Facebook link with the misidentified Ryan Lanza. Hence his conclusion:
Social media is simply a tool, and from what I saw yesterday, not 1 that's bringing out anything social in united states.
New York Urban center Mike Bloomberg endorses a national petition calling for the government to address gun violence – one launched through the Mayors Against Gun Violence campaign, of which Bloomberg is a member.
Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg)This tragic event in #Newtown is just one in a serial that happens again & again. #DemandAPlan to finish gun violence: bit.ly/UzClkG
December sixteen, 2012
Private gun ownership in the US is far out-stripping US population growth, reports Female parent Jones – with the terrifying detail that no one knows for sure exactly how many guns at that place are out there:
A precise count isn't possible because most guns in the United states aren't registered and the government has scant ability to rail them, thanks to a legislative landscape shaped past powerful pro-gun groups such as the National Rifle Association. Merely through a combination of national surveys and manufacturing and sales data, we know that the increase in firearms has far outpaced population growth. In 1995 there were an estimated 200m guns in private hands. Today, there are around 300m — about a 50% spring. The US population, now over 314 one thousand thousand, grew by about 20% in that period. At this rate, in that location will exist a gun for every homo, adult female, and child earlier the decade ends.
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt reports from Newtown, where there has been an evacuation by armed police of a church in the town:
A scene just now in Sandy Hook that no one wanted to see: the St Rose of Lima church was evacuated after constabulary apparently received a threat shut by.
People who had been inside the church watched from across the road as more than ten police cars and a heavy duty constabulary vehicle pulled up outside the building. Around ten officers in camouflage swat gear, including helmets and vests, walked in single file to a white building next door to the church, reported by AP to be the church rectory. All the officers carried what appeared to be assault rifle-type weapons, and the man at the front end held a heavy duty shield in front end of him as they slowly approached.
The officers entered the edifice and torchlight could be seen inside. Outside, police force in standard uniforms stood around the white building, some with weapons fatigued. Three of the police officers stood backside broad trees outside.
As printing and some churchgoers watched, the situation remained the same for effectually v minutes, before finally the officers in SWAT gear left the edifice. They walked more than casually this time, and the man with a shield held information technology down by his side.
Update: Play tricks News is reporting that the church has been re-opened.
Updated
Bloomberg: Obama 'has got to try. And that'due south his job.'
Considering information technology's worth reading in total, here'southward some of New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg'due south comments today on Run across The Press – and his statement that President Obama needs to atomic number 82 the accuse for greater gun regulation:
Mike Bloomberg: It's so unbelievable. And it only happens in America. And information technology happens again and again. In that location was another shooting yesterday. Three people killed I recollect in a hospital. We impale people in schools. We kill them in hospitals. We kill them in religious organizations. Nosotros kill them when they're young. Nosotros impale them when they're old. And we've just got to end this.
David Gregory: A pregnant argument every bit far as it goes. You're calling for immediate action. What precisely?
Bloomberg: Well, number one, I think the President should console the country. Simply he'south the Commander-in-chief also every bit the Consoler-in-chief. And he calls for action, but he called for activity two years ago. And every fourth dimension there is a disaster like this, a tragedy like this, everybody says, well, now is non the time. Or if you had stock-still the problem, y'all can't guarantee that this particular event would have been prevented.
All of that is true. It's time for the President, I recall, to stand up up and atomic number 82. And tell this country what we should do. Not go to Congress and say what you guys want to do. This should be his number 1 agenda. He is the President of the United states. And if he does nothing during his second term, something like 48,000 Americans will be killed with illegal guns. That is roughly the number of Americans killed in the whole of the Vietnam War.
Gregory: And then what practice you lot exercise?
Bloomberg: Well, there's a number of things that the President tin practise and a number of things that Congress can do. And there are a number of things that you and I tin exercise as voters. What the President can practise is number one through executive action, he tin gild his agencies to enforce the laws more aggressively. I think in that location's something similar 77,000 people who have been accused of lying when they have applied for a gun permit. Nosotros've only prosecuted 77 of them.
The President can innovate legislation even if it doesn't get passed. The President campaigned dorsum in 2008 on a bill that would prohibit assault weapons. We've got to really question whether military mode weapons with big magazines belong in the streets of America in this twenty-four hours and historic period. Nobody questions the Second Amendment'due south correct to acquit arms. But I don't remember the founding fathers had the idea that every man, woman, and child could carry an assault weapon.
And I think the President through his leadership could become a bill like that through Congress. Merely at least he's got to try. And that's his job.
Updated
The Associated Press reports from Newtown:
Worshippers hurriedly left a church Sunday, saying they were told at that place was a bomb threat not far from the simple school where twenty kids and six adults were massacred.
At least a dozen police in cover-up Swat gear and carrying guns arrived at the St Rose of Lima Church. An Associated Press photographer saw police force go out conveying something in a cerise tarp.
There was no official report from police about the threat or evacuation.
It's not articulate if in that location really was a threat or if, similar many tragedies, whether it was a hoax or the result of a customs on edge.
The Guardian'due south Adam Gabbatt is outside the St Rose of Lima church in Newtown, which has just been evacuated and and the area surrounded by heavily-armed police force officers.
Adam Gabbatt (@AdamGabbatt)Officers are stood exterior the edifice with guns drawn. Some of them are stood behind trees. twitter.com/AdamGabbatt/st…
December 16, 2012
Breaking news from Newtown: the St Rose of Lima church has been evacuated, the Guardian'south Adam Gabbatt reports from the scene. He says that the congregation was evacuated in mid-service and that parishioners were told there had been a threat against the church building.
The Newtown Bee (@TheNewtownBee)St Rose Church has been evacuated. Developing story.
December 16, 2012
Adam Gabbatt (@AdamGabbatt)Armed police in army fatigues entering white firm side by side to St Rose of Lima church right now
December xvi, 2012
Updated
The Associated Press has a disturbing study from Indiana:
Government say an Indiana man who had 47 guns and ammunition in his home has been arrested afterwards allegedly threatening to kill people at an elementary school near his habitation.
Cedar Lake police were called to the domicile of 60-year-one-time Von I. Meyer early Friday later he allegedly threatened to prepare his wife on burn. A police argument says Meyer also said he would enter Jane Brawl Elementary Schoolhouse and "impale every bit many people as he could."
Connecticut police: no timeline of shooting nevertheless
Opening upwardly to question from journalists at the press briefing, Lt Vance is asked several times about the detailed timeline of the attack within the school published today by the Hartford Courant paper, which contains graphic descriptions of the attack.
Vance is not confirming the details in the report:
I cannot restate or restate heavily enough: I have not and will not put out a timeline in this investigation as it is underway.
Saying that he had not read the Courant report, Vance repeated that the authorities will not confirm its details: "We cannot and volition not draw the location of the deceased in this investigation."
Asked about reports that Nancy Lanza took her sons to shooting ranges, Vance likewise wouldn't be fatigued:
I don't know that, quite frankly.... We can't have segments of an investigation and talk over it public considering information technology may be misinterpreted.
Asked how confident he was that the investigation would eventually discover the motives behind the shooting, Vance replied:
I am confident that nosotros volition put ever resource into this investigation and we will reply every question that is relevant in this instance.... We're using every single resources and our goal is to paint a complete picture of what happened here.
On the types of misinformation being posted on social media, Vance said "I'1000 non a social media expert," just mentioned that quotes by people posing as the shooter have been fabricated online: "Suffice to say that the data has been accounted equally threatening, it has been deemed inaccurate."
Finally, Vance revealed that investigators have spoken to "many witnesses but there are many more than witnesses to speak to, including some of the children."
Vance confirmed that the wounded take already been interviewed.
The question of the surviving children always returning to the school is raised. "It'due south difficult to imagine," says another officer.
Connecticut law: fake social media postings to be investigated
Connecticut state police spokesman Lt Paul Vance has given a press conference to update the media – and problems a warning that "false misinformation" circulating on social media "will be investigated and prosecuted".
Saying that false quotes attributed to the gunman and other claims made via social media were "condign somewhat of a business organization," Vance stated:
It is important to know we have discussed with federal authorities that these issues are crimes and they will be investigated... prosecutions will take identify when these peoples are identified.
Vance said that constabulary enforcement agencies are not posting information on social media, and that individuals posting faux information "will exist investigated and prosecuted" past federal authorities.
Vance had little new to add nearly the progress of the investigation in the shooting:
There'south nothing new to report with respect to the investigation... I will non and cannot item pieces of the investigation.
But he said that there may soon have confirmation of the identity of the gunman and his remaining unidentified victim – believed to Adam Lanza and his female parent, Nancy:
Early this afternoon we hope to release factual data on the identification of the last two deceased.
The investigation was focusing on the unmarried crime scene at the school itself, with the other designated law-breaking scene – the school carpark – had been largely completed, and that cars were beingness released to their owners.
We're waiting for the start of the press briefing in Connecticut, when we should hear more details from the law and country medical examiner.
Connecticut governor Dan Malloy speaks in favour of gun control on CNN this morning:
I call up when we talk almost the assault weapons ban that was in identify in the U.s., to accept allowed that to go away or misemploy, it's the land'due south power to enforce that, because guns move across country lines.
In fact, a lot of guns used in crimes in Connecticut were purchased at – nosotros know because we tin track them – were purchased at gun shows in other states especially downwards in the southern portion of the United States. They work up [the] declension and they get here. That was non the case in this situation.
The Brady Nib was a slice of legislation that made a lot of sense, still does. And one can only hope that we'll find a mode to limit these weapons that really only have one purpose.
Connecticut gun ranges in business organisation as usual
The Guardian'south Ed Pilkington is in Newtown – and he finds it's business as usual at the nearby gun ranges in Connecticut:
It'due south 48 hours since Adam Lanza bankrupt his mode into Sandy Claw school and killed 20 children and six adults, and yous might think that given the circumstances shooting ranges in the vicinity of the schoolhouse would be closed on Sunday morning time out of a sense of propriety. Wrong.
Shooters pistol range in New Milford, which is well-nigh fifteen miles from Newtown where the binge took place, is very much open up for business organization this morn. I'one thousand here now, sitting in my motorcar outside the warehouse that contains the range, and I tin hear the "pop, pop" of guns firing about every 10 seconds.
The reason I'm sitting outside the range is that when I went inside to see the managing director of Shooters, he refused to talk to me, other than to ostend that the facility is open today. He was sitting at a counter within the warehouse which besides acts as a gun shop; at his back was a row of guns, including semi-automatic attack rifles similar to the Bushmaster used past Lanza, that stretches for about 30 feet.
The website for Shooters says that "target shooting is fun and challenging for everyone", just adds: "Safety is our first priority". It says of its shop that it also offers rental guns: "we offer several selections of revolvers and semi-automatics from .22 to .45 caliber."
Outside the range, I've but spoken to one customer who has arrived to go target shooting with his 14-year-old son. Mike D'Amico says the two come to shoot because "We enjoy it. We just enjoy shooting - it'southward something we similar to do, it'south personal enjoyment."
When I ask D'Amico what he thinks well-nigh the argue effectually gun command that has started up in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and President Obama'south phone call for "meaningful action" on gun control, I'm surprised past his answer. He's in favour of greater gun controls, he says.
"I've thought about it for quite a while. I just don't run across the need for people to carry some of these big guns - they don't seem appropriate for target practice or shooting and hunting. Some of the weapons available are simply not right."
That's the thing about America and guns - it never ceases to surprise. A shooting range is open up two days after one of the almost horrendous acts of gun violence the country has suffered, and information technology happened but a short ride abroad. But when you lot ask a man preparing to become shooting with his teenaged son, he's says he's all in favour of greater gun control.
Updated
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt is in Newtown, where church building services are taking place this forenoon:
Members of the clergy handed out a box of tissues to each pew ahead of the service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown.
The large grey rock church is around a mile from the heart of Sandy Claw. Most of the wooden benches were filled with people on Sunday morn. The auto park was full likewise.
The rector, Kathleen Adams-Shepherd, told the congregation that she had been at the fire house close to Sandy Hook elementary waiting and praying with families. She was in that location when some of those families plant out their children would not be coming domicile.
What happened that day was not God'southward will, Adams-Shepherd told the churchgoers. Some wept as a reading listed the names of those killed. Six-yr-erstwhile Benjamin Wheeler, whose parents worshipped at Trinity Episcopal, was among the dead.
Adams-Shepherd and the other members of the clergy came downwards among the congregation, some of them squeezing into pews next to the congregation. "I wanted to be among you," the rector said.
She encouraged people to hug each other, prompting emotional embraces. "Jesus will still come," Adams-Shepherd said. "Santa will come too," she added.
In her address to the church, she said she had fabricated a conscious conclusion non to allow television crews and photographers into the church during the last few days and during Sunday'due south service. Families of the victims should exist left in individual, Adams-Shepherd said, and the church should be a identify of respite.
"Thank you pastor," ane churchgoer called out. The congregation broke into a standing ovation.
Updated
Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman – who steps down soon – tells Fob News Sunday that a national committee could be prepare to examine the nation'south gun laws and mental wellness system too as the function that trigger-happy video games and movies might play in shootings:
We've got to hear the screams of these kids and see their blood to keep this from happening once again.
A depressing conversation on This Calendar week between host George Stephanopoulous and ABC News'southward master justice contributor, Pierre Thomas, on the sheer number of guns in the U.s.a.:
Stephanopoulous: Yous've made the point that the book of the gun sales ways nosotros're across the betoken of no render. There are so many guns out there right now in the United States.
Thomas: To use the cliché, the genie's out of the canteen. There are more than than 200 1000000-plus guns already in circulation, then if you stop selling them today, forever, they are not biodegradable, they're non going anywhere. So y'all would have to figure out how to remove them from the streets. That would be very hard.
Connecticut's US Senator Richard Blumenthal – a former federal prosecutor and the land'south attorney general for 20 years – says new gun laws are needed on This Week:
I'm hearing from the community, as well as my colleagues in law enforcement, we need to do something. And I'm hearing from my colleagues in the Senate around the country, some in states like Wisconsin and Colorado, where there have been similar horrific, horrible tragedies, maybe not involving children with this kind of uncomprehensible kind of circumstance, but we need to do something, at the very least, perhaps, near the high-capacity magazines that were used in this crime.
Blumenthal says: "I intend to talk about information technology on the floor of the United States Senate perhaps as early equally this week."
Senator Feinstein: Obama will back up new gun control laws
Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein tells Meet The Press that she intends to launch new gun control legislation on the first day of the new Congress in January:
Mike O'Brien (@mpoindc)Will Obama throw his back up behind the new gun law? "I believe he will," says Sen. Feinstein. #MTP
Dec xvi, 2012
The New York Times reports this morning time that efforts by the Section of Justice to toughen gun controls were shelved, in part because of the political fall-out from its botched "Fast and Furious" gun-running sting:
After the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and others at a supermarket in Tucson in early 2011, the Justice Department drew up a detailed list of steps the government could take to expand the background-bank check organization in social club to reduce the hazard of guns falling into the easily of mentally ill people and criminals.
Most of the proposals, though, were shelved at the department a year ago equally the election campaign heated up and every bit Congress conducted a politically charged investigation into the Operation Fast and Furious gun trafficking case, according to people familiar with the internal deliberations.
Statement past Peter Lanza
Terminal nighttime Peter Lanza, the father of Adam Lanza, issued a statement on behalf of his family:
Our family unit is grieving along with all those who have been affected by this enormous tragedy. No words tin can truly limited how heartbroken we are. We are in a state of disbelief and trying to observe whatever answers we can. We too are asking why.... Similar and then many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired.
Mike Bloomberg: 'It happens again and once again'
New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg issues a rousing call for President Obama to make gun control his "number i priority" on Come across The Press this morning:
It'due south time for the president to stand up and lead and tell the country what we should do... If he does zippo during his second term, something similar 48,000 Americans will exist killed with illegal guns. That's is roughly the number of Americans killed during the whole Vietnam state of war.
Mike O'Brien (@mpoindc)"There is this myth that the NRA is then powerful," says Bloomberg on @meetthepress. "The NRA's ability is so vastly overrated"
December 16, 2012
It'southward a powerful performance by Bloomberg.
Updated
Ordinarily an invitation to a high-profile Sunday talk show is catnip for senators but not this week it seems, according to a producer for Come across The Press:
Betsy Fischer Martin (@BetsyMTP)BTW, we reached out to ALL 31 pro-gun rights Sens in the new Congress to invite them to share their views on @meetthepress - NO takers.
December 16, 2012
Who were the 31 senators and which parties exercise they represent? There are more a few Democratic senators who oppose gun control.
GOP congressman: fight guns with more guns
On Fox News Sun, Republican representative from Texas Louis Gohmert is telling host Chris Wallace that the solution to gun crime is more guns.
Challenge that the worst massacres in recent US history happened in places were guns were banned, Gohmert said the deaths in Newtown may non have happened if Dawn Hochsprung, principal at Sandy Claw Elementary School, had been armed:
Chris, I wish to God she had had an M4 [weapon] in her role, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls information technology out and she didn't take to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands merely she takes him out, takes his caput off earlier he can kill those precious kids.
Every fourth dimension laws were loosened to allow "curtained carry" of guns, law-breaking went downward, Gohmert claimed:
The facts are that every time guns have been immune, concealed-acquit has been allowed, the crime rate has gone down. Washington DC effectually usa ought to be the safest place in America and it'due south not. Chicago ought to be safe. It'south not, because their gun laws don't work.
Updated
Rupert Murdoch weighs in on gun control argue
Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate who controls the Fox network, issued an unusual tweet last night:
Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch)Nice words from POTUS on shooting tragedy, only how about some assuming leadership action?
December 16, 2012
An earlier tweet from Murdoch alluded to tougher gun control laws enacted in his native Commonwealth of australia later on a mass killing in 1996: "When will politicians notice courage to ban automatic weapons? Equally in Oz later on similar tragedy."
If Murdoch'south formidable Fob News channel were to accept a more neutral tone on gun control, that would exist a significant evolution, given Pull a fast one on's influence with conservatives and Republicans.
Updated
The Guardian'south Ed PIlkington in Newtown details the names of those who died in the Connecticut schoolhouse rampage:
The nature of the tragedy is told mayhap most poignantly not through the list of 26 names of the victims published past police, but through their dates of birth. 16 of them were born in 2006 – they were six years quondam; 4 more were vii. The youngest victim, Noah Pozner, historic his sixth altogether less than a month ago, on xx November.
A total list of the victims is hither.
The Guardian'due south Tracy McVeigh profiles Adam Lanza, the quondam Sandy Hook student said to have shot 27 people and then himself:
An honours student, he was a sparse, awkward merely vivid boy who seemed socially uncomfortable. With retrospect some of his and then classmates have said maybe he had autism or Asperger's syndrome – that is what has been reported in local media to be what his brother has told the constabulary. Lanza had no criminal record and no history of his causing problem in the past, either at school or in his affluent neighbourhood of Newtown, some 90 miles from New York City. Some of his former classmates had trouble remembering anything about him at all.
The Associated Printing is reporting that federal agents "planned to fan out to dozens of gun stores and shooting ranges across Connecticut" in the search for evidence virtually the lead-upward to Fri's killings.
Information technology quotes Dean Price, director of the Wooster Mountain State Range — a shooting range in Danbury, Connecticut — as saying two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives visited the range on Friday night and Saturday, and stayed into the early morning looking through thousands of names on sign-in logs at the guild
Updated
Pope Bridegroom prays for Newtown families
In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims and tourists at the Vatican this forenoon that he is praying for the families of the victims, saying he was "deeply saddened past Fri'due south senseless violence in Newtown, Connecticut":
I clinch the families of the victims, especially those who lost a kid, of my closeness in prayer. May the God of consolation touch their hearts and ease their pain."
Updated
President Obama to speak at Newtown vigil
The White House has updated the details of President Obama's visit to Newtown today. It says the president will meet privately with families of the victims and so with emergency personnel who attended in the aftermath of the shootings. He will then speak at an acuity at Newtown High School this night at effectually 7pm ET.
President Obama will visit Newtown, Connecticut, today to meet families of the victims of the attack on Sandy Hook elementary school, every bit the debate on gun control gathers momentum, and looks ready to boss the Sunday forenoon news talk shows.
Connecticut governor Dan Malloy appears on three of the shows: NBC's Face the Nation, CBS's Come across the Press and ABC's This Calendar week, while New York Urban center mayor Mike Bloomberg – an avowed advocate of tougher gun control measures – appears on Meet The Press.
In Newtown this morning, Sunday church building services are taking place, and the police are scheduled to agree a news briefing shortly.
Here'southward the full rundown of the Sun talk prove guests:
Run across the Press on NBC
• Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy
• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
• Senator Dianne Feinstein
• Bill Bennett, former secretary of didactics
• Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers
• Tom Ridge, onetime secretary of homeland security and former governor of Pennsylvania
Confront the Nation on CBS
• Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy
• Senator Chuck Schumer
• Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas.)
• Dan Gross, president, Brady Entrada to Prevent Gun Violence
This Calendar week on ABC
• Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy
• Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut
• Chris Murphy, senator-elect of Connecticut
• Representative Jason Chaffetz
• Representative Donna Edwards
• Hartford mayor Pedro Segarra
Flim-flam News Dominicus on Fox
• Senator Joe Lieberman
• Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin
• Representative Louie Gohmert
We will be following the news shows this morn, and updating with events every bit they happen. For coverage of yesterday'due south news, read our liveblog here.
Updated
shepherdsontoldneire.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-news-blog/2012/dec/16/newtown-school-shooting-sunday-talkshows-live