Homeless in Arizona

Obama gets another gun control opportunity!!!

I saw Obama on TV and he said something like we have to take “meaningful action” to stop future shootings, which to me is just his way of saying he has to used this event to flush the 2nd Amendment down the toilet.

While President Obama had crocodile eyes and was crying like a baby over these murders, I have never seen President Obama crying or even caring about the hundreds of innocent children the American government has murdered with bomb and drone strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen.

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20 children among 27 dead in Conn. school shooting, police say

Associated Press Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:10 AM

NEWTOWN, Conn. - A man killed his mother at home and then opened fire Friday inside the elementary school where she taught, massacring 26 people, including 20 children, as students cowered in fear to the sound of gunshots reverberating through the building and screams echoing over the intercom.

The 20-year-old killer, carrying two handguns, committed suicide at the school, bringing the death toll to 28, authorities said.

The rampage, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead in 2007.

“Our hearts are broken today,” said a tearful President Barack Obama, struggling to maintain his composure, at the White House. He called for “meaningful action” to prevent such shootings. “As a country, we have been through this too many times,” he said.

Police shed no light on the motive for the attack on two classrooms. The gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, was believed to suffer from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, according to a law-enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to discuss it.

Panicked parents looking for their children raced to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, a prosperous New England community of about 27,000 people, 60 miles northeast of New York City. Police told youngsters at the kindergarten-through-fourth-grade school to close their eyes as they were led from the building.

Schoolchildren — some crying, others looking frightened — were escorted through a parking lot in a line, with hands on each other’s shoulders.

Law-enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, and then drove to the school in her car with three guns, including a high-powered rifle that he apparently left in the back. Authorities said he shot up two classrooms, but they gave no details on how the attack unfolded.

A custodian ran through the halls, warning of a gunman on the loose, and someone switched on the intercom, alerting people in the building to the attack — and perhaps saving many lives — by letting them hear the hysteria apparently going on in the school office, a teacher said.

Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner or hide in closets as shots echoed through the building.

State police Lt. Paul Vance said 28 people in all were killed, including the gunman, and a woman who worked at the school was wounded.

Lanza’s older brother, 24-year-old Ryan, of Hoboken, N.J., was being questioned, but a law-enforcement official said he was not believed to have had any role in the rampage. Investigators were searching his computers and phone records, but he told law enforcement he had not been in touch with his brother since about 2010.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

At one point, a law-enforcement official mistakenly identified the gunman as Ryan Lanza. Brett Wilshe, a friend of Ryan Lanza’s, said Ryan Lanza told him the gunman may have had his identification. Ryan Lanza has a Facebook page with updates posted on Friday afternoon that read, “It wasn’t me” and “I was at work.”

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. “That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” he said. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.”

He said the shooter didn’t utter a word.

Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter was in the school and heard two big bangs. Teachers told her to get in a corner, he said.

“It’s alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America,” he said. His daughter was uninjured.

Theodore Varga said he was in a meeting with other fourth-grade teachers when he heard the gunfire, but there was no lock on the door.

He said someone had turned on the intercom so that “you could hear people in the office. You could hear the hysteria that was going on. I think whoever did that saved a lot of people. Everyone in the school was listening to the terror that was transpiring.”

A custodian also went around warning people there was a gunman, Varga said.

“He said, ‘Guys! Get down! Hide!’” Varga said. “So he was actually a hero.”

The teacher said he did not know if the custodian survived.

On Friday night, hundreds of people packed a Newtown church and stood outside in a vigil for the victims. People held hands, lit candles and sang “Silent Night” at St. Rose of Lima church.

Anthony Bloss, whose three daughters survived the shootings, said they are doing better than he is. “I’m numb. I’m completely numb,” he said at the vigil.

Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and ran to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was uninjured, heard a scream come over the intercom. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building.

“Everyone was just traumatized,” he said.

Mary Pendergast said her 9-year-old nephew was in the school at the time of the shooting but wasn’t hurt after his music teacher helped him take cover in a closet.

Richard Wilford’s 7-year-old son, Richie, told him that he heard a noise that sounded like “cans falling.” The boy said a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the children huddle in the corner until police arrived.

“There’s no words,” Wilford said. “It’s sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him.”

On Friday afternoon, family members were led away from a firehouse that was being used as a staging area, some of them weeping. One man, wearing a T-shirt without a jacket, put his arms around a woman as they walked down the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around them. Another woman with tears rolling down her face walked by, carrying a car seat with a baby inside.

“Evil visited this community today and it’s too early to speak of recovery, but each parent, each sibling, each member of the family has to understand that Connecticut — we’re all in this together. We’ll do whatever we can to overcome this event,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said.

Adam Lanza and his mother lived in a well-to-do part of Newtown where neighbors are doctors or hold white-collar positions at companies such as General Electric, Pepsi and IBM.

Three guns were found — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car.

The shootings instantly brought to mind such tragedies as the Columbine High School massacre that left 15 dead in 1999 and the July shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead.

“You go to a movie theater in Aurora and all of a sudden your life is taken,” Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis said. “You’re at a shopping mall in Portland, Oregon, and your life is taken. This morning, when parents kissed their kids goodbye knowing that they are going to be home to celebrate the holiday season coming up, you don’t expect this to happen.”

He added: “It has to stop, these senseless deaths.”

Obama’s comments on the tragedy amounted to one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.

“The majority of those who died were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” Obama said.

He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he teared up and wiped an eye. Nearby, two aides cried and held hands as they listened to Obama.

“They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, wedding, kids of their own,” Obama continued about the victims. “Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children.”

Sandy Hook massacre: New details, but few answers

Sandy Hook massacre: New details, but few answers

By Steve Vogel, Sari Horwitz and David A. Fahrenthold, Published: December 15

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The gunman who killed 27 people, including 20 children, on Friday targeted a school to which he had no apparent connection — forcing his way in [he broke a window to get in] and spraying classrooms with a weapon designed to kill across a battlefield, authorities said.

On Saturday, law enforcement officials gave new details about the rampage of Adam Lanza, which ended with Lanza’s suicide. Their new narrative partially contradicted previous ones and made a baffling act seem more so.

Lanza’s mother, for instance, was not a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary, after all. She apparently was unemployed. So it was still a mystery why her 20-year-old son — after dressing in black, killing his mother and taking at least three guns from her collection — then drove the five miles to a school where he was a stranger.

The part of the story that remained grimly, awfully unchanged was what Lanza did when he got there.

Authorities on Saturday released the names of those Lanza killed at the school, who ranged in age from 6 to 56. And the state’s medical examiner — speaking in sanitized, clinical terms — described the results of something deeply obscene: a semiautomatic rifle fired inside an elementary classroom.

“I’ve been at this for a third of a century. And my sensibilities may not be the average man’s. But this probably is the worst I have seen,” said H. Wayne Carver II. Carver described the children’s injuries, which he said ranged from at least two to 11 bullet wounds apiece.

He had performed seven of the autopsies himself. A reporter asked what the children had been wearing.

“They’re wearing cute kid stuff,” Carver said. “I mean, they’re first-graders.”

On Saturday, this small New England town and the country played out what is now a familiar ritual: the dumbstruck aftermath of a young gunman’s massacre. Word came that President Obama would arrive Sunday for an evening interfaith service, repeating his role from Fort Hood, Tex.; Aurora, Colo.; and Tucson, Ariz. He would again be chief mourner.

In Connecticut, people who had known Adam Lanza described him as odd, nervous and withdrawn, and they searched their memories for signs they’d missed. Memorials went up. Politicians talked — a little more forcefully this time — about how someone needed to be brave enough to talk about guns and gun control.

And, in Newtown, they started funeral preparations. This time, the ritual was for lives so new that it seemed impossible to speak of them in the past tense.

“He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Rabbi Shaul Praver of Adath Israel, who said that his congregation lost a first-grade boy. “His little body could not endure so many bullets like that.”

On Saturday, law enforcement officials said that Lanza had entered the school by force [he broke a window to get in] sometime after 9:30 a.m. Friday. Sandy Hook’s principal, Dawn Hochsprung, had recently installed a new security system in which the school doors were kept locked all day starting at 9:30. But Lanza had apparently shattered the glass in a window or door.

Lanza was carrying at least three guns from a collection maintained by his mother, who friends said enjoyed target shooting. Lanza had two pistols, a Glock and a Sig Sauer.

But he apparently chose a larger weapon, a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, for much of the killing. This rifle fires one bullet for every pull of the trigger, and the unusually high speed of its round was designed to produce significant internal damage. Authorities said Lanza fired dozens and dozens of times in a spree that lasted minutes.

“All the wounds that I know of at this point were caused by the long weapon,” said Carver, the medical examiner.

He said he saw multiple wounds on the bodies of those he examined, and based on his conversations with colleagues, “I believe everybody was hit more than once.” None of the victims likely survived very long after being hit, Carver said.

When police arrived, Lanza was dead. So were Hochsprung and five other adults. So were 18 children. Two more were pronounced dead later at a local hospital.

Sixteen of the 20 children were just 6 years old. The other four were 7.

Later, when investigators went to the home that Lanza shared with his mother, Nancy Lanza was found dead there — the first victim of the killings and the last discovered.

On Saturday, authorities said they had “very good evidence” regarding Adam Lanza’s motives. But they didn’t say what that evidence was, and law enforcement officials said they had not found anything like a suicide note.

“No words can truly express how heartbroken we are,” Adam Lanza’s father, Peter Lanza, said in a statement released Saturday. “We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We too are asking why.”

Around the country, advocates for stronger gun-control laws said they hoped that the shock of this crime would start a debate that other mass shootings had not. Still, with so little known about Adam Lanza and the guns he used, it was difficult to say what sort of law, precisely, was needed to prevent another shooting like Friday’s.

“If having dozens of people gunned down in an elementary school doesn’t motivate Washington to do even the easy things they can do, it’s not clear what will,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group chaired by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) that represents 750 mayors across the country.

Politics will come later, once the country has become used to the idea that this actually happened. In Newtown on Saturday, the shooting still seemed to dwell in the realm of the unthinkable.

“The emotions of yesterday were just absolutely overwhelming,” Monsignor Robert Weiss of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown said in an interview Saturday with NBC News. “I don’t know if the reality has really settled in yet.’’

Weiss had accompanied police when they notified parents that their children had been killed. They asked him questions that most likely will never have answers.

“What were the last moments of these people’s lives like? They were wondering, did the child even know what was happening? Were they afraid? Did they see something coming?” Weiss told NBC. “ . . . So these parents are left with those unanswered questions in addition to just why this had to happen — why to their child?’’

Elswehere in Newtown, 8-year-old Maleeha Ali, a third-grader at Sandy Hook who escaped unharmed, came with her father and mother to Treadwell Park near the school with a sign she had made honoring Vicki Soto, the first-grade teacher who reportedly died trying to protect her students from the gunman. Soto taught Maleeha when she was in first grade, and the two would exchange greetings every day, the girls’ parents said.

The sign called Soto “our hero.”

One parent who lost a child, Robbie Parker, spoke to reporters Saturday evening. He expressed sympathy for Lanza’s family, saying, “I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you.”

Parker said that Emilie, the daughter he lost, was blond and blue-eyed and could light up a room. “All those who had the pleasure to meet her would agree that the world was better because she was in it,” Parker said.

He recalled the last time he saw Emilie, on Friday morning as he headed to work. He had been teaching her Portuguese, and so their last conversation was in that language.

“She said that she loved me, and she gave me a kiss and I was out the door,” said Parker, whose family moved to Newtown eight months ago. “I’m so blessed to be her dad.”

Horwitz and Fahrenthold reported from Washington. Brady Dennis in Washington contributed to this report.

Newtown Shooting | The Victims

1. Charlotte Bacon, 6
2. Daniel Barden, 7
3. Olivia Engel, 6
4. Josephine Gay, 7
5. Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
6. Dylan Hockley, 6
7. Madeleine Hsu, 6
8. Catherine Hubbard, 6
9. Chase Kowalski, 7
10. Jesse Lewis, 6
11. James Mattioli, 6
12. Grace McDonnell, 7
13. Emilie Parker, 6
14. Jack Pinto, 6
15. Noah Pozner, 6
16. Caroline Previdi, 6
17. Jessica Rekos, 6
18. Avielle Richman, 6
19. Benjamin Wheeler, 6
20. Allison Wyatt, 6
21. Rachel Davino, 29
    Teacher
22. Dawn Hochsprung, 47
    School principal
23. Nancy Lanza, 52
    Mother of gunman
24. Anne Marie Murphy, 52
    Teacher
25. Lauren Rousseau, 30
    Teacher
26. Mary Sherlach, 56
    School psychologist
27. Victoria Soto, 27
    Teacher

The guns used in these murders were all legal

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A Mother, a Gun Enthusiast and the First Victim

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER and RAVI SOMAIYA

Published: December 15, 2012

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Nancy Lanza loved guns, and often took her sons to one of the shooting ranges here in the suburbs northeast of New York City, where there is an active community of gun enthusiasts, her friends said. At a local bar, she sometimes talked about her gun collection.

It was one of her guns that was apparently used to take her life on Friday. Her killer was her son Adam Lanza, 20, who then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he killed 26 more people, 20 of them small children, before shooting himself, the authorities said.

Ms. Lanza’s fascination with guns became an important focus of attention on Saturday as investigators tried to determine what caused Mr. Lanza to carry out one of the worst massacres in the nation’s history.

Investigators have linked Ms. Lanza to five weapons: two powerful handguns, two traditional hunting rifles and a semiautomatic rifle that is similar to weapons used by troops in Afghanistan. Her son took the two handguns and the semiautomatic rifle to the school. Law enforcement officials said they believed the guns were acquired legally and were registered.

Ms. Lanza, 52, had gone through a divorce in 2008 and was described by friends as social and generous to strangers, but also high-strung, as if she were holding herself together. She lived in a large Colonial home here with Adam Lanza, and had struggled to help him cope with a developmental disorder that often left him reserved and withdrawn, according to relatives, friends and former classmates.

At some point, he had dropped out of the Newtown school system. An older son, Ryan, did not live with Ms. Lanza.

In a statement on Saturday night, her ex-husband, Peter Lanza, an executive at General Electric, said he was cooperating with investigators. “We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can,” he said. “We, too, are asking why.”

He added: “Like so many of you, we are saddened but struggling to make sense of what has transpired.”

Ms. Lanza’s brother James Champion, a former police officer who lives in Kingston, N.H., said on Saturday that agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation had questioned family members on Friday night.

Mr. Champion would not discuss whether Adam Lanza had a developmental disorder or mental illness.

“On behalf of Nancy’s mother and siblings, we reach out to the community of Newtown to express our heartfelt sorrow for the incomprehensible loss of innocence that has affected so many,” Mr. Champion said in a statement.

He said Ms. Lanza had grown up and lived in Kingston with her husband and sons before they left in 1998. He said he had not seen Adam Lanza in eight years.

Ms. Lanza’s sister-in-law Marsha Lanza, who lives in Illinois, said Adam Lanza had been home-schooled for a time because his mother was not “satisfied with the school.”

Former classmates here described him as nervous, with a flat affect.

“He was always different — keeping to himself, fidgeting and very quiet,” said a classmate, Alex Israel. “But I could always tell he was a supersmart kid, maybe just socially awkward, something just off about him. The same went for when I went to his house. His mother was always nice to me; she was a kind, typical suburban mom as far as I remember. As time went on, he continued to keep to himself and I branched out more, so not much contact with him after middle school.

“By the time high school came around, he did sort of disappear,” she added. “I’d see him in the halls walking quickly with his briefcase he carried, but I never had a class with him and never saw him with friends. I was yearbook editor and I remember he declined to be photographed or give us a senior quote or baby picture.”

Some former classmates said they had been told that Mr. Lanza had Asperger’s syndrome, which is considered a high-functioning form of autism.

News reports on Friday suggested that Ms. Lanza had worked at the elementary school where the shooting occurred, but on Saturday the school superintendent said there was no evidence that she had ever worked there.

The authorities said it was not clear why Mr. Lanza had gone to the school.

Ms. Lanza was a slender woman with blond shoulder-length hair who enjoyed craft beers, jazz and landscaping. She often went to a local restaurant and music spot, My Place, where at beer tastings on Tuesday evenings, she sometimes talked about her gun collection, recalled an acquaintance, Dan Holmes, the owner of a landscaping company in Newtown.

“She had several different guns,” Mr. Holmes said. “I don’t know how many. She would go target shooting with her kids.”

Many of those who knew Ms. Lanza in Newtown were at a loss to describe what she did for a living. Her brother in New Hampshire said she had not been working, but had once been a stockbroker.

Louise Tambascio, owner of My Place, said Ms. Lanza volunteered occasionally.

“She stayed with Adam,” Ms. Tambascio said, adding that, as a younger child, he “couldn’t get along with the kids in school.”

Ms. Lanza spoke often of her landscaping, Mr. Holmes recalled, and later hired him to do work on her home.

He recently dispatched a team to put up Christmas decorations at her house — garlands on the front columns and white lights atop the shrubbery.

After the work was complete, Ms. Lanza sent Mr. Holmes a text: “That went REALLY well!”

Jim Leff, a musician, often sat next to her at the bar and made small talk, he said in an interview on Saturday.

On one occasion, Mr. Leff said, he had gone to Newtown to discuss lending money to a friend. As the two men negotiated the loan, Ms. Lanza overheard and offered to write the man a check.

“She was really kind and warm,” Mr. Leff said, “but she always seemed a little bit high-strung.”

He declined to elaborate, but in a post on his personal Web site, he said he felt a distance from her that was explained when he heard, after the shootings, “how difficult her troubled son,” Adam, “was making things for her.”

She was “handling a very difficult situation with uncommon grace,” he wrote.

She was “a big, big gun fan,” he added on his Web site.

There are many gun enthusiasts in this area, residents said.

When some people who live near the elementary school heard the shots fired by Mr. Lanza on Friday, they said they were not surprised.

“I really didn’t think anything of it,” said a resident, Ray Rinaldi. “You hear gun shots around here all the time.”

Neighbors recalled Ms. Lanza as a regular at Labor Day picnics and “ladies’ nights out” for a dice game called bunco.

“We would rotate houses,” said Rhonda Cullens, 52. “I don’t remember Nancy ever having it at her house.”

Ms. Cullens said Ms. Lanza spoke often about gardening — exchanging the sorts of questions typical of the neighborhood: Is maintenance worth the trouble for a house like the Lanzas’, scarcely visible from the street?

But for many of those on Yogananda Street, where the Lanzas lived, the recollections about Ms. Lanza were incomplete.

“Who were they?” said Len Strocchia, 46, standing beside his daughter as camera crews came through the neighborhood. “I’m sure we rang their door bell on Halloween.”

He looked down the block, then turned back to his daughter. “I’m sure of it,” he said.

Ms. Lanza’s sister-in-law Marsha Lanza also struggled to make sense of events. “I just don’t have an answer,” she said, starting to cry. “I wish I had an answer for you. I wish somebody had saw it coming.”

Cops turn Connecticut Massacre into a jobs program???

Gov: Gunman shot self as police closed in

By John Christoffersen Associated Press Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:12 PM

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage committed suicide as first responders closed in, the governor said Sunday, raising the specter that Adam Lanza had planned an even more gruesome massacre and was stopped short.

Lanza blasted his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School and used a high-power rifle to kill 20 children and 6 adults, including the principal and school psychologist who tried to stop him, authorities said.

As President Barack Obama prepared a visit and churches opened their doors to comfort a grieving town Sunday, federal agents fanned out to dozens of gun stores and shooting ranges across Connecticut, chasing leads they hoped would cast light on Lanza’s life.

Among the questions: Why did his mother, a well-to-do suburban divorcee, keep a cache of high-power weapons in the house? What experience did Lanza have with those guns? And, above all, what set him on a path to shoot and kill 20 children, along with the adults who tried to stop him?

Speaking on ABC television’s “This Week,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said Lanza shot himself as police entered the building.

“We surmise that it was during the second classroom episode that he heard responders coming and apparently at that, decided to take his own life,” Malloy said.

Malloy offered no possible motive for the shooting and a law enforcement official has said police have found no letters or diaries left behind that could shed light on it.

Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, to death at the home they shared Friday, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in her car with at least three of her guns, forced his way in by breaking a window and opened fire, authorities said. Within minutes, he killed the children, six adults and himself.

All the victims at the school were shot with a rifle, at least some of them up close, and all were apparently shot more than once, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver said. There were as many as 11 shots on the bodies he examined.

All six adults killed at the school were women. Of the 20 children, eight were boys and 12 were girls.

Asked whether the children suffered, Carver said, “If so, not for very long.” Asked how many bullets were fired, Carver said, “I’m lucky if I can tell you how many I found.”

Parents identified the children through photos to spare them some shock, Carver said.

The terrible details about the last moments of young innocents emerged as authorities released their names and ages — the youngest 6 and 7, the oldest 56. They included Ana Marquez-Greene, a little girl who had just moved to Newtown from Canada; Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old teacher who apparently died while trying to hide her pupils; and principal Dawn Hochsprung, who authorities said lunged at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him.

The tragedy has plunged Newtown into mourning and added the picturesque New England community of 27,000 people to the grim map of towns where mass shootings in recent years have periodically reignited the national debate over gun control but led to little change.

School officials were trying to determine what to do about sending the survivors back to class, Newtown police Lt. George Sinko said at a news conference Sunday.

Sinko said he “would find it very difficult” for students to return to the school. But, he added, “we want to keep these kids together. They need to support each other,” he said.

Plans were being made for some students to attend classes in nearby Monroe, said Jim Agostine, superintendent of schools there.

Residents and faith leaders reflected Sunday on the mass shooting and what meaning, if any, to find in it. Obama planned to attend an evening interfaith vigil — the fourth time he will have traveled to a city after a mass shooting.

At Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic church, Jennifer Waters, who at 6 is the same age as many of the victims and attends a different school, came to Mass on Sunday in Newtown with a lot of questions.

“The little children — are they with the angels?” she asked her mother while fiddling with a small plastic figurine on a pew near the back of the church. “Are they going to live with the angels?”

Her mother, Joan, 45, assured her they were, then put a finger to her daughter’s lips, urging her to be quiet.

An overflow crowd of more than 800 people attended the 9 a.m. service at the church, where eight children will be buried later this week. The gunman, Adam Lanza, and his mother also attended church here. Spokesman Brian Wallace said the diocese has yet to be asked to provide funerals for either.

Boxes of tissues were placed strategically in each pew and on each window sill. The altar was adorned with bouquets, one shaped as a broken heart, with a zigzag of red carnations cutting through the white ones.

In his homily, the Rev. Jerald Doyle, the diocesan administrator, tried to answer the question of how parishioners could find joy in the holiday season with so much sorrow surrounding them.

“You won’t remember what I say, and it will become unimportant,” he said. “But you will really hear deep down that word that will finally and ultimately bring peace and joy. That is the word by which we live. That is the word by which we hope. That is the word by which we love.”

After the Mass, Joan and Jennifer stopped by a makeshift memorial outside the church, which was filled with votive candles and had a pile of bouquets and stuffed animals underneath, to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Jennifer asked whether she could take one.

“No, those are for the little children,” her mother replied.

“Who died?” her daughter asked.

“Yes,” said her mother, wiping away a tear.

But the noon Mass was disrupted when worshippers hurriedly left the church, saying they were told there was a bomb threat.

Halfway through the Mass, the priest stopped and said, “Please, everybody leave. There is a threat,” said Anna Wood of Oxford, Connecticut, one of the worshippers who left.

It’s not clear whether there actually was a threat or whether it was a hoax or the result of a community on edge.

At least a dozen police in camouflage gear and carrying guns arrived at St. Rose of Lima Church. An Associated Press photographer saw police leave carrying something in a red tarp. There was no official report from police about the threat or evacuation.

In the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims and tourists Sunday that he is praying for the families of the victims.

“I assure the families of the victims, especially those who lost a child, of my closeness in prayer,” the pope said. “May the God of consolation touch their hearts and ease their pain.”

Amid the confusion and sorrow, stories of heroism emerged, including an account of Hochsprung, 47, and the school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, 56, rushing toward Lanza in an attempt to stop him. Both died.

There was also 27-year-old teacher Victoria Soto, whose name has been invoked as a portrait of selflessness. Investigators told relatives she was killed while shielding her first-graders from danger. She reportedly hid some students in a bathroom or closet, ensuring they were safe, a cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News.

“She put those children first. That’s all she ever talked about,” a friend, Andrea Crowell, told The Associated Press. “She wanted to do her best for them, to teach them something new every day.”

There was also 6-year-old Emilie Parker, whose grieving father, Robbie, talked to reporters not long after police released the names of the victims but expressed no animosity, offering sympathy for Lanza’s family.

“I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you,” he said.

The gunman’s father, Peter Lanza, issued a statement Saturday relating his own family’s anguish in the aftermath.

“Our family is grieving along with all those who have been affected by this enormous tragedy. No words can truly express how heartbroken we are,” he said. “We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can. We too are asking why. … Like so many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired.”

The rifle used was a Bushmaster .223-caliber, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to speak about it and talked on condition of anonymity. The gun is commonly seen at competitions and was the type used in the 2002 sniper killings in the Washington, D.C., area. Also found in the school were two handguns, a Glock 10 mm and a Sig Sauer 9 mm.

A law enforcement official said Saturday that authorities were investigating fresh leads that could reveal more about the lead-up to the shooting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Ginger Colbrun, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said earlier there was no evidence Lanza was involved in gun clubs or had trained for the shooting. When reached later in the day and asked whether that was still true, she said, “We’re following any and all leads related to this individual and firearms.”

Law enforcement officials have said they have found no note or manifesto from Lanza of the sort they have come to expect after murderous rampages such as the Virginia Tech bloodbath in 2007 that left 33 people dead.

Education officials said they had found no link between Lanza’s mother and the school, contrary to news reports that said she was a teacher there. Investigators said they believe Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook many years ago, but they had no explanation for why he went there Friday.

Authorities said Adam Lanza had no criminal history, and it was not clear whether he had a job. Lanza was believed to have suffered from a personality disorder, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger’s, a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness.

People with the disorder are often highly intelligent. While they can become frustrated more easily, there is no evidence of a link between Asperger’s and violent behavior, experts say.

The law enforcement officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation.

Richard Novia, the school district’s head of security until 2008, who also served as adviser for the Newtown High School technology club, of which Lanza was a member, said he clearly “had some disabilities.”

“If that boy would’ve burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically,” Novia said in a phone interview. “It was my job to pay close attention to that.”

———

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jim Fitzgerald, Bridget Murphy, Pat Eaton-Robb and Michael Melia in Newtown; Denise Lavoie in Danbury, Connecticut; Adam Geller in Southbury, Connecticut; Stephen Singer in Hartford, Connecticut; Pete Yost in Washington; and the AP News Research Center in New York.

Phoenix-area schools re-assessing security following massacre

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Phoenix-area schools re-assessing security following massacre

By Cathryn Creno, Michael Clancy and Eddi Trevizo

The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:42 PM

Arizona educators sought Friday to reassure rattled parents that local schools are secure places of learning, while acknowledging the mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary campus may prompt a review of security policies here.

Chris Thomas, director of legal and policy services with the Arizona School Boards Association, said it will take weeks before any policy changes are proposed in the wake of the shooting that claimed the lives of 27 at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“There may be recommendations that come out of it, but then the question is what are the kind of things that the schools and the policy makers, particularly state legislators, are willing to go along with,” Thomas said.

Officials cautioned against well-intended proposals that could turn campuses into prisonlike fortresses.

Thomas pointed to discarded recommendations after the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., in 1999, such as banning cellphones in schools.

Since then, the emphasis in Arizona and elsewhere has been on practicing lockdown and fire drills, updating contact lists, adding security cameras and revising procedures for who is responsible for what in deadly circumstances.

Marty Macurak, spokeswoman for Paradise Valley Schools, said the district used a federal grant to fund emergency-readiness planning. The district is working with Phoenix and Scottsdale public-safety officials and state emergency officials.

“Our activities have included extensive school-level and district-level administrator training, regular emergency exercises and drills, purchase of emergency communication systems, school security-system upgrades and security protocol reviews and drills,” she said.

“The events in Connecticut are utterly horrifying and, sadly, reinforce for us the importance of maintaining our readiness to respond to emergencies,” Macurak said. [What BS!!! As long as you make schools guns free zones, any armed criminal what wants to commit a crime like this will murder any unarmed school employees that attempt to stop him!!!]

Jeff Smith, president of the Arizona School Administrators and superintendent of the Balsz Elementary School District in Phoenix said all schools now have check-in procedures at front offices. People need to identify who they are and why they are at the school before being allowed on campus. [Yea, like an armed criminal is going to check in at the principles office and say "I'm here to murder everybody in the 3rd grade class", and then leave when the secretary tells him that it is illegal to murder people on the campus]

He also said police, including school resource officers at middle schools and high schools, have been trained to react differently to armed intruders at schools. Before, police would have tried to negotiate and disarm the person. Now, they shoot to kill.

Schools maintain close relationships with police and fire agencies to assist them in training.

“Everyone trains for this. It’s not like a select few,” said Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Phoenix Police Chief Daniel Garcia said that the department has disrupted potentially tragic acts of violence at local schools, including one this year involving a 16-year-old girl who took knives to school.

Timothy Ogle, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association, said that besides requiring Arizona schools to have safety plans, the board assists districts in reviewing plans every three to five years. [The Connecticut school had a "safety plan" but it didn't stop the murders, I don't think any Arizona "safety plans" will work much better. Well other then letting teachers and school employees be armed]

New policies are put out every quarter, he said, depending on the latest, best practices in dealing with tragedies.

Helen Hollands, spokeswoman for Mesa Public Schools, the state’s largest district, said officials regularly review security practices and update them as needed.

She said the district will review the Connecticut tragedy, and “when all is said and done, if there are any changes to be made based on what we learn, we will make them.”

At Kyrene School District, Superintendent David K. Schauer sent a letter to parents saying schools have only one public entrance, place video surveillance around the grounds, practice lockdown and fire drills, and regularly review their procedures. [The Connecticut school also had all that stuff too, but Adam Lanza shot his way into the school]

Schools aimed their reassurances at parents rather than students.

Districts no longer alert students about tragedies through announcements or school assemblies, said Smith.

“We don’t react that way anymore,” he said. “We try to keep kids — particularly young children — isolated from fear and anxiety, particularly when it is something that is happening in another state. Kids are vulnerable.”

Cathryn Creno, Kerry Fehr-Snyder, Eugene Scott, Eddi Trevizo, Anne Ryman, Melissa Leu, David Woodfill and Amy B Wang contributed to this article.

The Arizona Department of Education lists its minimum requirements for school security on its website.

The link: www.azed.gov/wp-content/uploads/PDF/AZMinRecReqRevisions.pdf

A jobs program for cops????

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Connecticut school shooter used assault rifle, had many bullets

By Tina Susman and Richard A. Serrano

December 16, 2012, 3:46 p.m.

NEWTOWN, Conn. – School shooter Adam Lanza carried hundreds of bullets when he shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and used an assault rifle to do most of the killing, authorities confirmed Sunday.

Lanza, 20, fired a Bushmaster .223 semiautomatic rifle to kill many of the 20 children and six adults at the school Friday, Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said. He used a Glock 10-millimeter handgun to shoot himself in the head. He also carried at Sig Sauer pistol. A shotgun, the type of which was not identified, was found in the trunk of Lanza’s car outside the school.

“The Bushmaster was used in the school, in its entirety, and [a] handgun was used to take his own life,” Vance said.

Shortly before bursting into the school, Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, 52, in the head multiple times, according to autopsy reports released Sunday. Authorities did not say what type of gun Lanza used on his mother. She was shot in her family home, authorities said.

The four weapons were recovered at the school. Vance also said Lanza had multiple high-capacity magazines for the rifle, each with 30 rounds, and multiple magazines for both handguns with “hundreds of bullets."

Law enforcement sources have said the weapons were registered to Lanza's mother. Some who knew her said she was comfortable using guns and kept several in the house.

The autopsy reports on the shooter and his mother were released by Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II, who said earlier that all the children, ages 6 and 7, had been shot multiple times in two classrooms.

Vance said investigators are tracing the history of the weapons and all the ammunition that was used, “back to their origin.” He said that police do not yet have a motive in the mass shooting and that it’s “going to take many, many man hours to attempt to draw this picture, to put this puzzle together.”

"For us to be able to give you the summary of the motive, we have to complete the investigation; we have to have the whole picture to say how and why this occurred,” Vance said, referring to the Connecticut State Police, the lead agency in the investigation. “There are weeks worth of work left for us to complete this.”

Investigators have “executed numerous search warrants” and have obtained a “great deal of evidence” that still needs to analyzed, he said. He declined to elaborate on the nature of the seizures. Some of the children may have to be interviewed as part of the process, he said.

As the state and federal investigation widened, officers led by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were canvassing scores of gun shops, shooting ranges and other facilities.

According to law enforcement officials, more than two dozen officers are knocking on store doors, serving search warrants and reviewing video surveillance recordings in the immediate area around Newtown as well as other parts of Connecticut.

Authorities, speaking anonymously because the investigation is ongoing, said they believed Lanza inquired at a Connecticut store about purchasing a “single-action long gun” as recently as several days before the shooting rampage but was turned away because he did not have a permit to possess a firearm. That is a more basic firearm normally used for hunting, in contrast to the high-powered, rapid-fire, military-style semiautomatic weapons he brought to the school.

“It's a lot of work for us,” one official said. “But it's important.”

Federal law enforcement officials said Lanza damaged his computer and hard drive, but the bureau's laboratory in Quantico, Va., could still manage to recover details about his Internet activity in the days and weeks before the shooting.

Officials said Sunday that school reopening plans are up in the air.

Lt. George Sinko said it was uncertain whether children ever would return to the two classrooms where the killings occurred. “It's too early to say, but I would find it very difficult for them to do that,” he said.

Arrangements were underway for some children to report to another elementary school in Newtown when classes resume.

“We want to keep these kids together,” Sinko said, explaining that officials hoped children who were moved to new schools could stay with their classmates.

“We want to move forward very slowly and respectfully,” he added, explaining why it was expected to take so long to interview surviving children.

At the news conference, Vance also said the FBI had been asked to help investigate false information posted on social media sites that included “some things in somewhat of a threatening manner” and some purported to be messages from the shooter or others involved in the incident.

“There are quotes by people who are posing as the shooter.... Suffice it to say, the information has been deemed as threatening,” he said.

tina.susman@latimes.com

richard.serrano@latimes.com

Sen. Feinstein to introduce gun-control bill

Sen. Feinstein to introduce gun-control bill next year

By Morgan Little

December 16, 2012, 11:44 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Two days after the shooting deaths of 26 people at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, Sen. Dianne Feinstein pledged Sunday that she would introduce new gun-control legislation at the beginning of next year’s congressional session.

“It [the bill] will ban the sale, the transfer, the transportation and the possession,” the California senator said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Not retroactively, but prospectively. And it will ban the same for big clips, drums or strips of more than 10 bullets.”

Feinstein said the purpose of her proposal, a version of the assault-weapons ban that expired in 2004, is to get “weapons of war off the streets of our cities.”

Officials have said that most of those killed in Friday’s massacre — a toll that included 20 children — were shot with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle.

Feinstein has been at the forefront of gun-control efforts nationally. The assault weapons ban that she pushed followed mass killings in a Stockton schoolyard and in a San Francisco office tower. Feinstein was also at San Francisco City Hall in 1978 when Supervisor Dan White killed Mayor George Moscone and fellow Supervisor Harvey Milk. Feinstein saw White flee their offices and found Milk, memorably saying afterward that when she felt for a pulse, her finger slipped into a bullet hole. Feinstein, then the head of the Board of Supervisors, became mayor upon Moscone’s death.

She declined to comment when asked whether President Obama has failed to lead on the issue of gun control but did add that her bill would give him a vehicle to oppose assault weapons.

Although Obama has spoken generally in the past about the need to lessen gun violence, his administration has not said how he will proceed. The president was due to speak at a memorial service in Newtown on Sunday night.

"As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago — these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children," Obama said in an address Friday. "And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."

Obama to use Connecticut murders to push gun control????

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President Obama: 'We will have to change' to keep our children safe

8:38 p.m. CST, December 16, 2012

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?”

As Obama read some of the names of victims early in his remarks, several people broke down, their sobs heard throughout the hall.

He closed his remarks by slowly reading the first names of each of the 26 victims.

“God has called them all home. For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on and make our country worthy of their memory,” he said.

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.

Connecticut murders will be a jobs program for the cops

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Gunman’s computers may be key in Connecticut school shooting investigation

By Jason Sickles, Yahoo! | The Lookout

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Alleged school shooter Adam Lanza reportedly occupied two bedrooms in his family's sprawling suburban home, one where he slept and another to stash his computer equipment.

For a young man who has been described as withdrawn from the outside world, Lanza's computer room is likely a gold mine for detectives, a veteran law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told Yahoo News.

"If he visited certain websites, they are going to glean whatever information they can from that and see what it means," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. "Does he have friends he communicates with online? Was there a fight with somebody?"

Police have already hinted that evidence inside the 4,000-square-foot home has been helpful in determining a possible motive for the rampage that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adult staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home before driving to the school and commencing his deadly rampage, police say. Adam Lanza's body was later found inside the building, where police believe he took his own life. Results from the autopsies on the alleged gunman and his mother are still pending.

Lt. J. Paul Vance with the Connecticut State Police told reporters Sunday morning that investigators are scrutinizing the guns Lanza took to the school, including the semiautomatic military-style rifle the state's medical examiner said was used in the school killings.

"The weaponry involved, we are tracing historically all the way back to when they were on the workbench being assembled," Lt. Vance said.

However, he declined to discuss what else has been recovered from the Lanza home.

"Simply stated, we have a great deal of evidence that we're analyzing," Lt. Vance said. "The forensic part is an important part. That's not done yet."

While the gunman is thought to have acted alone, the law enforcement source said a deep dive into Lanza's computers could provide more clues.

"You don't know if this kid was put up to this by somebody else," the source said. "You don't know if there was a conspiracy of sorts. You don't know if there wasn't somebody who wasn't goading this kid on."

Family and friends say Lanza suffered from a personality disorder and that his mother, whom he killed just prior to the school shootings, struggled with her troubled son.

"Has he been seeing a child psychologist throughout his lifetime? Was he on medication?" the law enforcement source said. "These are a zillion logical who, what, whey, why, where questions that need to be answered. They need to be asked without any fear of any stigmatism … and you can't be politically correct in asking those questions."

Nor should the public be shy about discussing whatever is learned about Lanza's life and what prompted him to act, forensic psychologist Kris Mohandie told CNN.

"The opportunity is nearly always there to discover and disrupt," he said.

Dr. Mohandie said warning signs can include self destructiveness, hopelessness, desperation, interest in other mass shooters and a dysfunctional interest in weaponry.

Police say the guns used in the rampage were apparently owned and registered to Lanza's mother.

Without knowing specifics about the Lanza household, Dr. Mohandie pleaded for greater care with firearms.

"If you've got individuals who are unstable and you know it, it's probably a good idea restrict their access to firearms within their own home," he said.

Schools pretend they can protect the children

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Schools heighten security after massacre

By Christine Armario Associated Press Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:19 AM

MIAMI - Jessica Kornfeld sat down with her son and daughter after school on Friday and shared with them the unthinkable, horrific news out of Connecticut: Someone had stormed into an elementary school and killed children nearly their same age.

“They’re just babies,” her 10-year-old son said. “What could they have done?”

Kornfeld assured him the victims had done nothing wrong, and that the shootings didn’t make sense to anybody. She reminded her children that they were with her, and safe.

“But it could have been us,” her son replied.

School administrators across the nation have pledged to add police patrols, review security plans and make guidance counselors available in their districts as students return to classes Monday for the first time since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. And yet, it is pretty near impossible for parents not to be anxious and apprehensive.

“For them, you need to pretend that you’re OK,” said Kornfeld, of Pinecrest, Fla. “But it’s scary.”

Teachers shared their concerns and braced themselves for what they would face in the classroom Monday.

“It’s going to be a tough day,” said Richard Cantlupe, an American history teacher at Westglades Middle School in Parkland, Fla. “This was like our 911 for schoolteachers.”

Cantlupe said he will tell his students that his No. 1 job is to keep them safe and that, like the teachers in Connecticut, he would do anything to make sure they are safe. He is also beginning to teach about the Constitution and expects to take questions on the Second Amendment.

Some officials refused to discuss plans in detail, but it was clear that vigilance will be high this week at schools everywhere in the aftermath of one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history: Twenty-six people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, including 20 children ages 6 and 7. The gunman then shot and killed himself.

Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest school system in the Washington area with about 181,000 students, will provide additional police patrols and counselors.

“This is not in response to any specific threat but rather a police initiative to enhance safety and security around the schools and to help alleviate the understandably high levels of anxiety,” Superintendent Jack Dale said Sunday.

Many schools will be holding a moment of silence Monday and will fly flags at half-staff. Administrators are concerned about the psychological toll the shootings could take.

Gun control debate begins to simmer after massacre

Gun control debate begins to simmer after massacre

By By ANNE FLAHERTY | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats say meaningful action in the wake of last week's elementary school shooting must include a ban on military-style assault weapons and a look at how the nation deals with individuals suffering from serious mental illness.

Several Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday that it was time to take a deeper look into the recent spate of mass shootings and what can be done to prevent them in the future. Gun control was a hot topic in the early 1990s, when Congress enacted a 10-year ban on assault weapons. But since that ban expired in 2004, few Americans have wanted stricter laws and politicians say they don't want to become targets of a powerful gun-rights lobby.

Gun-rights advocates said that might all change after the latest shooting that killed 20 children aged 6 or 7.

"I think we could be at a tipping point ... a tipping point where we might actually get something done," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Speaking Sunday night at a vigil in Newtown, Conn., the site of Friday's massacre, President Barack Obama did not specifically address gun control. But he vowed, "In the coming weeks I'll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this."

He added: "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 on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?"

Schumer and other Democrats, as well as Lieberman, said they want to ban the sale of new assault weapons and make it harder for mentally ill individuals to obtain weapons. Lieberman said a new commission should be created to look at gun laws and the mental health system, as well as violence in movies and video games.

"Assault weapons were developed for the U.S. military, not commercial gun manufacturers," Lieberman said before the Newtown vigil Sunday night.

"This is a moment to start a very serious national conversation about violence in our society, particularly about these acts of mass violence," said the Connecticut senator, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she will introduce legislation next year to ban new assault weapons, as well as big clips, drums and strips of more than 10 bullets.

"It can be done," Feinstein told NBC's "Meet the Press" of reinstating the ban despite deep opposition by the National Rifle Association and similar groups.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Obama could use executive powers to enforce existing gun laws, as well as throw his weight behind legislation like Feinstein's.

"It's time for the president, I think, to stand up and lead and tell this country what we should do — not go to Congress and say, 'What do you guys want to do?'" Bloomberg told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Gun-rights activists have remained largely quiet on the issue since Friday's shooting, all but one declining to appear on the Sunday talk shows.

David Gregory, the host of "Meet the Press," said NBC invited all 31 "pro-gun" senators to appear on Sunday's show, and all 31 declined. All eight Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were unavailable or unwilling to appear on CBS' "Face the Nation," host Bob Schieffer said.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was the sole representative of gun rights' activists on the various Sunday talk shows. In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Gohmert defended the sale of assault weapons and said that the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who authorities say died trying to overtake the shooter, should herself have been armed.

"I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out and she didn't have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands. But she takes him (the shooter) out, takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said.

Gohmert also argued that violence is lower in cities with lax gun laws, and higher in cities with stricter laws.

"The facts are that every time guns have been allowed — conceal-carry (gun laws) have been allowed — the crime rate has gone down," Gohmert said.

Gun-control advocates say that isn't true. A study by the California-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence determined that 7 of the 10 states with the strongest gun laws — including Connecticut, Massachusetts and California — are also among the 10 states with the lowest gun death rates.

"If you look at the states with the strongest gun laws in the country, they have some of the lowest gun death rates, and some of the states with the weakest gun laws have some of the highest gun death rates," said Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

In Town at Ease With Its Firearms, Tightening Gun Rules Was Resisted

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In Town at Ease With Its Firearms, Tightening Gun Rules Was Resisted

By MICHAEL MOSS and RAY RIVERA

Published: December 16, 2012

People in the rural, hilly areas around Newtown, Conn., are used to gunfire. In one woodsy stretch, southeast of downtown, the Pequot Fish and Game Club and the Fairfield County Fish and Game Protective Association, where members can fish in ponds and hunt pheasant, lie within a mile of each other, and people who live nearby generally call them good neighbors.

But in the last couple of years, residents began noticing loud, repeated gunfire, and even explosions, coming from new places. Near a trailer park. By a boat launch. Next to well-appointed houses. At 2:20 p.m. on one Wednesday last spring, multiple shots were reported in a wooded area on Cold Spring Road near South Main Street, right across the road from an elementary school.

Yet recent efforts by the police chief and other town leaders to gain some control over the shooting and the weaponry turned into a tumultuous civic fight, with traditional hunters and discreet gun owners opposed by assault weapon enthusiasts, and a modest tolerance for bearing arms competing with the staunch views of a gun industry trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which has made Newtown its home.

The place that witnessed one of the worst mass killings in United States history on Friday, leaving 20 schoolchildren and 8 adults dead, is a bucolic New England town comfortable with its firearms, and not an obvious arena for the nation’s debate over gun control. But the legislative battle right here shows how even the slightest attempts to impose restrictions on guns can run into withering resistance, made all the more pointed by the escalation in firepower.

“Something needs to be done,” said Joel T. Faxon, a hunter and a member of the town’s police commission, who championed the shooting restrictions. “These are not normal guns, that people need. These are guns for an arsenal, and you get lunatics like this guy who goes into a school fully armed and protected to take return fire. We live in a town, not in a war.”

The gunman’s mother, Nancy Lanza, had collected several weapons, including powerful handguns and a semiautomatic rifle that she and her son, Adam, were fond of shooting, and it remains unclear where they took their target practice. Much of the gunfire and the explosions reported by residents to the police in recent months came from a spot less than three miles from their house. Police logs identified the spot as one of the town’s many unlicensed gun ranges, where the familiar noise of hunting rifles has grown to include automatic gunfire and explosions that have shaken houses.

“It was like this continuous, rapid fire,” said Amy Habboush, who was accustomed to the sound of gunfire but became alarmed last year when she heard what sounded like machine guns, though she did not complain to the police. “It was a concern. We knew there was target practice, but we hadn’t heard that noise before.”

Earlier this year, the Newtown police chief, Michael Kehoe, went to the Town Council for help. The town had a 20-year-old ordinance aimed at hunters that included a ban on shooting within 500 feet of occupied dwellings, but the chief complained that the way the law was written had left him powerless to enforce the rules or otherwise crack down on the riskiest shooting.

The police department logged more than 50 gunfire complaints this year through July, double the number for all of 2011, records show. Some of the complaints raised another issue. Gun enthusiasts here, as elsewhere in the country, have taken to loading their targets with an explosive called Tannerite, which detonates when bullets strike it, sending shock waves afield. A mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, Tannerite is legal in Connecticut, but safety concerns led Maryland this year to ban it.

Mr. Faxon, the police commission member, who is a lawyer, said he wrote the new ordinance, which would have imposed additional constraints on shooting, including limited hours, and a requirement that any target shooting range, and the firearms that would be used there, be approved by the chief of police to make sure they were safe. This was no liberal putsch, Mr. Faxon said; three of the five commission members are Republicans, and two members are police officers.

“I’ve hunted for many years, but the police department was getting complaints of shooting in the morning, in the evening, and of people shooting at propane gas tanks just to see them explode,” Mr. Faxon said.

The proposal was submitted to the council’s ordinance committee, whose chairwoman, Mary Ann Jacob, would play a heroic role on Friday. Ms. Jacob is a librarian aide at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where she is credited with protecting many lives by throwing two rooms crowded with children into lockdown as the gunfire erupted.

“We’re growing,” Ms. Jacob said in an interview on Saturday, describing a town where hikers and mountain bikers now compete with gun owners for use of the many trails and wooded areas. “The police chief is not looking to change behavior or go after a group of people, but rather he’s trying to give his officers the ability, if an incident occurs, to react appropriately. Right now, if you’re standing on your property and my house is 20 feet away, you can shoot.”

The first meeting took place on Aug. 2, with about 60 people crowding into the room. Some spoke in favor of the new rules, the meeting minutes show. But many voiced their opposition, citing the waiting lists at established gun ranges. Among the speakers was a representative of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who was described as saying he believed there was a greater danger of swimming accidents. “No privileges should be taken away from another generation,” he said.

The president and spokesman of the group did not respond to messages left Sunday. Citing the continuing investigation, the group said on its Web site it would not be commenting on the massacre, but that “our hearts go out to the families of the victims of this horrible tragedy in our community.”

A second committee gathering in September drew such a large crowd that the meeting was moved into a high school cafeteria, where the opposition grew fierce. “This is a freedom that should never be taken away,” one woman said. Added another, “Teach kids to hunt, you will never have to hunt your kids.”

“No safety concerns exist,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman said, according to the minutes.

The proposed ordinance was shelved, and Ms. Jacob said the committee was in the midst of researching a more limited rule, perhaps one restricted to making the existing ban on firing weapons within 500 feet of an occupied building more enforceable.

“Five hundred feet!” Mr. Flaxon said in an interview. “A BB gun can go that far.”

Newtown residents said many of the ranges in the area have long waiting lists of people eager to join, which has led to the profusion of informal ranges.

On High Rock Road, where many gunfire complaints originated, what appeared to be three or more gun ranges were set back from the road.

The owner of one, Scott Ostrovsky, said he and his friends had been shooting automatic weapons since he bought the 23-acre property more than 12 years ago. It is safe, he said, because his land is sandwiched between two other gun ranges, the 123-acre Pequot hunting club and the 500-acre Fairfield club.

The explosions his neighbors hear are targets that are legally available at hunting outlets. “If you’re good old boys like we are, they are exciting,” he said. He said he was distraught at the school massacre but said guns should not be made the “scapegoat.”

“Guns are why we’re free in this country, and people lose sight of that when tragedies like this happen,” he said. “A gun didn’t kill all those children, a disturbed man killed all those children.”

The answer to that "tannerite" question

Source

Tannerite is the trademark for a patented ammonium nitrate/aluminum powder based binary explosive used primarily as a target for firearms practice. Tannerite is unique in that it is exceptionally stable when subjected to less severe forces such as a hammer blow or being dropped. It is supplied as two powders which are combined to produce the explosive. Contents

Tannerite is intended to detonate when shot by a high-velocity firearm cartridge (firearms). Low-velocity shotgun, handgun or rifle ammunition will not initiate a detonation

Tannerite is used by shooting clubs to provide explosions for their participants in large-scale weaponry demonstrations or other events. Ordinarily, firing rifle caliber machine guns and long arms will not produce much more than sound upon impact of the round on the target. With reactive targets, these shooting clubs can provide a movie-like experience such as exploding cars.

Tannerite consists of two components: a catalyst or sensitizer and a bulk material or oxidizer.

The oxidizer is a mixture of 85% 200-mesh ammonium nitrate and 0–15% ammonium perchlorate, while the catalyst is a mixture of 90% 600-mesh dark flake aluminium powder, 5% 325-mesh titanium sponge and 5% 200-mesh zirconium hydroxide.

In the United States, ATF regulations allow the two components to be legally purchased, since neither one is an explosive by itself.

tannerite.com/

More Obama gun controls????

Obama asks Cabinet members for proposals to curb gun violence

By Scott Wilson and Philip Rucker, Published: December 17

President Obama on Monday began the first serious push of his administration to attempt to reduce gun violence, directing Cabinet members to formulate a set of proposals that could include reinstating a ban on assault rifles.

The effort will be led by Vice President Biden, according to two people outside the government who have spoken to senior administration officials since Friday, when a gunman killed his mother and rampaged through Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children, six adults and himself.

The tentative steps ended a paralyzing debate within the administration over how hard to pursue gun-control legislation, which has been a politically perilous issue for many Democrats. There were signs Monday, however, that such fear was abating on the Democratic side of the aisle.

Democratic Sens. Harry M. Reid (Nev.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Mark R. Warner (Va.) made clear that Congress should consider a range of options to address the issue; all three have been strong supporters of gun rights. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) said she would introduce legislation that would reimpose the assault-rifle ban that lapsed in 2004.

“We need to accept the reality that we’re not doing enough to protect our citizens,” Reid, the Senate majority leader, said after a moment of silence on the chamber’s floor. “In the coming days and weeks, we’ll engage in a meaningful conversation and proper debate about how to change laws and culture that allow this violence to continue to grow. . . . And every idea should be on the table.”

But any significant gun legislation would require support from leading Republicans, none of whom joined Democrats on Monday in outlining specific changes they might consider.

The rising anxiety in Washington over how to respond to the Sandy Hook massacre came as a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found a shift in the way most Americans view such tragedies and the reasons behind them.

More than half of the respondents to the poll, conducted over the weekend, said the shooting in Connecticut reflected societal problems rather than the isolated action of a troubled individual. Fewer than a quarter said the same thing after the July shooting in a Aurora, Colo., movie theater, where a gunman killed 12 people and injured dozens.

The president’s push

Obama, who has appeared shaken by the Sandy Hook shootings, met Monday with Biden, who advocated for stricter gun-control measures during his years in the Senate. The president also spoke Monday with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “to begin looking at ways the country can respond to the tragedy in Newtown,” according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Others involved in the new effort include White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler; Biden’s chief counsel, Cynthia C. Hogan; and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who traveled with Obama to Connecticut on Sunday to address a memorial service for the Sandy Hook victims.

Earlier in Obama’s tenure, some key advisers, including then-chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, saw gun control as an issue that would be a distraction as the president pursued health-care legislation, new Wall Street regulations and measures to improve the economy. As a House leader in 2006, Emanuel recruited pro-gun Democrats to run in conservative districts.

One person who works closely with the administration on gun-related issues referred to Emanuel and his successor as chief of staff, William Daley, as “the boys” who argued against pursuing new gun restrictions. Emanuel has since been elected the mayor of Chicago, a city battered by gun violence.

One of the key voices on the other side of the discussion has been Holder, according to the two sources outside the administration, who have been involved in the debate.

Holder was behind a 2011 Justice Department study on gun violence, conducted after a shooting in a Tucson parking lot left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) critically wounded and six others dead. But the report, which outlined more than a dozen measures to reduce gun violence, was never acted on as Obama’s reelection campaign took shape.

“They felt that they didn’t want to take what they perceived to be a political risk and had a lot on their plates at the time,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group chaired by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) that represents about 750 mayors across the country. “Having done this big policy review, one imagines they have a set of options gathering dust in a file drawer that they could pull out and put the full force of the presidency behind passing.”

On Monday, White House officials said it is too early to say what measures Obama will pursue. But in the past he has supported the reinstatement of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that he still does.

At the memorial service Sunday, Obama said he intends to speak to law enforcement officials, mental health experts, educators and others “in the coming weeks” to come up with proposals to reduce gun violence.

By the time the process concludes, White House officials suggested, the proposals will probably include ideas to address mental illness and the violence depicted in popular culture — a strategy aimed at focusing the proposal on more than limiting gun ownership.

“Gun laws are a part of this, but they are not the only part of this, as anyone who is truly an expert on these issues will tell you,” Carney told reporters. “There is no single legislation, no single bill that’s been written, that’s been enacted and expired that alone solves this problem. And that’s why you have to take a broader approach.”

The shooting has pushed gun violence onto an already crowded White House agenda, dominated this week by negotiations to avert the automatic tax increases and spending cuts that will go into effect in the new year unless an agreement to stop them is reached.

After a family vacation in Hawaii, Obama will face preparations for his second inauguration, second-term staffing issues and his goal of pushing quickly for immigration-reform legislation. The president’s domestic-policy director, Cecilia Munoz, will help manage the search for gun-violence proposals while also serving as a point person on immigration.

The National Rifle Association, the country’s most powerful pro-gun-rights lobby, has been silent since the Newtown shooting. A spokesman for the group declined to comment Monday, saying it was not granting interviews.

In Congress, new stances

As Congress convened for the first time since the shooting, a number of prominent pro-gun Democrats expressed new willingness to consider gun-control measures, including restrictions on assault weapons.

Manchin — whose support for gun rights is so strong that he once shot a copy of an environmental bill with a rifle in a campaign ad — said the massacre has made clear the need to consider new regulations.

“I don’t know anyone in the sporting or hunting arena that goes out with an assault rifle,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I don’t know anyone that needs 30 rounds in a clip to go hunting.”

“Never before have we seen our babies slaughtered,” Manchin added. “Anybody that’s a proud gun owner, anybody that’s a proud member of the NRA, we’re also proud parents. We’re also proud grandparents.”

Warner indicated that his position had changed during conversations with his three daughters. “I’ve been a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights,” he said Monday outside the Virginia Capitol. “I’ve got an A rating from the NRA. But the status quo isn’t acceptable.’’

Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and Manchin’s former chief of staff, said that “everything has changed” for lawmakers who previously opposed gun-control measures.

He said he doubts that the public will tolerate delay in passing what he called “common sense” measures, such as reinstating the ban on assault weapons.

Whether many Republicans will agree is unclear. One GOP congressional aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not an authorized spokesman, said, “Because it involved young kids, I think it’s gotten everybody’s attention.”

But the aide cautioned that Republicans have not had time to discuss the issue in depth and that any movement on guns would be likely to include examinations of other issues such as violent video games and movies. “It’s a three-legged stool,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke extensively about his sympathy for the Connecticut victims during an address on the Senate floor Monday, but he did not mention the gun debate or any possible legislative action.

He called Obama’s Sunday address in Newtown a “very moving meditation” that reflected “on the singularity of parental love.”

Jerry Markon, Peter Wallsten, Jon Cohen and Peyton M. Craighill contributed to this report.

Student with prop replica gun prompts lockdown at Gilbert school

Source

Student with prop replica gun prompts lockdown at Gilbert school

Posted: Monday, December 17, 2012 10:59 am

Tribune

A school project provoked a Gilbert police department response and a lockdown at Williams Field High School on Friday.

Police were alerted after a parent observed what he or she thought was a student walking across campus with a rifle.

However, the rifle turned out to be a non-functional, prop replica gun, police said. No threats and no crime occurred.

The school was in lockdown for 30 minutes as police searched the area, police said. The student returned to school after seeing the police response and explained that he carried the replica home after school.

“The police department appreciates the diligence of community members for calling in this suspicious activity,” said Sgt. Jesse

Sanger, spokesman for the department. “As always we encourage citizens to report any type of suspicious activity, regardless of how small the situation may seem.”

The school will conduct its own administrative investigation, Sanger said.

Williams Field High School is in the Higley Unified School District.

Southeast Valley schools boost safety measures after Connecticut shooting

Source

Southeast Valley schools boost safety measures after Connecticut shooting

By Kerry Fehr-Snyder and Hayley Ringle The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:04 AM

Chandler police made their presence known on Monday, the first full school day since a gunman unleashed a shooting rampage that killed 20 schoolchildren, five educators and the principal at a Connecticut elementary school.

An armed officer stood outside Hancock Elementary School in Chandler as parents dropped off their children, while other students pedaled to campus. [Of course the only way minimize the deaths is to let the the teachers and school employees be armed, but that will never happen with our politically correct gun grabbing polticians]

“There will be an increased presence all week,” said Terry Locke, Chandler Public Schools spokesman.

CUSD elementary schools within Gilbert town limits also used stepped-up police patrols to calm fears that a copycat shooting could happen at their school.

The shooting shocked the idyllic rural community of Newtown, Conn., and has sparked a national debate about regulations over assault rifles, which can fire multiple rounds of bullets without reloading. Those firearms have been used by shooters at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., an Oregon shopping mall and in the Tucson shooting two years ago that gravely injured Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, wounded staffers and killed six people, including 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green.

The most recent school shooting also has sparked a debate about the diagnosis and treatment of people with mental-health disorders. The Connecticut shooter is believed to have suffered from mental-health problems and killed his mother before blasting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 26 people and then himself.

“Our greatest threat is with adults, not children,” said Paul Novak, safety and transportation director for the Tempe Elementary School District.

Last week, the district sent e-mails to all its staff members reminding them to wear badges at all times, Novak said.

Staff members also are encouraged to notify principals if they are involved in a domestic-violence dispute with a family member or friend, Novak said.

Locke, of CUSD, agreed.

“The key is communication,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Tempe district is participating in a public forum next month with the Tempe Police Department, public charter schools and private schools to discuss school safety. The forum is 9a.m. Jan.16 at the Tempe History Museum, 809 E.Southern Ave.

That forum was planned before Friday’s school shooting but is more timely than ever after the tragedy.

The district holds regular training sessions for its employees on how to respond to a school crisis. Recently, it had a table-top exercise for its crisis-response team.

“We do planning, training and constant drilling,” Novak said. “And we will use an event like this to talk about what could be done to prevent it from happening again.”

The district has no plans to install metal detectors at its schools after the shooting. The shooter blasted into the school’s front office, and the school’s front-office staff, principal and student counselor tried to stop him.

“These aren’t prisons, they’re educational institutions,” Novak said.

After Friday’s shooting, Higley Unified School District Superintendent Denise Birdwell said district officials have begun “an immediate, thorough assessment to further ensure safety.”

“Above all, we want to assure you the safety of our students, staff and faculty is our top priority,” Birdwell said Monday in a parent letter. [Well if that is true you should allow your teachers and employees to carry guns to work. While it won't prevent a shooting, it will minimize the deaths if one occurs]

Birdwell said Higley is reviewing its systems and methods to ensure that officials provide “timely, critical information to parents.” Birdwell asked that parents make sure their school office has the most up-to-date contact information and sign up for electronic alerts through the district website. [But none of that feel happy stuff will prevent a future shooting]

Neighboring Gilbert Public Schools posted on its website tips on how to talk to students about the shooting.

GPS Superintendent Dave Allison sent a parent letter Monday, asking parents contact their school’s principal, psychologist or social worker for questions or concerns.

Like other districts, visitors to GPS are required to sign in when they enter a school, wear a visitor’s identification badge and sign out when leaving the campus. School staff are required to wear an ID badge with a photo, first and last name and position title. [So what! That didn't prevent the shooting in Connecticut and won't prevent one in Phoenix]

Elementary schools have fences surrounding the campus, funneling visitors to the school office, and high schools have assigned school-resource officers. [Again fences and sign in sheets in the school office didn't prevent the Connecticut shooting and won't prevent one in Phoenix]

Mesa schools reporter Cathryn Creno contributed to this article.

Brewer unsure if Arizona should review gun laws

Source

Brewer unsure if Arizona should review gun laws in wake of Connecticut shootings

Posted: Monday, December 17, 2012 2:17 pm

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services

Jan Brewer said Monday she's "not sure'' whether the shootings in Connecticut mean Arizona needs to revisit the various laws expanding the right to carry weapons in public she has signed in her four years as governor.

The governor, in her first public comments about what occurred, called the incident "absolutely horrific.''

"Everybody's heart is broken to the point where you can't hardly get over it when it's brought to your attention again or you're just thinking about it as you're driving along,'' Brewer said when asked about Arizona's gun laws. She said that such incidents always lead to a discussion of the rights of individuals to bear arms.

"And I'm not sure it's something that needs to be addressed in that respect,'' she said, pointing out that the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers used box cutters.

"There are evil, evil people in our country, unfortunately, and in the world,'' Brewer continued. "And I don't know how we get our arms around it.''

She said people with guns going crazy and killing people is a sad situation.

"I know everybody's looking for an answer,'' the governor said. "I don't know what that answer is.''

The governor said if there is an area where people should focus in the wake of the shootings it should be on making schools safer.

"We've just had too many incidences of this kind,'' she said.

"I hope that people across the country come together and figure out what it is to make that environment safer,'' the governor said. "But I will just always believe that there are evil people and I don't know what the solution is, how you're ever going to stop it.''

The governor said a better mental health system may be part of the answer, helping people with problems "address those issues before they get out of control.'' Still, she said, no amount of counseling can prevent every problem.

"I've been told at least that some incident can take them over the edge,'' Brewer said.

Brewer has inked her name to a variety of measures expanding the rights of people to carry guns since becoming governor in 2009.

The most sweeping permits any adult to carry a concealed weapon. Prior to that, only individuals who had undergone a background check and some special training could hide a gun on themselves; anyone else who felt the need for protection had to have the weapon visible.

She also signed a measure to let those who do have a state-issued permit carry their guns into bars or restaurants where beer, wine or liquor is sold, though they are not permitted to drink. Establishment owners do retain the right, though, of posting "no weapons'' signs at the door.

Brewer also agreed to let people bring their weapons into parking lots and garages of public colleges and universities as long as they leave them in their vehicles. And she signed a law allowing anyone who feels threatened to "display'' a gun without being charged with intimidation.

The governor, however, also has shown there are some limits to how far she is willing to go.

Earlier this year, for example, she vetoed -- for a second time -- legislation which would have permitted individuals to bring weapons into most public buildings. [OK Jan Brewer is a gun grabber in this case]

In her message to lawmakers, Brewer called herself "a strong proponent of the Second Amendment,'' saying she has "signed into law numerous pieces of legislation over these past few years to advance gun rights.'' But she said firearms are not appropriate everywhere, such as schools and government buildings. [Jan Brewer is a gun grabber in this case]

"Decisions made by government officials at the state, county and municipal level impact all areas of life and can have a profound impact upon an individual's family and livelihood,'' wrote Brewer who had been a Maricopa County supervisor. "Emotions can run high.''

And last year she rejected a measure which would have allowed individuals to bring their weapons onto the campuses of public colleges and universities, though not into classrooms. [OK Jan Brewer is a gun grabber in this case]

In that case, however, the governor said her objection was not to having guns on campus but to what she said was the flawed wording of the legislation. For example, said there was no good definition of exactly where guns would -- and would not -- be allowed on campus, pointing out that nowhere in the legislation did it define exactly what is a "public right of way'' where weapons could be carried.

No gunman found during lockdown at San Jose City College

No gunman found during lockdown at San Jose City College

By Troy Wolverton

Mercury News

Posted: 12/18/2012 05:26:14 PM PST

San Jose City College went into lockdown Tuesday evening after reports of a gunman on campus.

Officials canceled classes, the police closed Moorpark Ave. to traffic and some students and faculty were stuck inside buildings for two hours or more as police officers conducted a floor-by-floor and room-by-room search for the gunman.

They didn't find one. No one was reported hurt or injured. And despite the disruption, classes will resume Wednesday on their regular schedule.

The hullabaloo followed a call placed to 911 around 4:30 p.m. warning of black male dressed in a white T-shirt and carrying a gun, according to police officials. The gunman was reportedly in the Technology Center, a building in the northwest side of the campus, which borders Moorpark.

College officials immediately sent out text and phone alerts to lock down the campus, said Dr. Rita Cepeda, chancellor of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District. Although some parts of the campus were subsequently evacuated, the Technology building remained on lockdown until 7:30 p.m. while police searched the building looking for the gunman. College police officers were joined by San Jose Police in the search.

In the end, police neither found a gunman nor the person who reported the incident, Ray Aguirre, the college district's police chief, said.

Percy Carr, the longtime coach of City College's basketball team, said he spent the lockdown in the gym with 16 other people, including all the players on the team. The group wasn't cleared to evacuate until around 6:40 p.m., after about an hour and half in lockdown.

The order to go into lockdown was initially unsettling to Carr and the team.

"In light of all the events that happened (recently), nobody was at ease about what was going on here," he said. "We heard all the helicopters and saw all the red lights."

But after a 30 minutes or so in lockdown, people started to relax, he said. "We felt safe," he said.

Staff Writer Nhat Meyer contributed to this report. Contact Troy Wolverton at twolverton@mercurynews.com or (408) 840-4285. Follow him at Twitter.com/troywolv

Scottsdale Cocopah school shut down because of bogus gun threat

Scottsdale police: Students could be allowed back on campus after report of armed man

By Cassondra Strande The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Wed Dec 19, 2012 10:17 AM

Students from Cocopah Middle School in Scottsdale could be allowed back into the school between 10 and 10:30 a.m. after being diverted by a reported threat of an armed man, police said.

Buses will take the students from Chaparral High School, which is a little more than a mile away, to the middle school, said Sgt. Mark Clark, a spokesman for the Scottsdale Police Department.

Police searched the buildings at 6615 E. Cholla St. on Wednesday morning after a cafeteria worker called police at 6 a.m. The worker reported seeing a man with long hair, wearing a long black trench coat walking around campus with a pistol, Clark said.

Officers searched the campus for nearly three hours.

Parents were asked to drop kids off at Chaparral High School while police work to clear the campus, said Becky Kelbaugh, a spokeswoman for Scottsdale Unified School District.

Teachers and staff from Cocopah Middle School were at the high school auditorium to supervise students, Kelbaugh said.

Both Chaparral High School and Sequoya Elementary School were placed on modified lock down at 8:30 a.m. The modified lock down was lifted at 9:05 a.m. for the elementary school, Kelbaugh said.

Just under 1,000 students attend Cocopah Middle School, which serves grades 6, 7 and 8. There are about 500 students at Sequoya Elementary School, which is the nearest school only several blocks away.

Republic reporter D.S. Woodfill and 12 News reporter Jaclyn Schultz contributed to this report.

Orange County cop shoots himself

An untrained teacher or school employee might shoot themself if they were allowed to bring guns onto a school campus to protect themselves against criminals.

Well at least that is what many of our gun grabbing government rulers like to tell us.

Source

Published: Dec. 18, 2012 Updated: 10:10 p.m.

Officer injured when weapon accidentally discharges

By SEAN EMERY / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – A Sheriff's Department special officer accidently shot and injured himself at a county building Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

The officer "accidently discharged" his duty weapon while removing it at the end of his shift at the Orange County Healthcare Agency building on West Fifth Street shortly after 4 p.m., Lt. Steve Gill of the Orange County Sheriff's Department said.

The bullet reportedly struck the officer in his right thigh. Gill said no one else was injured.

The officer's injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7939 or semery@ocregister.com

Arizona group says allowing guns in schools is overdue

Arizona group says allowing guns in schools is overdue

Associated Press Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:36 PM

A group that advocates for pro-gun, state legislation said Wednesday guns should be allowed in Arizona public schools to provide protection against shootings such as the one in Connecticut.

“It’s long past time to, at the very least, allow our school faculty and staff the option to be trained and armed,” the Arizona Citizens Defense League said in a statement. “Only then will they be capable of dealing with a situation like this.”

Amid public debate over what to do in response to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, the league is “now looking at things that can be done to heighten security in schools,” spokesman Charles Heller said during an earlier interview. “We hadn’t been before.”

Arizona law now generally bans taking guns on school grounds.

The statement by the league decried the violence in Connecticut and stopped short of announcing a 2013 legislative proposal to allow guns on campuses.

Heller said his group is considering options, but he couldn’t discuss specifics. The session starts in mid-January, and no proposed bills filed as yet deal with gun issues.

Gun control proposals went nowhere in the Republican-led Arizona Legislature after the January 2011 shooting that wounded then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson.

In the next two legislative sessions, state lawmakers twice approved bills to allow guns in many public buildings without airport-style security and once to allow them on higher-education campuses.

However, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed all three versions of those two bills that reached her desk. She said in May her veto of the latest such bill reflected public unease.

A Brewer spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the league’s statement.

Arizona has permissive gun laws and a Wild West heritage. Guns can be carried openly, sometimes jolting newcomers, particularly in urban areas.

On Monday, Brewer sounded disinclined to weaken the right to bear arms in response to the Connecticut shooting.

“I’m not sure if it’s something that needs to be addressed in that respect,” Brewer said, adding that a stronger behavioral health system “would probably be something that we ought to look into.”

Hildy Saizow, president of Arizonans for Gun Safety, said relaxation of gun-free zones at schools and other places would be “really extremist legislation.”

Instead, now is the time to support national legislation that should include toughening requirements for background checks of gun purchasers, Saizow said.

Alan Korwin, a Scottsdale author and publisher of books on gun laws, said the media is whipping public sentiment into a “mob mentality” in favor of new gun restrictions after the Connecticut shootings.

That ignores the benefits of allowing guns where they’re not now allowed, he said.

Gun-free zones “enable criminals and infringe on the rights and abilities of Americans to protect themselves and their children,” Korwin said. “We trust teachers with our children. Certainly they should be qualified” to have guns at schools.

An Arizona legislator who sponsored a bill after the 2011 Tucson shooting to prohibit extended magazines that hold more than 10 bullets said it would be dangerous to allow guns at schools.

“I do not see anything good of a massive arms race on our college campuses or, God forbid, on our elementary schools,” said Rep. Steve Farley. “There’s no good that’s going to come of that.”

Farley, a Tucson Democrat who becomes a state senator in January, said he won’t re-introduce a new version of his bill in 2013. Such restrictions are best handled by Washington to avoid a patchwork of state laws, he said.

Farley said he proposed the 2011 bill because Tucson shooter Jared Loughner fired 30 shots from a handgun with an extended magazine. Six people were killed and 13 injured in the attack, and Farley said there would have been less carnage if Loughner had to reload sooner.

Farley’s bill died after not getting a hearing from a House committee.

Farley also said he wants the Legislature to consider providing adequate funding for programs to identify and treat mentally ill people and to protect children from physical abuse so they don’t develop psychological problems.

Emperor Obama goes into gun grabbing mode!!!!

Obama demands new gun policies after shooting

Associated Press Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:16 PM

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday demanded “concrete proposals” on curbing gun violence that he could send to Congress no later than January — an urgent effort to build on the growing political consensus over gun restrictions following last week’s massacre of children at a Connecticut school.

It was a tough new tone for the president, whose first four years were largely quiet on the issue amid widespread political reluctance to tackle a powerful gun-rights lobby. But emotions have been high after the gunman in Friday’s shooting used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 20 young children and six adults at the school, shooting many several times and at close range, after killing his mother at home. He then killed himself.

“This time, the words need to lead to action,” Obama said. He said he will push legislation “without delay” and urged Congress to hold votes on the bill next year.

“The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing,” Obama said. “The fact that we can’t prevent every act of violence doesn’t mean we can’t steadily reduce the violence.”

The president listed eight people across the country who had been killed by gun violence since Friday’s shooting.

As part of his call for “real progress, right now,” Obama pressed Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. He also called for stricter background checks for people who seek to purchase weapons and limited high-capacity clips.

Vice President Joe Biden, a longtime gun control advocate with decades of experience in the Senate, will lead a team that will include members of Obama’s administration and outside groups.

The administration will have to make its gun control push in the middle of tense negotiations with Congress to avoid the “fiscal cliff” of billions of dollars in tax increases and deep spending cuts that will kick in at the end of the year without a deal.

Notably, the first question asked of Obama during a press conference after his gun announcement was about the fiscal talks.

In the days since the shooting, Obama has vowed to use “whatever power this office holds” to safeguard the nation’s children after Friday’s shooting. Funerals for the victims continued Wednesday, along with the wake for the school’s beloved principal.

The shooting has prompted several congressional gun-rights supporters to consider new legislation to control firearms, and there are concerns in the administration and elsewhere that their willingness to engage could fade as the shock and sorrow over the shooting eases.

The most powerful supporter of gun owners and the gun industry, the National Rifle Association, broke its silence Tuesday, four days after the shooting. In a statement, it pledged “to help to make sure this never happens again” and has scheduled a news conference for Friday.

Obama challenged the NRA to join the broader effort to reduce gun violence, saying, “Hopefully they’ll do some self-reflection.”

With the NRA promising “meaningful contributions” and Obama vowing “meaningful action,” the challenge in Washington is to turn words into action. Ideas so far have ranged from banning people from buying more than one gun a month to arming teachers.

The challenge will be striking the right balance with protecting the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Firearms are in a third or more of U.S. households, and suspicion runs deep of an overbearing government whenever it proposes expanding federal authority.

Many pro-gun lawmakers also have called for a greater focus on mental health issues and the impact of violent entertainment like video games. Obama also prefers a holistic approach, with aides saying stricter gun laws alone are not the answer.

Obama said Wednesday that the U.S. needs to make access to mental health care as easy as access to a gun.

Still, much of the immediate focus is on gun control, an issue that has been dormant in Washington for years despite several mass shootings.

The policy process Obama was announcing Wednesday was expected to include input from the departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services. The heads of those agencies met with Obama at the White House on Monday. The Department of Homeland Security is also expected to play a key role.

Pressure for change has come from several sources this week.

As shares in publicly traded gun manufacturers dropped, the largest firearms maker in the United States said Tuesday it was being put up for sale by its owner, private equity group Cerberus Capital Management, which called the shooting a “watershed event” in the debate over gun control. Freedom Group International makes Bushmaster rifles, the weapons thought to have been used in Friday’s killings.

In California, proposed legislation would increase the restrictions on purchasing ammunition by requiring buyers to get a permit, undergo a background check and pay a fee.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors wrote Obama and Congress calling for “stronger gun laws, a reversal of the culture of violence in this country, a commission to examine violence in the nation, and more adequate funding for the mental health system.”

The mayors asked for a ban on assault weapons and other high-capacity magazines, like those reportedly used in the school shooting; a stronger national background check system for gun purchasers; and stronger penalties for straw purchases of guns, in which legal buyers acquire weapons for other people.

Formerly pro-gun Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said “a thoughtful debate about how to change laws” is coming soon. Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has said the debate must include guns and mental health. And NRA member Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, said it’s time to begin an honest discussion about gun control and said he wasn’t afraid of the political consequences.

The comments are significant. Grassley is senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which probably would take the first action on any gun control legislation. Reid sets the Senate schedule.

Religious Leaders Push for Gun Control

Religious Leaders Push Congregants on Gun Control, Sensing a Watershed Moment

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: December 19, 2012

Religious leaders across the country this week vowed to mobilize their congregants to push for gun control legislation and provide the ground support for politicians willing to take on the gun lobby, saying the time has come for action beyond praying and comforting the families of those killed.

A group of clergy members, representing mainline and evangelical Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Muslims, plans to lead off the campaign in front of the Washington National Cathedral at an event on Friday timed to mark the moment a week before when a young gunman opened fire in a school in Newtown, Conn.

The cathedral will toll its funeral bell 28 times, once for each victim, including 20 children, 6 teachers and school administrators and the mother of the killer, as well as the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who shot and killed himself.

“Everyone in this city seems to be in terror of the gun lobby. But I believe the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby,” said the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the Washington National Cathedral, in an impassioned sermon on Sunday that has become a rallying cry for gun control. People in the cathedral’s pews rose and applauded.

Dean Hall said in an interview that he and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington were calling on their parishioners to support four specific steps: bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, tightening rules for sales at gun shows and re-examining care for the mentally ill.

Clergy members have been involved in gun control efforts for at least three decades because, they say, they are the ones called to give the eulogies at funerals and comfort victims’ families. But they acknowledge that they have been unable to mount a sustained grass-roots movement against gun violence — partly because they have not made it a priority, and partly because their efforts have been overshadowed by the organizational and fund-raising power of the gun lobby.

Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence, a two-year-old coalition that now counts 40 religious groups as members, has only one part-time employee, Vincent DeMarco, who is simultaneously organizing coalitions on obesity, health care and smoking. Asked his budget, he laughed and said, “de minimis.”

However, Jim Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist Church’s public policy arm, the General Board of Church and Society, said he was seeing some signs that the shooting in Newtown could be a watershed. His office immediately sent out an “action alert” on gun control to bishops and other church leaders, and he said he was surprised how many wrote back thanking him effusively.

“I could tell there was this real need, real hunger, at least in my denomination, for there to be some response that is not only prayers and expressions of sadness, but also a call to action,” Mr. Winkler said. “And it came from some who wouldn’t normally care that much about public policy action, but who would be more interested in spiritual responses.”

The primary organizer of the news conference on Friday, Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, in Washington, said, “This is not likely an issue that we’ll have a sustained campaign on in the absence of political leadership. But if political leaders act, the religious community will be strongly engaged.”

On Wednesday, President Obama said in a news conference that he would make preventing gun violence a legislative priority, but that it would take “a wave of Americans” to move it forward.

Religious groups that sent out calls for action on guns to their members in the last five days include the Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the PICO National Network, an advocacy group, and many Jewish organizations.

But advocating limits on guns is controversial within many religious groups, and many evangelicals are opposed. A CBS News poll conducted Dec. 14-16, after the massacre in Newtown, showed that while 69 percent of Catholics said they wanted stricter laws on gun control, only 37 percent of white evangelical Christians agreed.

The evangelical leaders expected at the cathedral event on Friday are relatively moderate: the Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, and Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.

Mark DeMoss, a prominent evangelical who recently served as an adviser to the campaign of the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, stepped forward after the tragedy in Newtown, telling Politico.com that measures to address gun control, mental health treatment and violence in the media should all be on the table.

But he said in an interview that evangelicals were unlikely to support gun control efforts because they do not want to break ranks with the Republican Party, and because they tend to see gun violence as a concern to be addressed spiritually, rather than through policy change.

He said he also considered violence a spiritual problem, but said he saw a “double standard” at work. Evangelical clergy, he said, have boycotted the manufacturers of violent video games and pornography, but on guns they say, “No, this is just as spiritual matter of the heart.”

The Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said in an interview that his group had never taken a position on gun control but might now “take a harder look.” He pointed out that a rarely read part of the Christmas story is King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.

“Mary and Joseph fled. It’s a part of the story, and they took decisive action. This is now a part of our story,” he said, referring to shooting rampages, “and we need to take decisive action.”

Obama wants to take your guns!!!!!

Obama Vows Fast Action in New Push for Gun Control

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Published: December 19, 2012

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared on Wednesday that he would make gun control a “central issue” as he opens his second term, promising to submit broad new firearm proposals to Congress no later than January and to employ the full power of his office to overcome deep-seated political resistance.

Leading House Republicans responded to the president’s pledge in the aftermath of the Connecticut school massacre by restating their firm opposition to new limits on guns or ammunition, setting up the possibility of a bitter legislative battle and a philosophical clash over the Second Amendment soon after Mr. Obama’s inauguration.

Having avoided a politically difficult debate over guns for four years, Mr. Obama vowed to restart a national conversation about their role in American society, the need for better access to mental health services and the impact of exceedingly violent images in the nation’s culture.

He warned that the conversation — which has produced little serious change after previous mass shootings — will be a short one, followed by specific legislative proposals that he intends to campaign for, starting with his State of the Union address next month.

“This time, the words need to lead to action,” Mr. Obama said. “I will use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this.”

At an appearance in the White House briefing room, the president said that he had directed Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to lead an interagency effort to develop what the White House said would be a multifaceted approach to preventing mass shootings like the one in Newtown, Conn., last week and the many other gun deaths that occur each year.

As evidence of the brutal cost of gun violence, Mr. Obama said that since Friday’s school shooting in Connecticut, guns had led to the deaths of police officers in Memphis and Topeka, Kan.; a woman in Las Vegas; three people in an Alabama hospital; and a 4-year-old in a drive-by shooting in Missouri. They are, he said, victims of “violence that we cannot accept as routine.”

Accompanied by Mr. Biden, the president signaled his support for new limits on high-capacity clips and assault weapons, as well as a desire to close regulatory loopholes affecting gun shows. He promised to confront the broad pro-gun sentiment in Congress that has for years blocked gun control measures.

That opposition shows little signs of fading away. While the death of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday appears to have persuaded some Democratic lawmakers to support new gun control measures, there has been little indication that Republicans who control the House — and are in a standoff with Mr. Obama over taxes — are willing to accept such restrictions.

House Democrats urged Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday to bring a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines to a vote by Saturday — a step he is highly unlikely to take.

Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, an influential conservative leader, said in a statement that “it is clear that criminals will always find ways to acquire weapons and use them to commit acts of violence.”

“Passing more restrictions on law-abiding citizens will not deter this type of crime,” he said.

Mr. Jordan and other House Republicans declined to be interviewed, saying through aides that it was time to mourn, not to debate policy.

“There will be plenty of time to have this conversation,” said Brittany Lesser, a spokeswoman for Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, “but it is not amidst the funerals of these brave young children and adults.”

This week, Mr. King told an Iowa radio station, KSCJ, that “political opportunists didn’t wait 24 hours before they decided they were going to go after some kind of a gun ban.” He also expressed doubt about gun control measures, saying, “We all had our cap pistols when I was growing up, and that didn’t seem to cause mass murders in the street.”

Representative Howard Coble, Republican of North Carolina, said in an interview that he thought the talk of gun control was “probably a rush to judgment” that missed the real issue.

“I think it’s more of a mental health problem than a gun problem right now,” he said. “Traditionally states that enact rigid, inflexible gun laws do not show a corresponding diminishment in crime.”

While Mr. Coble said he would want to study any proposal made by the president, he said fellow Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, which would consider any gun recommendations, probably agree with his views.

One senior Republican, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, signaled an openness to review Mr. Obama’s proposals.

“As the president said, no set of laws will prevent every future horrific act of violence or eliminate evil from our society, but we can do better,” Mr. Sensenbrenner said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Mr. Sensenbrenner noted that he had co-sponsored the Brady gun control bill in the 1990s. “Our country must also grapple with difficult questions about the identification and care of individuals with mental illnesses,” he said.

On Wednesday the president said that Mr. Biden’s group would propose new laws and actions in January, and that those would be “proposals that I then intend to push without delay.” Mr. Obama said Mr. Biden’s effort was “not some Washington commission” that would take six months and produce a report that was shelved.

“I urge the new Congress to hold votes on these new measures next year, in a timely manner,” Mr. Obama said.

White House aides said Mr. Biden would meet with law enforcement officials from across the country on Thursday, along with cabinet officials from the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Education and Health and Human Services.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York praised Mr. Obama’s announcement and said he offered his “full support” to Mr. Biden in a phone conversation on Wednesday. But Mr. Bloomberg, a vocal advocate of tougher gun control, also urged the president to take executive actions in the meantime, including making a recess appointment of a new director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Republicans have blocked an appointment to the post for years.

“The country needs his leadership if we are going to reduce the daily bloodshed from gun violence that we have seen for too long,” Mr. Bloomberg said of Mr. Obama.

Gun control advocates have urged the White House and lawmakers to move rapidly to enact new gun control measures before the killings in Connecticut fade from the public’s consciousness. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, has said she intends to introduce a new ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines on the first day of the next Congress in January.

During his first term, Mr. Obama largely avoided the issue of gun control, even as high-powered firearms were used in several mass shootings. Asked bluntly about his lack of past action on the issue, the president appeared irritated, citing the economic crisis, the collapse of the auto industry and two wars as matters that demanded attention.

“I don’t think I’ve been on vacation,” he said curtly.

He then conceded, “All of us have to do some reflection on how we prioritize what we do here in Washington.”

California gun grabbing

More gun laws on the way in California?

By Steven Harmon

Bay Area News Group

Posted: 12/19/2012 04:11:48 PM PST

SACRAMENTO -- Even with the nation's toughest gun control laws, some California legislators are seeking more restrictions following last week's deadly Connecticut shooting rampage that took the lives of 20 young children and seven adults.

Among at least four proposals, one would prohibit semi-automatic weapons like AR-15s and AK-47s from having devices known as "bullet buttons," which allow easy reloading of multi-bullet ammunition clips. Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, introduced a similar bill last year that died in the Assembly. His proposal would also prohibit add-on kits to adapt weapons for high-capacity bullet clips.

"While we cannot stop every senseless act of gun violence, surely we can strengthen our laws to limit such tragedies in the future," Yee said.

Other bills would require annual permits for ammunition purchases, mandate school safety plans and permanently deny weapons to mentally ill people.

Gun-control advocates say that a climate of permissive gun laws has made the United States one of the most violent countries in the developed world. Gun-rights groups maintain that citizens with appropriate weaponry can prevent tragedies such as the Newtown shooting because the "good guys" can kill gunmen at the first sign of a shooting spree.

California goes beyond federal law in requiring background checks on individuals who try to buy firearms at gun shops and gun shows. It also requires a 10-day waiting period for handgun and rifle purchases.

The state has approved 45 gun-control laws since 1989, when the state became the first in the nation to ban military-style assault weapons after the slaying of five children and wounding of 29 others in a Stockton schoolyard.

Yee plans to push another bill to require yearly registration and background checks for gun ownership.

Another bill, by Sen. Kevin DeLeon, D-Los Angeles, would require a background check and permit — with annual updates -- for anyone wishing to buy ammunition.

"For the sake of our children and the memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, it's time for an honest and rational debate on gun control and how to keep ammunition out of the hands of criminals," De Leon said.

Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, is relaunching a bill to firm up the school safety laws by requiring schools to establish emergency-response plans for eruptions of violence on school grounds.

"President Obama stated our first task is to care for our children," said Lieu, whose two young sons attend a public elementary school. "When children attend public school, they are in the care of the state and we better make sure they are as safe as possible."

The state does not have accurate figures on how many public schools have school-safety plans that outline emergency steps, Lieu said.

Republicans are generally opposed to gun-control laws, but Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, has a bill to keep firearms permanently out of the hands of the mentally ill.

California prohibits gun possession for anyone with a mental disorder who is found by a court to be a danger to others, or for those deemed as mentally disordered sex offenders. But, people with mental disorders can seek court approval for gun permits later. Gaines' bill would forbid them from petitioning the courts to have a gun.

"I hope everyone with any mental illness gets the treatment and rehabilitation they need to live a healthy and productive life," Gaines said. "But if the court has ruled you are a danger to others, that's it. That is your one strike. We are not going to pave the way for you to own a firearm ever again."

Contact Steven Harmon at 916-441-2101. Follow him at Twitter.com/ssharmon. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics.

In tiny Texas town, teachers are armed with concealed weapons

In tiny Texas town, teachers are armed with concealed weapons, a 'better' solution than a security guard

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 10:41 AM

HARROLD, Texas — In this tiny Texas town, children and their parents don’t give much thought to safety at the community’s lone school — mostly because some of the teachers are carrying concealed weapons.

In remote Harrold, the nearest sheriff’s office is 30 minutes away, and people tend to know — and trust — one another. So the school board voted to let teachers bring guns to school.

“We don’t have money for a security guard, but this is a better solution,” Superintendent David Thweatt said. “A shooter could take out a guard or officer with a visible, holstered weapon, but our teachers have master’s degrees, are older and have had extensive training. And their guns are hidden. We can protect our children.”

In the awful aftermath of last week’s Connecticut elementary school shooting, lawmakers in a growing number of states — including Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota and Oregon — have said they will consider laws allowing teachers and school administrators to carry firearms at school.

Texas law bans guns in schools unless the school has given written authorization. Arizona and six other states have similar laws with exceptions for people who have licenses to carry concealed weapons.

Harrold’s school board voted unanimously in 2007 to allow employees to carry weapons. After obtaining a state concealed-weapons permit, each employee who wants to carry a weapon must be approved by the board based on his or her personality and reaction to a crisis, Thweatt said.

Employees also must undergo training in crisis intervention and hostage situations. And they must use bullets that minimize the risk of ricochet, similar to those carried by air marshals on planes.

CaRae Reinisch, who lives in the nearby community of Elliott, said she took her children out of a larger school and enrolled them in Harrold two years ago, partly because she felt they would be safer in a building with armed teachers.

“I think it’s a great idea for trained teachers to carry weapons,” Reinish said. “But I hate that it has come to this.”

The superintendent won’t disclose how many of the school’s 50 employees carry weapons, saying that revealing that number might jeopardize school security.

The school, about 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth near the Oklahoma border, has 103 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Most of them rarely think about who is carrying a gun.

“This is the first time in a long time that I’ve thought about it,” said Matt Templeton, the principal’s 17-year-old son. “And that’s because of what happened” in Connecticut.

Thweatt said other Texas schools allow teachers to carry weapons, but he would not reveal their locations, saying they are afraid of negative publicity.

The Texas Education Agency said it had not heard of any other schools with such a policy. And the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence did not know of any other districts nationwide that allow school employees to carry concealed handguns.

But that may change soon.

Oklahoma state Rep. Mark McCullough said he is working on a bill that would allow teachers and administrators to receive firearms training through the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, which would authorize them to carry weapons at school and at school events. Other states are proposing or considering similar measures.

However, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder this week vetoed legislation that would have allowed concealed weapons in schools, churches and day care centers, saying he seeks a more “thoughtful review” that includes school emergency policies and mental health-related issues.

In Texas, guns have an honored place in the state’s culture, and politicians often describe owning a gun as essential to being Texan. At the state Capitol, concealed handgun license holders are allowed to skip the metal detectors that scan visitors.

Gov. Rick Perry has indicated he would prefer to give gun owners the widest possible latitude. Just days after the Connecticut attack, Perry said permit holders should be able to carry concealed weapons in any public place.

Last year, many Texas lawmakers supported a plan to give college students and professors with concealed handgun licenses the right to carry guns on campus, but the measure failed.

Opponents insist that having more people armed at a school, especially teachers or administrators who aren’t trained to deal with crime on a daily basis, could lead to more injuries and deaths. They point to an August shooting outside the Empire State Building, where police killed a laid-off clothing designer after he fatally shot his former colleague. Nine bystanders were wounded by police gunfire, ricochets and fragments.

“You are going to put teachers, people teaching 6-year-olds in a school, and expect them to respond to an active-shooter situation?” said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, who called the idea of arming teachers “madness.”

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner said she would not have felt better if teachers at her children’s Seattle school had been armed during a May shooting at a nearby cafe. A gunman killed four people at the cafe and another woman during a carjacking before killing himself. The school went on lockdown as a precaution.

“It would be highly concerning to me to know that guns were around my kids each and every day. ... Increasing our arms is not the answer,” said Rowe-Finkbeiner, co-founder and CEO of MomsRising.org.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign, said focusing on arming teachers distracts from the “real things” that could help prevent a school shooting “and at worse it furthers a dangerous conversation that only talks about guns as protection without a discussion about the serious risks they present.”

As the debate continues, Harrold’s school plans to leave its policy unchanged.

“Nothing is 100 percent at all. ... But hope makes for a terrible plan, hoping that (a tragedy) won’t happen,” Thweatt said. “My question is: What have you done about it? How have you planned?”

San Francisco moves to ban hollow-point bullets

And I suspect the ban won't apply to cops!!!! The article didn't say that but from this line I think it won't apply to the police:

"Ammunition designed especially for law enforcement and the military has no reason to be in our homes and on our streets"

San Francisco moves to ban hollow-point bullets

Associated Press

Posted: 12/21/2012 11:38:13 AM PST

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hollow-point bullets and other ammunition designed to cause extreme damage could soon be banned in San Francisco.

Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisor Malia Cohen and police Chief Greg Suhr said on Thursday that high-powered, military-style weapons and ammunition have no place in the city.

The San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/Wta69J) says Cohen will introduce legislation next month that would ban hollow-point bullets and other ammunition meant to cause extreme damage. The law will also require that sellers notify police when more than 500 rounds of ammunition are being purchased.

The announcement comes a week after the shootings of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut school.

An earlier San Francisco plan to ban automatic weapons was thwarted by the court. The mayor says the latest proposal will likely face legal challenges.

------

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com

Source

S.F. seeks to crack down on ammunition

Marisa Lagos, Published 5:03 pm, Thursday, December 20, 2012

Saying that high-powered, military-style weapons and ammunition have no place in San Francisco, city leaders on Thursday announced a proposal to ban the possession of hollow bullets and require anyone buying more than 500 rounds at a time to notify the Police Department.

The announcement by Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisor Malia Cohen and Police Chief Greg Suhr came less than a week after the Connecticut school massacre in which 26 people were killed by a gunman wielding a semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle. San Francisco tried banning semiautomatic weapons altogether in city limits, but was stymied by the courts; Lee said the latest proposal will also probably face legal challenges, but city officials decided "we've got to do something more."

The legislation, which will be introduced by Cohen Jan. 15, would bar anyone from possessing hollow-point bullets and other ammunition meant to cause extreme damage, and require sellers - including online stores - to automatically notify police when anyone in San Francisco purchases more than 500 rounds of ammunition at a time. Cohen said she is responding not just to the recent school shooting but to ongoing violence in her district.

"Ammunition designed especially for law enforcement and the military has no reason to be in our homes and on our streets," Lee said, adding that he supports Sen. Dianne Feinstein's move to ban assault rifles at the federal level and of state lawmakers' proposals to tighten background checks and other requirements.

Dr. Andre Campbell, a trauma surgeon at San Francisco General Hospital, said he has worked in emergency rooms for 24 years and watched injuries become more devastating as high-powered weapons and bullets have become more commonplace.

"When they strike a victim, it's like a bomb going off," said Campbell. "The reality is, there are people killed every day with these weapons."

Suhr, who was standing next to a table of artillery claimed by police in last week's gun buyback, said getting even one weapon off the streets makes a difference.

"I would say to the NRA and anyone else who says these guns are not a problem - then if it's not a problem, if it's not making a difference, it shouldn't make a difference banning it," he said.

- Marisa Lagos

SNIP

E-mail: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFCityInsider.

NRA - Largest gun control organization in America???

Source

Newtown: NRA calls for armed officer in every school

Associated Press Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:31 AM

The most powerful gun-rights lobby in the U.S. said Friday it wants to address gun violence by having an armed police officer in every school in the country. [What rubbish!!!! We need less cops, not more of them!!!!!]

The comments by the National Rifle Association came exactly a week after a gunman killed 26 people at a Connecticut school, including 20 children ages 6 and 7. The comments were the group’s first substantial ones since the shooting, while pressure has mounted in Washington and elsewhere for more measures against gun violence.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said the NRA’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre.

At least two protesters broke up his announcement, despite tight security. One man held up a large red banner that said “NRA killing our kids.” The protesters were taken away by security, shouting that guns in schools are not the answer.

The 4.3 million-member National Rifle Association may be facing its toughest challenge in the wake of national horror over last week’s killing of children, many of them shot multiple times and at close range by high-powered rifle.

LaPierre brushed aside the idea that gun control legislation is needed, saying, “20,000 other laws have failed.” Instead, he blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture day in and day out.

He also blamed the media, saying it has “demonized lawful gun owners” and “rewards (mass shooters) with wall-to-wall attention.”

As “some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectfully silent,” he added.

He refused to take any questions from the audience.

Reaction to the NRA comments was sharp.

“Their press conference was a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was outspoken for more gun control measures even before the shooting, said in a statement. “Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe.” [The NRA's solution of a cop in every classroom isn't much different then Michael Bloomberg's. They both want to take guns away from the public and give them to the government!]

LaPierre announced that former Rep. Asa Hutchison will lead an NRA program that will develop a model security plan for schools that relies on armed volunteers.

Shortly after LaPierre spoke, four people were reported killed in a mass shooting along a rural road in Pennslvania.

The NRA largely disappeared from public debate after the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, choosing atypical silence as a strategy as the nation sought answers after the rampage. The NRA temporarily took down its Facebook page and kept quiet on Twitter.

Five more funerals or memorials were being held Friday in Newtown.

Since the shooting, President Barack Obama has demanded “real action, right now” against gun violence and called on the NRA to join the effort. His administration has been moving quickly after several congressional gun-rights supporters said they would consider new legislation to control firearms.

Obama has said he wants proposals on reducing gun violence that he can take to Congress by January, and he put Vice President Joe Biden, a gun control advocate with decades of experience in the Senate, in charge of the effort.

The president said in a video released early Friday that the White House has received an outpouring of support for stricter gun laws over the past week. “We hear you,” he said.

A “We the People” petition on the White House website allows the public to submit petitions. Nearly 200,000 people have urged Obama to address gun control in one petition, and petitions related to gun violence have amassed more than 400,000 signatures.

At the same time, however, gun shops across the country have reported higher sales, including of assault weapons. A spike in gun sales is not uncommon after mass shootings.

Obama has already asked Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and pass legislation that would end a provision that allows people to purchase firearms from private parties without a background check.

The president also has indicated that he wants Congress to pursue the possibility of limiting high-capacity magazines, which the 20-year-old gunman used in last week’s shooting.

Obama wants to build on a rare national mood after years of hesitation by politicians across the country to take on the issue of gun violence — and the NRA.

“I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and I’ve never seen something like this in terms of response,” said Brian Malte, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, based in Washington, D.C. “The whole dynamic depends on whether the American public and people in certain states have had enough.”

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism released a report Thursday showing that the Newtown shooting has led to more discussion about gun policy on social media than previous rampages. The report says users advocating for gun control were more numerous than those defending current gun laws.

Legislators, mostly Democrats, in California and New York plan a push to tighten what are already some of the most stringent state gun-control laws.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida have called for making it easier for teachers and other adults to have weapons in schools.

A Pew Research Center survey taken Dec. 17-19, after the shooting, registered an increase in the percentage of Americans who prioritize gun control (49 percent) over gun owner rights (42 percent).

Those figures were statistically even in July. The December telephone survey included 1,219 adults in all 50 states. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

———

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott contributed.

Washington Post articles on guns & gun control

I am too lazy to cut and past all the text so here are some links to the articles:

Tiny URLs:

• http://tinyurl.com/c5yqlek
• http://tinyurl.com/bpcjcb9
• http://tinyurl.com/cvqku75

• History of gun control is cautionary tale for those seeking regulations after Conn. shooting
• A bunch of gun & gun control articles
• Five myths about gun control

Corrupt lab techs guarantee you won't get a fair trial

Review of FBI forensics does not extend to federally trained state, local examiners

It's not about a fair trial, it's about making cops look like heroes!!!!

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Review of FBI forensics does not extend to federally trained state, local examiners

By Spencer S. Hsu, Published: December 22

Thousands of criminal cases at the state and local level may have relied on exaggerated testimony or false forensic evidence to convict defendants of murder, rape and other felonies.

The forensic experts in these cases were trained by the same elite FBI team whose members gave misleading court testimony about hair matches and later taught the local examiners to follow the same suspect practices, according to interviews and documents.

In July, the Justice Department announced a nationwide review of all cases handled by the FBI Laboratory’s hair and fibers unit before 2000 — at least 21,000 cases — to determine whether improper lab reports or testimony might have contributed to wrongful convictions.

But about three dozen FBI agents trained 600 to 1,000 state and local examiners to apply the same standards that have proved problematic.

None of the local cases is included in the federal review. As a result, legal experts say, although the federal inquiry is laudable, the number of flawed cases at the state and local levels could be even higher, and those are going uncorrected.

The FBI review was prompted by a series of articles in The Washington Post about errors at the bureau’s renowned crime lab involving microscopic hair comparisons. The articles highlighted the cases of two District men who each spent more than 20 years in prison based on false hair matches by FBI experts. Since The Post’s articles, the men have been declared innocent by D.C. Superior Court judges.

Two high-profile local-level cases illustrate how far the FBI training problems spread.

In 2004, former Montana crime lab director Arnold Melnikoff was fired and more than 700 cases questioned because of what reviewers called egregious scientific errors involving the accuracy of hair matches dating to the 1970s. His defense was that he was taught by the FBI and that many FBI-trained colleagues testified in similar ways, according to previously undisclosed court records.

In 2001, Oklahoma City police crime lab supervisor Joyce Gilchrist lost her job and more than 1,400 of her cases were questioned after an FBI reviewer found that she made claims about her matches that were “beyond the acceptable limits of science.” Court filings show that Gilchrist received her only in-depth instruction in hair comparison from the FBI in 1981 and that she, like many practitioners, went largely unsupervised.

Federal officials, asked about state and local problems, said the FBI has committed significant resources to speed the federal review but that state and local police and prosecutors would have to decide whether to undertake comparable efforts.

FBI spokeswoman Ann Todd defended the training of local examiners as “continuing education” intended to supplement formal training provided by other labs. The FBI did not qualify examiners, a responsibility shared by individual labs and certification bodies, she said.

Michael Wright, president of the National District Attorneys Association, said local prosecutors cannot simply order labs to audit all or even a sample of cases handled by FBI-trained examiners, because such an undertaking might be time- and cost-prohibitive for smaller agencies.

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Here are some more articles on how corrupt or incompetent forensic technicians help cops make themselves look like heroes by framing almost everybody the cops accuse of a crime.

washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/local/forensic-analysis-methods

Tom Horne proposes arming 1 educator per school

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Horne proposes arming 1 educator per school

By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com

Wed Dec 26, 2012 12:52 PM

Arizona’s attorney general wants to arm school principals.

Tom Horne says he has found the “golden mean” between allowing all teachers to carry firearms and exposing children to tragedies like the school shooting in Connecticut. He is proposing that only the principal or one other staff member at each school be trained and then allowed to carry a firearm at school.

“Some have proposed teachers bringing guns to school, but I think that would create more danger than it would solve,” Horne said. “But if we did nothing, we might regret it if another incident occurs that might have been prevented.”

Such a proposal would require a change in state law, which currently only allows police officers to carry weapons in K-12 schools. Horne said Rep. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, will propose a bill next session. Gowan could not immediately be reached for comment.

Horne said he has not spoken to Gov. Jan Brewer about whether she would support such a measure should it pass the Legislature. Brewer typically doesn’t comment on specific legislation before it crosses her desk, but she has vetoed bills allowing guns in public buildings and on college campuses in recent years.

Horne, who formerly served as the state’s superintendent of public instruction, said the ideal solution to gun violence in schools would be to have an armed, school resource officer in every school. But he said budget constraints make that a challenge. School resource officers are trained law enforcement officers. The state in recent years cut funding for the SRO program.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan and Apache County Sheriff Joe Dedman do support the proposal.

Horne said schools would not be required to arm a staff member, but that the program would give them the option. If they choose to do so, the designated principal or staff member would get free firearms training from former law enforcement officers in Horne’s office or participating sheriff’s offices.

“They would not just get marksmanship training, but also be taught good judgment, when to shoot, when not to shoot,” Horne said. “We would teach them the use of force laws, defensive tactics and properly securing the firearm.”

Horne said he came up with the idea over the holidays. He said he doesn’t know of any other state with a similar program.

“As far as I know, it’ s a new idea,” he said. “It’s an original Tom Horne idea.”

The Arizona Legislature in recent years has gained a reputation for loosening state gun restrictions, including passing a law to allow Arizonans to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he fears Gowan’s bill could be successful.

“This is the craziest idea, and we knew something like it was coming,” Campbell, who is a gun owner, said. “But this is an extremist reaction that’s going to do nothing to help the safety of our schools at the end of the day. This is the knee-jerk reaction we need to avoid.”

Campbell said he plans to try another tactic and will propose in early January a package of bills to deal with gun reform, fully funding the school resource officer program and addressing mental health issues.

“Tom Horne talks about the fact that we can’t fund school resource officers, but we can fund a lot of things in this state if we put the money in the right place, as opposed to funding private prisons at a $50 million price tag or a lot of other things,” he said. “There’s a lot of money in this state going to the wrong priorities.”

Campbell said he has been hearing from teachers, parents and law enforcement officers who support the Legislature funding school resource officers.

“The SRO program typically has been supported by both parties,” he said. “I’m hoping partisanship doesn’t get in the way of this issue. I don’t think there’s anything more important than this.”

Feds to bust NBC for TV display of 30 round magazine

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Police: NBC asked to use high-capacity magazine

By Peter Hermann, Published: December 26

The host of NBC's “Meet the Press” displayed what appeared to be a high-capacity ammunition magazine on national television Sunday, embroiling the network in controversy and leaving D.C. authorities to decide whether a crime was committed.

The show’s host, David Gregory, held up what he described as a magazine that holds 30 bullets as he questioned National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre about the Dec. 14 massacre in Newtown, Conn.

D.C. gun laws prohibit possessing a “large capacity ammunition feeding device” — defined as holding more than 10 rounds — regardless of whether it is attached to a firearm and whether there are bullets in it. The offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Viewers e-mailed D.C. police after watching the segment, asking them to arrest Gregory. In an e-mailed response to the Patriot Perspective blog, police wrote:

“NBC contacted [D.C. police] inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment. NBC was informed that possession of a high capacity magazines is not permissible and their request was denied. This matter is currently being investigated.” A police spokeswoman confirmed that the e-mail was authentic.

Gregory appears to have used a large-capacity ammunition magazine anyway. A police official said detectives will try to determine whether it was real, how it was obtained and whether the segment was filmed in the District. The official said the investigation will entail questioning NBC producers and could conclude this week.

NBC News, through a spokeswoman, declined comment.

The situation presents authorities with an unusual decision: file charges in a crime that is infrequently prosecuted or appear unwilling to enforce the District’s gun laws. Gun rights advocates were among those who called police to complain.

“The police are in a public relations quandary,” said David Benowitz, a defense lawyer who handles gun cases in the District, Maryland and Virginia. “The question is going to be to what level of knowledge did David Gregory have that this was potentially an illegal act. . . . I presume David Gregory didn’t go out on the street and get a 30-round clip himself.”

“Maybe the NRA can fund his defense,” he joked.

Gregory used the prop as he posed a question to LaPierre in a segment that is posted on the MSNBC Web site.

“Here’s a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets,” Gregory says. “Now, isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these” — he sets it down and picks up a smaller one — “if we replaced them and said, ‘Well, you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets or 10 bullets,’ isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?”

“I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference,” LaPierre replies.

The D.C. attorney general’s office, which could decide whether to file charges, declined to comment.

Politicians and news anchors have long used guns as props. In 1993, then-Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer (D) pointed an unloaded pistol, provided by the Maryland State Police, at an unknowing Associated Press reporter during a news conference as he attempted to show the dangerous nature of firearms he wanted to have banned. Schaefer was not charged with a crime.

Erik Wemple and Martin Weil contributed to this report.

Do we need a cop that is paid $96,200 at every high school????

Funding affects West Valley school-resource officers

By Melissa Leu and Eddi Trevizo The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:47 AM

Some West Valley schools have police officers on campus, an idea that got a renewed push by the National Rifle Association.

The NRA is advocating for armed guards on every school campus after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 children and six educators this month.

Currently, there is a divide among high schools. Those in such cities as Avondale, Peoria and Surprise have police officers, called school-resource officers, on campus, while many high schools in Glendale do not.

It comes down to money. [So it sounds like most schools will gladly have a cop, police officer or school resource officers on their campus - As long as the school doesn't have to pay the cops $96,200 yearly salary]

As the recession hit, funding for school-resource officers dried up, causing the Glendale Police Department to pull back its officers from schools.

State funding for school officers was cut nearly in half amid tight finances the past five years. A Democrat state lawmaker is calling to renew that funding.

Beyond money, the proposal is one that is sure to spark conversation in West Valley communities and beyond.

“Obviously, we think it’s the right thing to do to have a police officer there for our middle schools and high schools — because they already are there,” said Christy Agosta, a school-board member in the Deer Valley Unified School District.

Whether to have armed guards in elementary schools is a tougher question.

“As a parent, as well as a school-board member, having my kids have to go by armed security arriving at schools is kind of a heartbreaking thought,” Agosta said. “I’m mixed. … If there had been an armed guard standing outside Sandy Hook, those parents still might have their children. So it’s hard to say we shouldn’t.”

She said such a decision would have to come after a community conversation.

School-resource officers are armed and have the authority of a police officer [and they ARE POLICE OFFICERS], but their duties go beyond security. They offer lessons on law-related issues and add a friendly face on campus for students and staff to turn to for advice.

Police officials credit them with reducing the number of student disciplinary problems.

In 2011, before Centennial High School in Peoria hired its resource officer, the school reported 318 disciplinary incidents. That dropped to 147 incidents, according to Peoria police.

Centennial resource Officer Dave Fernandez typically starts his day at 6:30 a.m. in the school parking lot, helping parents navigate traffic. [Why do you need a cop that is paid an average of $96,200 a year to help parents navigate traffic???]

After about an hour, he heads to his office to answer e-mails, and if nothing major is happening, he walks the campus. [So most of the time he does nothing. Well other then answer e-mails and help parents navigate traffic. And this guy is paid an average of $96,200]

“The best way to see if there is an issue is to be outside looking and talking to people,” Fernandez said.

He said the Sandy Hook shootings were a tragedy. “But we think about these things constantly not just after something has occurred.”

Dale Nicol, principal at Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria, said resource officers act as a preventive measure.

“He can gather (information) as a result of making connections with students. [I suspect teachers and other school employees can also gather (information) as a result of making connections with students. Do you really need a cop that is making an average of $96,200 a year to do that???] Consequently, we can intervene and stop negative behaviors before they escalate,” Nicol said.

But a divide exists among the Peoria district schools, which stretch across Glendale and Peoria.

The district partners with the city to pay for resource officers in its Peoria-based high schools, but Glendale does not provide funding.

“The police department’s budget is not able to support funding of these positions at this time,” Glendale police spokeswoman Tracey Breeden said.

She noted districts can hire off-duty officers to work in schools.

For the Peoria district, the cost of having officers in Glendale high schools is beyond its budget.

“Grant opportunities are scarce. It becomes funding issues for both the city and the school district,” said Steve Savoy, Peoria’s administrator for K-12 academic services.

The salary of Peoria’s school-resource officers averages $96,200 per year including benefits, Peoria police spokeswoman Amanda Jacinto said. In the past, it was paid by a combination of grants and school district and city budgets.

When the money disappeared, the Peoria district and police partnered to continue the program. The district pays about $30,000 toward the officers’ salaries, and Peoria police pay the rest.

The district relies on neighborhood patrol officers at its Glendale high schools.

The Deer Valley district shoulders the cost of paying officers $30 to $35 an hour for each of its five high schools and three middle schools in Glendale and Phoenix, said Bill Gahn, the district’s director of school operations.

The district earmarks about $300,000 in its budget, which is supplemented through event ticket sales.

An officer is almost always on campus during school hours and after-school events, but the same officer doesn’t always work every day of the week, Gahn said.

“It adds a calming presence on campus,” Gahn said.

Two years ago, Glendale Union had to eliminate its school-resource officers. At one point, the district had officers at seven of its nine campuses in Glendale and Phoenix, district spokeswoman Kim Mesquita said.

That number declined with state grant funding. When the district failed to win the grant last school year, the officers disappeared completely. The district now relies mostly on teachers and administrators to pick up the slack.

Avondale’s Agua Fria Union High School District has a resource officer at each school, funded with state grants and shared costs with local police departments.

Surprise’s Dysart Unified School District has resource officers at each of its four high schools with grant funding.

The district’s 20 elementary schools do not have resource officers, Dysart spokesman Jim Dean said.

Resource officers are rare in elementary schools.

Sometimes it’s simply hard to fill the position, said Jim Cummings, spokesman for the Glendale Elementary School District.

His district received federal funding five years ago for officers at Challenger and Landmark schools, but had to return some of that money because of a lack of candidates, Cummings said.

As a result, schools rely on patrol officers.

“When we call, (police are) here in minutes,” Cummings said.

School officials note that elementary schools typically have less of a need for officers than in high schools, where drugs, theft and violence may be more common.

Patrol officers assigned to Peoria and Glendale neighborhoods regularly check in with elementary principals and students, Peoria’s Savoy said.

The Litchfield Elementary School District used to provide resource officers for its middle schools in partnership with the Avondale and Goodyear police departments and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

The program was cut amid budget constraints in 2009.

“We would approve of armed security at our schools if the state or federal government paid for it,” said Litchfield Elementary spokeswoman Ann Donahue, noting the district would not be able to cover the costs.

Whether that happens remains to be seen.

State Superintendent John Huppenthal on Friday noted the NRA’s proposal would be a large expense to an already financially stressed education system.

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he plans to introduce legislation in 2013 to fully fund and train school resource officers at every Arizona school.

Meanwhile, conversations will continue over what parents and residents want for their schools.

Dysart school board member Jerry Enyon said concerns are high, but school officials go through training and routinely practice safety drills.

“They know what to do to keep the kids as safe as possible,” Enyon said.

Reporter Anne Ryman contributed to this article.

More articles on the Connecticut school shooting