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David Friedman / NBC News
Easton police officer J. Sollazzo greets parents and students returning to Hawley Elementary School on Tuesday in Newtown, Conn.
Hearts were heavy and security was tight as thousands of children in Newtown, Conn., returned to school Tuesday for the first time since a gunman killed 20 students and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary.
It was a tiny glimmer of normalcy in a town that was also burying two more youngsters, but officials made it clear this was no ordinary school day.
“This is a day to start healing,” Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais wrote in an e-mail to parents before six schools opened two hours later than usual, with police officers and counselors on hand.
Sandy Hook, where a rifle-toting Adam Lanza turned two classrooms into a shooting gallery on Friday, remains a crime scene, with no indication if its 600 students will ever return to the building. Preparations are being made for them to use a school building in a neighboring town in the interim.
At Hawley Elementary, Keith Muckell said he felt “deep sadness” as he dropped off his 8-year-old daughter, Shannon, but he knew he couldn’t keep her “in a bubble.”
“I told her I loved her, kissed her, told the teacher to just take care of these guys. And he was like, ‘We got it,’” Muckell said.
More victims of the mass shooting last week at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., will be laid to rest Tuesday. Meanwhile, more details emerge about the gunman. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
He said that as Newtown’s children head back to school, he hopes the nation learns a gun-control lesson from the horrific tragedy that rocked the quiet bedroom community.
“I just hope that this is sort of a tipping point in some way to really do something meaningful," he said. "I am a hunter, a bow hunter just so you know, but I can't imagine why anybody would want these assault rifles. It just doesn't seem to me to make any sense."
Newtown High School senior P.J. Hickey told The Associated Press that being with friends would help him cope with the tragedy. He said there were would be “no joy” in school – but also, at least for him, no fear.
Boy died in arms of his favorite teacher
“This is where I feel most at home,” he said. “I feel safer here than anywhere else in the world.”
Newtown Police Lt. George Sinko said the town prepared for “a lot of apprehension” from parents.
"We just had a horrific tragedy. We had babies sent to school that should be safe and they weren't," Sinko said. "You can't help but think ... if this could happen again."
Even as schools were reopening, two more kids -- 6-year-olds Jessica Rekos and James Mattioli -- were being laid to rest.
Wakes also were scheduled Tuesday for Charlotte Bacon and Daniel Barden and for teacher Victoria Soto, 27, hailed as a hero for shielding her students in a closet.
Funeral directors from throughout Connecticut have come forward to help the grieving town, another example of support that's so desperately needed. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
On Monday, the first two funerals for shooting victims were held, with Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both 6, laid to rest in tiny coffins.
Pinto so idolized New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz that he was buried in his jersey. Cruz visited the Pinto home on Tuesday and tweeted in the afternoon: "Much love to the entire Pinto family. Great people with huge hearts. I'm sorry again for your loss. Looking at life through a different lens "
The slain children’s parents have been releasing statements praising school staffers and emergency responders.
Full coverage: Tragedy at Sandy Hook
The family of 6-year-old Dylan Hockley, a special needs student, said they chose Newtown for its excellent schools and “shall never regret this choice.”
“Dylan's teacher, Vicki Soto, was warm and funny and Dylan loved her dearly. We take great comfort in knowing that Dylan was not alone when he died, but was wrapped in the arms of his amazing aide, Anne Marie Murphy,” they added.
The father of Emilie Parker, 6, said he hoped her memory would inspire Americans to do good.
“Remember these beautiful children; keep them close to our hearts. Do not let their bright shining faces become extinguished,” he wrote.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has called for a moment of silence on Friday at 9:30 a.m., exactly one week after massacre, one of the deadliest school schootings in U.S. history. Twenty-six church bells would be rung, one for each life lost.
David Friedman / NBC News
A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six staff members dead.
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- 'We're broken': Newtown begins burying its littlest victims
- Police: Second person injured in Connecticut school shooting survived
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Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
My anger and sorrow at this tragedy are only exceeded by my knowledge that nothing will change.
Change is inevitable. It just may not be the change you want.
Won't happen the gun crazy lobby would rather have their guns and religion than see our children safe..the NRA really is a bunch of reichwing, mostly white men scared that the negro in the white houise is coming for their women or guns...shame on you
The pot calling the kettle white?
He used pistols and a rifle. Laws will not stop this. With 24/7 media coverage, fame is the lure. Can't stop that either.
Do you people really think gun control and leaving it to the government to do something is going to prevent any of this? If you do, you are naive.
Start the change yourself at home. Teach your kids to respect others, pull the plug on violent TV shows, quit letting 8 year olds play violent videos 8 hours a day, stop broadcasting violent and sexually charged charged shows on public broadcast stations in the early evening..... There is so much that can be done THAT WILL MAKE AN IMPACT THAT WOULD REDUCE THESE TRAGEDIES but it involves everyone doing their part. Relying on government to ban high capacity gun magazines or waiving a magic wand isn't going to fix this problem. Our society is broken....
I wish people would find this "we demand something be done now rage" when it comes to alcohol. More deaths are caused by alcohol every year than guns. To the tune of 75,000 to 16,000. Drunk drivers kill just as many people as murderers who use guns. More drunk drivers kill children every year than a murderer with a gun, but we ignore the alcohol problem. Why???? Because if the alcohol issue affects most people and that would be just too damn inconvenient to your lifestyles.....
Seems like there are way to many that want to treat the symptoms while ignoring the disease. AnotherMiddleClass you are among the few that seems to be looking for an actual solution.
Through facebook I have suggested that all my friends contact their Senator to see if we can find a way to deal with that.
Time for atheists in America to stand up and denounce the religious services and references going on in Newtown. Time for them to put on their big boy pants and declare Jesus/God a myth and the senseless, illogical behaviors and beliefs underlying their faith and hope. Time to stop hiding behind shock advertising and banal statements asserting their "rights" and "indignation" from protected anonymity. C'mon atheists. Help these grieving parents and neighbors with your new age wisdom and superior knowledge. Show America your way is more than academic self-righteousness masquerading as equality, separation rights, or whatever vapid arguement.
Rick,
Many people have religion and no guns, many others have guns and no religion. I assume that many others have variations of both. So your point is, well as usual, pointless. You use your own racist bigotry to call out others on the same thing?? No sir, shame on you!!
Our country is getting more evil and this is what happens when evil prevails, it is a tragedy for these little ones and their families, lets just remember the ones who have never even been allowed to be born because of planned parenthood and their supporters , how many they have killed since 1973 with legalized premeditated murder........think about those whose mothers womb was turned into their tomb , the most dangerous place is not in schools but in the mothers womb.
Rich you idiot ....we would really be a free save nation if we threw rocks at the Germans and Japan during WW ll and if you think only whites have guns your crazy.
Can we please stop the 24/7 coverage of this! As culpable as issues about guns and mental health is the insane media coverage of the event and the notoriety of the shooter. I think it is fair to assume that one of the motivations for going on a big rampage is the notoriety that comes with it. Why feed that beast? I think we should know nothing about the shooter. Not his name, not his troubles, not his family life. He should be - as in Harry Potter - "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". Rather than becoming infamous they would become forgotten. Just a thought.
Say What has it partially right. Video games and television shows that are marketed to kids are littered with violence. We have a culture that would rather see someone die than trying to help and research these criminals (even though it costs more to kill someone than jail them for life).
However, there is no need for assult rifles. And places with gun control measures such as banning private sales, banning semi-automatic rifles, and requiring a central database with up-to-date registrations of each gun to the individual, have seen drops in homicides, suicides, and home invasions.
It's not only gun control that needs to be looked at. The trouble with mental Health should be looked at as well as this is the first thing that the state budget takes away. Medication management is extremely important for these troubled souls to thrive in our society. Mental Illness is a handicap that cannot afford to lose help.
I also feel it's far too soon to send these children back to school. I understand that they need to understand that life goes on but children are affected far worse with trauma than us adults are.
Maybe the people of Newton will start to heal once you @!$%#s in the media get the cameras out of their faces. The clowns in the media love when things like this happen so they can increase their ratings. Every single news organization is guilty of doing this and all they are doing by putting this twisted idiots face on the news every 5 minutes is promoting a copy cat crime. How about a little respect for the families? Stop trying to get some sensational interview with one of the victims or someone that knew one of the victims. Also, stop trying to push the blame on everything but the nut case that did the killing.
Other places don't have the 2nd Amendment. You could never ban private sales in the U.S.
Time for the media to move on. Let this town grieve in private. Damn thoughtless, boorish, parasitic vermin!
Before the next kindergarten massacre:
BAN high-capacity magazines and assault weapons NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Do something, show some backbone, Politicians!!!
While it is very true that this tragedy should never have happened, stricter firearm legislation is not
the answer. Imagine for one moment that somebody, in a position of authority at the school, had a
firearm and was able to confront the deranged gunman. Would the outcome have been different?
Maybe less children taken from their families. The facts are that by making it harder for LAW ABIDING
citizens to purchase a firearm, the Government is making it harder for that citizen to protect himself,
and making that citizen a much easier target. We all know that criminals get their firearms legally, and
that the Police can prevent crime before it happens. Until our Government can make its citizenry safe
from the criminal element, and by "safe" I mean the criminals have no access to firearms, firearms will
be necessary. The Second Amendment right was a guarantee for every citizen to not just protect
themselves from criminals but also a guarantee to protect themselves against a tyrannical
Government. If more firearm legislation could fix the problem, this country would not have the need
for an armed Police force or even an armed Federal police force ( FBI, ATF, etc.). It really is pretty
amazing that the public usually only hears about the mass shootings. Why is it that the public does
not hear about the incidents of mass shootings that are stopped or the deaths and/or injuries are
limited because somebody was carrying a firearm?
And when another rampage happens using banned assault rifles and banned magazines - then what? Or when they use regular semi-automatic hand guns? or pipe bombs or fertilizer and diesel? I understand the emotion but the problem is sick people - not the means they use to do sick things.
1helifreak,
Adam Lanza stole his guns from his mother. If there were gun restrictions in which she never owned a gun would this have happened? Hard to say, but I doubt that he would have had the mental capacity to get one on the black market. What about Australia? Since the ban on assault rifles and stricter gun control laws in 1996, there hasn't been a mass shooting! And they did experience about 1 per year in the decade preceding 1996.
And let me know how your guns would do against our government's army if there were ever a coup!
24/7 news - and the mass media in general - have a way of detaching people from the circumstances of their own lives. I mean, this is one of the safest countries in the world and the safest epoch in human history bar none. So when I see MILITANTLY anti-gun people from Vermont, New Hampshire, Montana - from the safest places on the planet in a word - I've got to think that they're driven more by what television is telling them to think than they are by any real world, first hand experience with guns.
The power of television to create enemies and fears has long been recognized. WMD's ring a bell? I don't know why that would be different here.
Cult,
Well they will work better than an empty hand full of skin. In the case you are pointing out, what makes you think that military people won't be joining the citizens in manay cases. At least I could fight back. In the cases such as you speak it will be the other citizens that wish to take what you have when distribution stops. How will you defend your family???????? They can take your wife, daughter..........!!!!!! Get it?
The same day in China at another school 22 kids were injured by a man with a knife. Outlawing guns won't solve this problem that humans have to kill others. Hitler, Saddam, Pol Pot - they murdered millions.
This from the news article about the school attacked there (All this happened in China):
...There were six similar attacks in just seven months in 2010 that killed nearly 20 people and wounded more than 50.
The most recent such attack took place in August, when a knife-wielding man broke into a middle school in the southern city of Nanchang and stabbed two students before fleeing.
In one of the worst incidents, a man described as an unemployed, middle-aged doctor killed eight children with a knife in March 2010 to vent his anger over a thwarted romantic relationship.
Tight controls mean that gun crimes are rare
in China and make knives and sometimes explosives the weapons used in mass
attacks in China.
No motive has been given for the recent school
attack.
Ku Jianhui, a lawyer with the Beijing Xindong
law firm, said the social environment is a 'factor', adding: 'A person who
chooses extreme acts to voice his or her grievances usually believes that his or
her cases were unable to be handled fairly through normal channels or legal
procedures.'
Jon S.,
Read what you posted.....One of the worst incidents in China was in 2010 in which 8 children were killed. The attack that happened on the same day in China had no fatalities. You are correct that outlawing guns won't magically get rid of homicides, but it looks as if it could at least reduce the number of fatalities.
Would you seriously give up all the freedoms you have to live like they do in China? You can't decouple the two. Dude uses a knife in China because that is literally all he could use because of the totalitarian control the government has on it's citizens.
Cult,
First let me say that this was an absolute evil, senseless, cowardly act by an insane person. I am so saddened by what happened. I have 4 kids of my own and I worry about them every day. I wish I had an answer.
The murder rate for countries with the strictest gun controls is higher...the thing is they don't use guns. ( Please see http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf) The point being is that humans kill other humans for a variety of reasons and they pretty much all suck. Taking away rights is a knee jerk reaction and will not address the root cause of the problem: How do we fix people?
Raise them right and make them accountable for their actions at an early age. Overly coddled kids usually turn out with problems..
Last Tuesday, December 11, a mass shooting with an assault-style semi-automatic rifle took place inside a shopping mall in my community and took two lives, and grievously wounded a young girl.
Each of the following three days after that shooting, December 12, 13 and 14, the Gun Shops in my community reported all-time record gun sales; including the sale of many semi-automatic assault-style rifles similar to the weapon which was used in the the shopping mall shooting murders.
Four days after the shopping mall shooting, December 15 -- the day following the horrific massacre inside an elementary school of 20, six and seven-year old children and six teachers and administrators in Connecticut with another semi-automatic assault-style rifle -- a large, well-attended Gun Show was held in the Exposition Center of my community.
Thousands of guns changed hands from private sellers to private buyers at that Gun Show.
Their were no background checks for the buyers of those thousands of weapons due to the loophole in the Brady Bill, which Congress has thus far refused to close, or to even debate.
The NRA and gun manufacturers have spent millions of dollars lobbying and giving political campaign contributions to members of Congress to make certain that our elected representatives in Congress do not act to close this loophole which allows the buyers of 40% of all gun sales in America to avoid a background check on their gun purchases, and to continue to purchase semi-automatic assault-style weapons, high capacity ammunition magazines and unlimited quantities of ammunition.
Think about that: 40% of all gun sales in America ... no background checks.
Am I alone in seeing this state of affairs in America as absurd? Can anyone argue rationally and persuasively that our American society has not lost its collective mind over the possession of guns?
Footnotes: Between the time you got out of bed this morning and the time you get out of bed tomorrow morning, 34 more people will die of gun violence in America; an average daily toll which continues 365 days a year, every year.
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, between 2006 and 2010 47,856 people were murdered in the U.S. by firearms, ....more than twice as many people as were killed by all other means combined.
* There are more than 129,817 federally licensed firearms dealers in the United States, according to the latest Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
* There are approx. 36,569 Grocery Stores in the United States (source: Food Marketing Institute, 2011)
There are approx. 14,098 McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. (Source: McDonald’s Corporation Annual Report 2011)
Ok, now make that rational and persuasive argument that we have not lost our collective mind in America.
Why worry about an attack from the Taliban, if we have the NRA in this country providing weapons of mass destruction in this country!!!!!
Robert, I don't think anyone can argue with you. This nation sits by and continues to let things like this happen. We, as a nation need to pull together and make change. This country can come together to help out victim's of a bad storm, or unite as we did on 911. Well, now it's time for us to unite for what is right.
And now it is time for the media to leave. These people need to have their community back so they and mourn and begin the healing process.
Following the VT shootings, it was a media zoo. After several days the student body politely requested the media to leave. Please remember this. Let the local affiliate(s) cover any press conferences (they are invited to) and pass it on to the networks.
I agree the media should leave..
Media won't leave. They are not interested in what happened to the precious souls that were killed that day. They are only interested in their agenda. George S. on one of the morning shows had a psychologist that told it like it was - that these crazy people will not stop even if there is gun control (although, I agree that high power type weapons need to be highly restricted - but NOT regular guns). The psch also talked about teaching our children personal responsibility (something foreign to many people). But George cut him off because they had the Beckham story to go to. What a shame. We have a communist state-run "media" who does no real journalism.
I agree we need stricter regulation on assult weapons at the same time we need to police the entertainment industry on the explicit violence shown. The news media has been disgusting throughout this tragic event and I wish someone would call them out on this exploitation of families and communitiy!
I just turned off your show, maybe for good, I'm
going to give it serious thought! I HATE how NBC and other news agencies are
exploiting Connecticut's saddest day in their history. Leave them alone to
grieve their little babies...or tell them where you live so they can go and rob
you of your privacy when you dearly need and want it the most. SHAME ON YOU!
Take your cameras out of their faces. You actually have your articles in a
live banner under the tab "My Favs." What in God's name is wrong with
your staff? I'm disgusted and will not watch another second. My time is better
spent praying for them all.
If mothers and women can't be more influential with gun laws than the stupid NRA then I guess we deserve our fate.....
Yea. They've had a greater impact on killing unborn babies.
What the hell does that have to do with this, cheetah? Get real.
Why is his opinion so important he screams repeatedly? Perhaps he should think it through.
OVU,
In the USA; 1.3 million a year
Worldwide: 43 million.
Abortions per year. I think that was his/her point. So depending upon a persons view of this, there certainly seems to be room for some outrage..!!?? 1.3 million kids in the United States never saw the light of day, much less made it to kindergarden.
amen, TXhorseman
you can ban all the guns you want but a nut or criminal will get a hold of them or use another way to kill, maybe we should ban going outside in public places.
I am so glad to see people actually taking the view about abortions. Where is the outrage about the 1.2 million abortions done in the US every year. Where is the outrage about all the cancer deaths caused by cigarettes, almost 100,000 deaths a year. All the deaths from drunk drivers. Where is THAT outrage. People come on here at talk about caring about children. I don't understand. 8775 gun deaths, vs. 1.2 million abortions. Yet the media is SCREAMING for action. The president has the stones to show up in New Town and make political statements, that we haven't done enough and that WE must change. No discussion whatsoever about mental health and how hard it is to get someone who is dangerous off the streets until it is too late. No discussion whatsoever about mental health budgets that get slashed repeatedly year after year. Tax the rich and ban the guns, police what we watch on TV and what we eat and what we drink and what we do and we all will live in Nirvana. What has happened to our country?
Because I hate to burst your bubble, but life doesn't begin at conception. In fact we are nothing but fish until about week 6 or 7.
Abortion has nothing to do with what happened. Bringing abortion into this is like bringing in Hitler. Godwinned. Thread over.
If you for once, think the life of an unborn baby has more worth than the lives of those 20 children who were gunned down, then you can rot in hell. Try telling any one of the parents of those 20 children that their son or daughter's life is worth less than someone else's. Look them in the eye and say that and then see how they react. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Do you even realize what you are saying?
Enough is enough. It is time for change.
Not sure I agree with them sending the kids back to school. There could only be a couple of days left until the kids would be on Christmas vacation anyway....why the big rush? This is will be a horrible, sad, LONG week with funerals and as a parent myself there is NO way I would be able to send any of my kids back inside a school!
I do agree that its time for the press to leave. Give the town space to grieve and be there for each other without the eyes of the world watching.
It is not the elementary school that is back. It is all the other schools
On the contrary, returning to the normal school routine right away is best. It gets the students back in a learning mode and helps take their minds off the unfortunate tragedy. Also, since there is an attendance requirement as to the number of days of instruction, it would help prevent the lengthening of the school year, since there will no doubt be "snow days" coming up in January and February.
I get tears in my eyes everytime I see one of these children...they so remind me of my own 6 year old grandson...I also reserve some good old plain hatred towrds thjose who refuse to consider sensible gun legislation or who would rather support guns over cute little children...the shame of it all that our children don't have an amendment to protect them from guns
What exactly is "sensible" gun legislation and will it put a stop to gun violence? You can hate me all you want sir, but I would never support guns over children. I support actual parenting. If more people had better parenting skills, maybe things like this would not happen. It's easy to regulate guns, but it's pretty inconvenient for parents to teach right or wrong to their children. Only problem with your solution is that you can ban guns completely from the United States and things like this will continue to happen.
Who would you blame then?
Rick, I'm a grandmother myself and the idea that a gun has more value than the lives of my two beautiful granddaughters makes me so angry. A gun is an object. A person has more worth than an object. Anyone who places an object as having more worth than a human being is a selfish p r i c k.
We should be looking out for the welfare and safety of our children.
Ban violent Video games. All they do is teach children how to kill without remorse!
While you are at it then Ban violent movies/tv shows etc... Where does it stop. Government bans will never work. It is the 24/7 media fame these killers are drawn to.
Ralph you are a moron video games no matter the content had nothing to do with this.Millions of people myself included play these so called violent video games and we have not gone off the deep end.The government has enough control over my life i don't need them telling me what games i can play.
Don't they just shoot villains in video games? I've never heard of video games providing the experience of indulging in binge murder of 1st graders. Really, the killing at Sandy Hook looks like the exact opposite of killing villains: killing the totally vulnerable, innocent, and unable to do anyhing to fight back. How could Lanza have been angry at 1st graders? I think what we have here is much worse than any motives one might find in games. I believe that what happened is ultimately understandable, but, right now, it's not within range of my understanding anyway.
MelJM - You clearly have never played Call of Duty: Black Ops. There is one chapter where the character goes undercover and YOU as the player of that character participate in a mass murder at an airport where you mow down innocent travelers. Call of Duty is one of the most popular games ever to be sold. My son would come home from the 4th grade telling me how all of his friends were playing this game and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him.
We are desensitizing our children to violence and empathy!
I don't have an interest in playing any of these gsmes. I can see your point about keeping kids away from them, but, lookimg the game up at Wikipedia, I didn't see the feature you mentioned and it wasn't mentioned in the "criticism" section either. The CIA agent protagonist shooting up a bunch of innocent people would be pretty gross. Whatever, Lanza at 20, knew very well that he wasn't playing a game. I think killing 1st graders and teachers with multiple shots each is pure evil and way beyond any kicks one might get from a game unless one were practicing for murder. There is such a thing as hatred of the good for being the good and destruction for the sake of destruction. Unless Lanza is shown to have been insane, I won't be surprised if this sort of evil doesn't show up here.
As for banning such games, I wouldn't support that unless it could be shown that there was an inextricable connection between playing the game and psychological damage to the player and subsequent violence. I'm always very concerned about the abuse of a right by some being used to deny the right to everyone. The argument from abuse could lead, if consistently applied, to no rights at all -- even no freedom of speech. I run on to the argument when I support doctor assisted suicide. Yes, somebody might get hurt, but that's not enough to deny the right to me and everyone else; people must be responsible.
Mel - I completely understand and agree with your rationale. Now we replace the game in this scenario with guns and you can see why gun owners are fighting tooth and nail to keep the government from restricting them even further.
Millions of people can own guns and shoot them responsibly without anyone ever getting hurt. But now you get a few nut cases out of millions who do something destructive and now everyone is calling to suppress every gun owner's rights.
Absolutely, SayWhat. I'm a very responsible citizen, and I'd like my right to bear arms to include Stinger missiles, the comparison of said missile and an AR-15 being about as relevant as comparing a 90 round/minute deadly accurate semiautomatic AR-15 with a 3 rounds/minute 18th century musket. Guns/missiles don't kill people, just those few "nut cases", and everybody's calling to suppress my rights. Crazy world.
Take your "rights" to oblivion. Anyone who needs "Weapons of mass destruction" to be "safe" is as sick and dangerous as the mother of this murderer who, knowing full well that her son had a mental problem took him to a rifle range to learn how to shot - and YES, he certainly "learned" by killing her and 12 girls and eight boys and teachers and the principal and the school psychologist. Your "rights" be damned. The Second Amendment never indicated that "weapons of mass destruction" were included in this dictum. You IRRESPONSIBLE gun owners make me sick!
I really wish all the news media would stop plastering this creeps face all over their news articles. We don't need to see what he looks like. Stop making him out to be some kind of celebrity!
If the media is so insistent on showing the murderer's face,please show it after the coward took his life.Afterall "the public has a right to know" blah,blah,blah.............cockroaches
I wish the media would stop plastering any part of this story all over news articles and stop showing the victims too! Enough of it and them already! It is over and done with - we can't keep hashing this crap for the next 825 weeks!
In our soul-searching over this tremendous loss in Connecticut, may we truly be willing to look at what has happened to our nation, once founded upon Judeo-Christian principles. Gun violence is merely a symptom of a far worse sickness that is afflicting us as a people. We live in a society that has determined that there should be no such thing as God-given truth. We have elevated a philosophy that everyone can do what is right in their own eyes and things will continue to go along well, and even get better. How could we ever have duped ourselves into thinking that the God of the Bible is no longer needed for us to function as a healthy society?
Since the 1960’s, we have pushed God out of our schools, out of our government, out of our stores, out of our public squares, out of our press, out of our marriages and out of our families. We have even pushed Him out of some of our churches. We have twisted the original intention of the separation of Church and State and purged His ways from being our guide for living. We have set ourselves on a mission to silence the God of the Bible, as we pursue our pleasures and vain pursuits of life. Our entertainment industry is now driven by sexual immorality and extreme violence and we flock to watch it, intoxicated by perversion. We are rapidly losing sight of what a healthy family looks like anymore. We try to remedy this by creating redefinitions of what a family is. Then we somehow are surprised when the offspring of our redefinitions turn on us in revenge. While shocked by the loss of these precious school children this past week, there seems to be little concern over the 3,000,000 innocent unborn children whose lives we passively allow to be snuffed out every year by our abortion industry. Since 1973, we now are missing 1/8 of our nation’s population due to our self-serving use of abortion, and yet, we shamelessly continue to push forward, even supporting the use of tax dollars to take more innocent lives. Because we, as a nation, have refused to stop this genocide, we now have the blood of all of these innocent ones on our hands!
No, mere gun control is not the answer to cure our woes, America. We are sick and dying in spirit, soul and body. We must end our hostility toward the only One who has our remedy. We must admit that we are the problem. We are in critical condition and it is high time for us to turn back to Him and His Truth. He, alone, offers what we truly need to heal our land.
Yea, God will help. Yea, right. Just like he did Friday when he could have stopped the perp from getting anywhere near the school. God could have given the car a flat tire, or had the perp's car t-boned at an intersection, or plugged the gas line. But apparently the God you want in charge of the country was too busy to be bothered to save the lives of the 26 innocents. Yea, you go ahead and trust that god. Good luck with that.
Forcing religious beliefs on people has historically caused far more violence than this. Please love as you are taught but don't judge. Be helpful, and a testament in you actions. Help a neighbor, feed the poor, help a homeless person, visit someone in the hospital. Don't force, attract.
OVUgirl,
God couldn't help. He's not allowed in schools.
And he obeys all US laws, right? God is in your heart so I am sure he is still in school.
Paul,
You are correct Paul, but what does people talking about God and believing in God have to do with force? If I remember my history the colonies were started to get away from religious persecution. That is from a government forced religious persecution.
OVU Girl,
So we get rid of guns and god and all the evil in the world will magicaly disappear? Do soome research about deaths in America and then turn your outrage where it needs to be.
Ralph ... God should have stopped him from getting to the school. I think God is still allowed on the streets, but seems like he's not really interested in helping people.
AMEN! When we turn away from God who do we face? Satan. There are only two choices and when God is kicked out and rejected Satan will fill the void. That is what has happened to our society. We have become a Godless, immoral society where the family is attacked and there are no rights and wrongs. only what feels good to you and no one should judge. Guns are inanimate objects and if a person is filled with Satan they will find another object like a knife or a car or whatever to do their evil deeds. 22 children in a school in China were attacked by a knife wielding nut on the same day this happened. So should we ban all knives? Criminals will find a way to get the guns even if they are banned.
Paulb - Please know that what I said is not to throw stones at people. It is to throw stones at their upstairs bedroom window because they are asleep inside and their house is on fire. Big difference.
Jesus said that He did not come into the world to condemn people for their sins, but rather to rescue and save people from them. God did do something. He let His Son take our guilt and judgement upon His own self. We can be fully forgiven, whatever our misdeeds - free inside, changed and filled new with His love. It is our choice. He does not force it upon us. We must realize our own personal need and believe.
OVUgirl -- You are forgetting that God also allows people to exercise their free will. If God wanted to do so, he could force everyone to worship Him, but that is not how He works. The killer's mother apparently knew he was mentally unstable, why didn't she get him some help or have him committed? It's so easy to blame God for not doing anything in this situation, but do we give Him credit for thwarting a school shooting in Oklahoma? No, we praise the assistant principal for turning the information over to the police, and we praise the police for diligently investigating and following up on the information. We fail to see God at work in situations with a positive outcome.
Stupid Religion and that fictitious wizard in the sky with all the pretend powers! I am so ready to throw up!
I wonder if the father Peter Lanza has considered donating his son's brain to research in the hopes of helping others who are battling mental illness?
I hope the bicreator of the cowardly murderer donates his balls so he doesn't have the ability to help create another hateful creature.
I don't think he's got much of his brains left.
Sandy Hook Elementary should be demolished and the site developed as a memorial park. A new school should be built to replace it - perhaps named, "New Hope Elementary." Funding for construction of a new school could be done with a nationwide social media campaign (remember how social media raised over $700,000 in just 10 days for the obese woman who was bullied on the school bus). But, no matter what, no classes should ever be held in the Sandy Hook School again ... never ... ever.
Classes should be held there. Accommodating acts of violence and terror is an act of surrender. Using the school as a school is also an act of defiance against evil.
Have to disagree completely, Paulb. The building should be torn down as soon as police finish their investigation. The horrilbe memories haunt the hallways of Columbine here in Littleton to this day. You can't go into that building without sorrow flooding over you.
OVU,
I tend to agree with you on this point. It would be very diffucult to have classes there ever again. That is what they did here in Texas after the massacre at the Luby's in Killeen so many years ago.
Sorry OVUgirl - But "New Hope" is the name of many churches, so you don't want people to confuse that school with a place of God or religous worship. Wasn't it you who was poo pooing the religious in your posts above? Gotta have that separation of church and state.
Yes and the NRA should donate to a new school.
I agree,the school should be replaced with a new one.But in reality,it isn't going to happen.What will probably happen,is a complete make over and a complete rebuiling of the interior of that building come this summer.police will be always present at that school now,not because they think it might happen again,but to ensure parents and children that it wont.This accurance is the most horrible thing that could ever happen in our crazy world.Everyone looks for someone to blame,all the way to the pearly gates,but the truth is things happen in our world thats unpredictable,and thats it.There is no guarantee's in life,and that goes for everything breathing on this planet.There is no one at fault but the shooter who did it,and thats it.
The question that the public should ask is this. Where are the republican political leaders and rank/file. Why have they not joined in the debate on gun control.
People like Vern Buchanan and Boehner show their real colors and that is the middle class does not matter to them. Tax breaks for the rich trumps what happened in Conn.
Where are their hearts and souls for the children of this nation. I have seen no media where these republicans have even offered a prayer.
Duane Overholt
Consumer Advocate
Probably because they know gun control is not the answer even though the libs are using these children to move forward with their agenda.
wah wah wah its the mean old republicans fault because they won't pee on the Constitution like our Dear Leader...wah wah wah....Ban those terrible guns...but don't even think about banning the 1.2 million abortions that happen, after all those aren't really "children"..wah wah wah
I am A US Marine, A Conservative, A Republican,and most of all an American.I believe in the right to keep and bear arms.
Do i think we need a high powered gas operated assault weapon to shoot Bambi??? NO
Do I think we need 15-or 30 round magazines to shoot Donald from the sky??? NO
get read of these!!! But leave the sport weapons alone ..
By the way I do not owen any kind of fire arm,,but would be will to fight to my death to protect any ones right to do the same
More gun control is not the answer. Someone who wants to commit a mass murder is not going to bother going through proper channels to legally obtain a weapon. These types of incidents always happen where guns are not allowed, like schools, movie theaters, etc. Places where no one can protect themselves. None of these chicken @!$%# shooters ever attempted to do something like this at a police station, or military base, where people are obviously going to be armed. Why did Adam Lanza kill himself when he heard the police approaching? He was a coward. If he had thought for an instant that those teachers would have been armed, and could have protected those children, he would not have gone to that school. I have kids in school, and after this incident, it would not bother me one bit for my children's teachers to carry guns on them, if proper controls were in place. Controls, such as, the teachers receiving firearms training and pshychological screenings regularly. Laws will not deter criminals, but potiential victims having the ability to protect themselves will.
Why is his opinion so important he screams repeatedly? Perhaps he should think it through.
Five days after this heart-wrenching tragedy, and the healing is supposed to begin? Please allow these people their grinding, awful grief. For some, there will never be healing.
Shame be upon the swine that cast a snare against the tormented.
agreed!
Only when NRA members come to realize that their organization is really a lobbying organization for gun manufacturers - not an organization for the support of gun owners - will anything change.
Five days after this heart-wrenching tragedy and the healing is supposed to begin? Please allow these people their grinding, awful grief. For some, there will never be healing.
True. I've had my turn at serious grief and bought a book to find some help. The book mentioned that many will think that a week or so is enough and will get impatient if it runs longer. What I figured out for myself though (it wasn't in the book) is that it's not reasonable to think that the pain will go completely away. Sure, one can be happy again, but, from time to time, there will be some pain. IMO, one cannot simply erase a devastating loss. Some grief symptoms, as bad as they seem, are in the normal range, but grief can be much more serious and require professional help. Some surpress the grief at first only to have it pop up years later. I fear that many of the parents are going through hell and that many of their friends and relatives won't understand it at all. Before I went through grief myself, I had no idea what it was like.
To all the Libs blaming white republicans for blocking gun control, google the Rachel Maddow episode from Friday night where she pointed out that 71% of NRA members want certain controls put in place. She asked why hasn't Washington bothered to implement basic rules that even the NRA supports? One thing she cited was that there is no law stopping someone on the terrorist watch list from purchasing weapons. How about we all write our representatives and demand that at least these basic common sense rules be implemented? There would be no political discourse and it could show progress immediately. We have to start somewhere, too bad we didn't start last month....
OVUgirl, Good thought. $1.00 from every American will build a New Hope Elementary School, and hopefully, give the children of Newtown - perhaps - new hope in the future. Shinelight, you understand the cause of it all. I agree 100% with what you said. America, in it's history, has went down this road several times already. An inspirational read is The Revials in America. Our forefathers based our country, and its way of government, on the majority of the people desiring righteousness. And some of them went so far as to state that, if/when our country went away from it's Christian foundation, that the government that they were putting together would fail. They were right.
Thank you for this--"New Hope Elementary School." This we need, and we can all work toward at very little cost to ourselves. Please, America, make it happen!
Should we all send a $1.00 to the movie theater owner in Aurora CO too? After all we wouldn't want to seem hypocritical would we?
David Bahltazhar, just what is your post supposed to mean? It says nothing in regards to what this blog is about. Better explain it, if you want anyone to take what you say seriously. Unless you were trying to defend the actions of the shooter.......better explain yourself
Looks like the problem is you Hikeinmts - you seem to have read more into the post than was there - and secondly, he does not have to explain anything - to me, you or anyone else!
I read all of the comments about how it is the fault of the NRA or because we have removed God from our schools or because the goverment dosent do this or that. We hold no on as a person responsible for their actions any more. It is never my sons fault or my fault. Personal responsibility for anything has been removed from our society. The greatest commandment given in the bible is to love others as you love yourself. radical thinking for a man 2000 years old. and just in reading this comment section we cant even do that here. Sad
Agreed.
Please, NBC, no more pictures of the shooter. Let's focus on the children, teachers and staff--both living and dead. They are the heroes, they set the example for us. And yes, please do keep us up-to-date on a new school opening for the children of Sandy Hook, and on the survivors and how they're doing. Let's focus on people with useful proposals for healing, rebuilding, and doing anything that will help our country avoid this kind of tragedy in the future. But no glory, none, for this shooter or any of them.
Wow, I got another real jolt when I read Jessica Reko's name. She seemed so smart; I know I would have liked to meet her.
I'm thinking that there should be some form of permanent memorial. I know I'll never forget the Sandy Hook Elementary School 26, but a memorial in concrete form would help keep these beautiful people from just slipping away into history.