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Associated Press
President Barack Obama speaks Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, during an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Published Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 | 3:04 p.m.
Updated Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 | 6:30 p.m.
Connecticut state police release names of victims
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NEWTOWN, Conn. — He spoke for a nation in sorrow, but the slaughter of all those little boys and girls left President Barack Obama, like so many others, reaching for words. Alone on a spare stage after the worst single day of his presidency, the commander in chief was a parent in grief.
"I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depth of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts," Obama said at an evening vigil in the grieving community of Newtown, Conn. "I can only hope that it helps for you to know that you are not alone in your grief."
The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday elicited horror around the world, soul-searching in the United States, fresh political debate about gun control and questions about the incomprehensible — what drove the suspect to act.
It also left a newly re-elected president openly grappling for bigger answers. Obama said that in the coming weeks, he would use "whatever power this office holds" to engage with law enforcement, mental health professionals, parents and educators in an effort to prevent more tragedies like Newtown.
"Can say that we'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," Obama said, somber and steady as some in the audience wept.
"If we're honest without ourselves, the answer is no. And we will have to change."
He promised to lead a national effort, but left unclear was what it would be, and how much it would address the explosive issue of gun control.
"What choice do we have?" Obama said. "Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?"
For Obama, ending his fourth year in office, it was another sorrowful visit to another community in disbelief. It is the job of the president to be there, to listen and console, to offer help even when the only thing within his grasp is a hug.
All the victims were killed up close by multiple rifle shots.
The toll: six adults. Twenty boys and girls, all of whom were just 6 or 7 years old.
Inside the vigil children held stuffed teddy bears and dogs. The smallest kids sat on their parents' laps.
There were tears and hugs, but also smiles and squeezed arms. Mixed with disbelief was a sense of a community reacquainting itself all at once. One man said it was less mournful, more familial. Some kids chatted easily with their friends. The adults embraced each other in support.
The president first met privately with families of the victims and with the emergency personnel who responded to the shootings. That meeting happened at Newtown High School, the site of Sunday night's interfaith vigil, about a mile and a half from where the shootings took place.
"We're halfway between grief and hope," said Curt Brantl, whose fourth-grade daughter was in the library of the elementary school when the shootings occurred. She was not harmed.
Police and firefighters got hugs and standing ovations when they entered. So did Obama.
"We needed this," said the Rev. Matt Crebbin, senior minister of the Newtown Congregational Church. "We need to be together here in this room. ... We needed to be together to show that we are together and united."
The shootings have restarted a debate in Washington about what politicians can to do help — gun control or otherwise. Obama on Friday called for leaders to agree on "meaningful action" to prevent killings.
Police say the gunman, Adam Lanza, was carrying an arsenal of ammunition big enough to kill just about every student in the school if given enough time. He shot himself in the head just as he heard police drawing near, authorities said.
A Connecticut official said the gunman's mother was found dead in her pajamas in bed, shot four times in the head with a.22-caliber rifle. The killer then went to the school with guns he took from his mother and began blasting his way through the building.
The tragedy plunged the picturesque New England town of 27,000 people into mourning.
"I know that Newtown will prevail, that we will not fall to acts of violence," said First Selectwoman Patricia Llodra. "It is a defining moment for our town, but it does not define us."
A White House official said Obama mainly wrote the speech himself. He worked with presidential speechwriter Cody Keenan, who helped Obama write his speech last year after shootings in Tucson, Ariz., left six dead and 13 wounded, including Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Just this past summer, Obama went to Aurora, Colo., to visit victims and families after a shooting spree at a movie theater in the Denver suburb left 12 dead.
In November 2009, Obama traveled to Fort Hood, Texas, to speak at the memorial service for 13 service members who were killed on the post by another soldier.
After the Colorado shooting in July, the White House made clear that Obama would not propose new gun restrictions in an election year and said he favored better enforcement of existing laws.
Sandy Hook once again shows America has lost its moral compass. Our mental health system and legal system is broken with no means to deal with the mentally ill.
Deranged psychotic people aid by privacy laws are allowed to walk freely amongst us and we can not even legally provide them with the help they must have.
These mentally ill individuals are further immersed everyday in a society which has lost its personal values. In our liberal secular dependency society individuals are not taught responsibility and have lost perspective of right and wrong. Underaged teens get birth control without parental supervision, marijuana drug laws are not being enforced, nudity is widespread on TV, rampant play of toxic violent video games, denigration of religious is being systematically promoted in schools, and the deranged individuals with severe mental issues can not be legally helped.
Ha...the conservatives love to have an attitude of "take care of yourself"...now you're suggesting they get involved in helping the mentally ill?
What hippocrisy.
Gun owners have got to absolutely make sure that their guns are 100% secure. As long as mentally unstable people have access to unsecure guns-they'll continue to be more tragedies like this in the future.
If you have mentally unstable people in your home, forget about "securing" them..get them out of the house. That is just common sense in my book. Not sure why this woman wanted an arsenal in her home with a clearly troubled young man in residence.
I thought the Presidents speech was excellent tonight.
Mr. Obama you are not the one who can keep our nation's children safe, if anything you put their lives in danger. Parents, schools and law enforcement can only do so much against the unknown. Adam Lanza was unknown to everyone until Friday. The best we can do as society is to watch out for one another and report any suspicious activity. Parents need to be vigilant of their children, teens and adult children, and not be afraid to turn them in when acting suspicious. The way Obama is talking he sounds more like a dictator everyday, its scary to thing that this man may be thinking of taking away every liberty we have.
Demonrats already calling for strict gun control, they cannot achieve their agenda and dream of a society totally dependent on government without repeal of the 2nd amendment, they will keep chipping at it at any cost.
Hold that pose while I get my camera...
Express, you are wrong. Everyone knew Adam was troubled, and many knew his mom was gaga too. They all knew about the guns (actually semi-automatic assault devices) because mom bragged about them. They knew she was paranoid. Yet, they all kept quiet.
No, express, their neighbors weren't unaware. Merely unsure and unwilling to say anything. Two unstable people, isolated with an arsenal at home. The guns didn't protect them. They made a sad situation worse.
While I take gun ownership very serious, Our President is throwing stones in a glass house. His Drone strikes have reportedly killed 136 children. Where is the press conference on the innocents the Government kills.
I say that we need to BAN ALL ASSULT RIFLES,
PERIOD.
They were banned under President Bill Clinton and
George Bush lifted the ban after he stole the
election from Al Gore.
No one needs assult rifles except the military.
Anyone who thinks they need one is already a nut.
Five children a day are killed by handguns in Chicago and Detroit. Where was the President for these mothers who were crying over the lost of their children. How many times did he go to Detroit ? Chicago ? Were these kids lives worth anything to him ?
To all those throwing stones at Obama, put a sock in it and tell us what your solutions are, otherwise sit down and shut up. Your slings and arrows fall only in a pool of hatred.
Go away for awhile, the rest of us will pick up your lack.
We can spend trillions on our war machine and bail outs for criminal bankers but continue to turn our backs on the mentally ill.
The NRA gun worshipers want to take the nation down with them in their suicidal death wish.
18 first graders and teachers slaughtered in their small town school? Not a big deal, just more 2nd Amendment collateral damage. atiotic manly men must have their killing toys. That's what matters most.
It is unbelievable that some idiots in America and Las Vegas think Obama should travel the country and even the world to console the families of everyone killed by a mentally ill person. They are Fox News on steroids.
Wayne LaPierre has a lot of blood on his hands.
teamster says "I say that we need to BAN ALL ASSULT RIFLES, PERIOD."
And what outcome do you expect from that? If an assault weapon ban was an effective tool we should have seen a decrease in gun crime after the ban went into effect previously and an increase after it expired. But that isn't what happened. Statistically the assault weapon ban had no effect whatsoever on gun crime in the US.
So if it had no effect last time, what outcome are you expecting this time?
Q. How about reinstating the assault weapon ban?
A. If the assault weapon ban had been an effective tool, there should have been a decrease in gun crime after it went into effect and an increase in gun crime after it expired. This not what happened, so we can say that the assault weapon ban was not an effective tool.
Q. But countries with strict gun control laws like the UK have lower rates of gun crime. Why don't we emulate them?
A. The UK had lower rates of gun crime than the US before the ban on handguns. The data shows that the rate of violent crime and gun crime have INCREASED in the UK since gun ownership was restricted.
Q. But wouldn't banning these types of weapons at least prevent tragedies like this one?
A. No. Norway has stricter gun control laws than all of the ones being proposed here. In July 2011 it also saw 77 people massacred by an armed lunatic on a rampage.
Q. But what about the jurisdictions in the US that saw the light and passed strict gun control laws in response to their growing violent crime and gun crime rates?
A. Pretty much all of them have failed to see any reduction in those areas as a result of the new laws. Massachusetts, for example, saw serious increases in all violent crime categories, including gun crime, since passage of strict gun control laws.
Q. But there are way too many guns. If we reduce the number of guns we will at least reduce the number of gun crimes, right?
A. The FBI data on gun crime rates going back over the last 100 years do not show any correlation at all between the number of guns int he US and the number of gun crimes or per capita rates of gun crime.
So I would ask that anyone insisting that we need stricter gun control laws or bans on some or all guns at least look at what has been tried in the past that DIDN'T work and make sure they are proposing something different. Bans on assault weapons, bans on handguns, strict licensing requirements, background checks, and limits on number of guns or amount of ammunition have all been tried....and failed.
So if Gradu is right, and his stats are reliable, then what is the transportable gulp in our lesson here? ...that we are stuck? ..that we will continue to experience the repeated slaughter of our friends and families to senseless rage and dementia gone ballistic?
Our future as a culture depends on our values and our implementation of a societal integration that reflects that cultural stance. How many are all for slaughtering first graders at school along with their teachers and school officials? Stand up please, so we can see you!
Joe, the less on would be that there are no easy, quick-fix answers to the problem.
The answer to far reaching societal problems is almost never "just pass a quick law"