The official spoke on condition
of anonymity because the investigation was still under way. Another
official, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said
the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown was killed and apparently
had two guns.
The shooting appeared to be the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.
The gunman, identified as Ryan Lanza, 24, was also found dead at the scene, a federal law enforcement official said. Lanza is the son of a kindergarten teacher at the school, reported WNBC's Jonathan Dienst.
One of his parents was later found dead at a home in New Jersey.The gunman, identified as Ryan Lanza, 24, was also found dead at the scene, a federal law enforcement official said. Lanza is the son of a kindergarten teacher at the school, reported WNBC's Jonathan Dienst.
*** [12/17/12]
As lawmakers continue to grapple with the aftermath of last week's mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., a handful of pro-gun Democrats are beginning to speak out in favor of stricter gun laws - but Republicans remain all but silent on the matter.
Amid national attempts to piece together a coherent picture of what led 20-year-old Adam Lanza to allegedly open fire on an elementary school last Friday morning, a number of liberal Democrats are resuming longstanding calls for the tightening of gun laws.
On Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced legislation to restore the Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004; Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., meanwhile, announced plans to reintroduce a high-capacity magazine ban. President Obama, too, signaled a renewed commitment to strengthening gun-related laws in remarks last night honoring the victims of the massacre.
Perhaps more significant, however, is a new sense of openness to tighten laws among some pro-gun and moderate Democrats, few of whom have previously expressed an eagerness to take on the famously powerful pro-gun lobby.
Earlier today, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the National Rifle Association-backed hunting enthusiast and conservative Democrat, expressed the need for a "common sense" discussion about gun laws with groups like the NRA.
"I want to call all our friends in the NRA, sit down and have this - bring them into it. They have to be at the table. We all have to," he said. "This has changed the dialogue and it should move beyond dialogue -- we need action."
A series of similar calls have since trickled in from pro-gun Democrats: In remarks on the Senate floor today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has a "B" rating from the NRA and is generally considered pro-gun rights, called for Congress to engage in a "meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allows violence to continue to grow."
"I think part of the healing process will require Congress to examine what can be done to prevent more tragedies," he said.
"Enough is enough," added Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in an interview with Richmond, Va., CBS affiliate WTVR. Noting his own "A" grade from the NRA, he added: "I think most of us realize that there are ways to get to rational gun control. There are ways to grapple with the obvious challenges of mental illness."
Still, passing new legislation through Congress promises to be a major challenge for advocates. Republicans have for the most part remained silent on the subject, and have shown little willingness to take a stand against the gun lobby.
In remarks on the Senate floor today, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed sorrow over the shootings and lauded Mr. Obama's remarks about the "singularity of parental love," but declined to reference the possibility of legislative action. When asked shortly thereafter if he thinks it's time to debate gun laws, McConnell ignored CNN reporter Lisa Desjardins, who recorded and posted his non-response online.
NBC's David Gregory faced similar troubles this weekend, when trying to book pro-gun senators for his show, "Meet the Press": All 31 senators on record as pro-gun rights refused to appear.
"We reached out to all 31 pro-gun rights senators in the new Congress to invite them on the program to share their views on the subject this morning," he said. "We had no takers."
***
Had Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung kept a gun in her office, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, argued today, the Newtown, Conn., shooting Friday that left 20 students and six faculty members dead would have had a far less tragic result.
"I wish to God she had had an M4 [carbine rifle] in her office locked up and so when she heard gunshots... she takes his head off before he can hurt those kids," Gohmert said of Hochsprung - who was among those killed - on FOX News Sunday. The alleged gunman, Adam Lanza, murdered his mother at home before driving to the school and killing 27 more, including himself.
"Every mass killing of more than three people in recent history has been in a place where guns were prohibited," he continued. "They choose this place, they know no one will be armed."
A vocal leader in the right-wing tea party movement, Gohmert stands out among conservatives who have been lying low since President Obama on Friday suggested the tragedy will give way to "meaningful action" on the gun issue; Gohmert and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, were the only pro-gun lawmakers or advocates to accept the networks' requests for interviews on the Sunday political shows.
Republican congressional leadership, like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have been silent on the issue since Friday, while the airwaves have been flooded with pro-gun control supporters, rendering Gohmert and Chaffetz the de facto spokesmen for congressional Republicans today.
***
I remember reading something about gun control in Freakonomics. Let me take a look.
Debates on this subject are rarely coolheaded. Gun advocates believe that gun laws are too strict; opponents believe exactly the opposite. How can intelligent people view the world so differently? Because a gun raises a complex set of issues that change according to one factor: whose hand happens to be holding the gun.
It might be worthwhile to take a step back and ask a rudimentary question: what is a gun? It’s a tool that can be used to kill someone, of course, but more significantly, a gun is a great disrupter of the natural order.
A gun scrambles the outcome of any dispute. Let’s say that a tough guy and a not-so-tough guy exchange words in a bar, which leads to a fight. It’s pretty obvious to the not-so-tough guy that he’ll be beaten, so why bother fighting? The pecking order remains intact. But if the not-so-tough guy happens to have a gun, he stands a good chance of winning. In this scenario, the introduction of a gun may well lead to more violence.
Now instead of the tough guy and the not-so-tough guy, picture a high-school girl out for a nighttime stroll when she is suddenly set upon by a mugger. What if only the mugger is armed? What if only the girl is armed? What if both are armed? A gun opponent might argue that the gun has to be kept out of the mugger’s hands in the first place. A gun advocate might argue that the high-school girl needs to have a gun to disrupt what has become the natural order: it’s the bad guys that have the guns. (If the girl scares off the mugger, then the introduction of a gun in this case may lead to less violence.) Any mugger with even a little initiative is bound to be armed, for in a country like the United States, with a thriving black market in guns, anyone can get hold of one.
There are enough guns in the United States that if you gave one to every adult, you would run out of adults before you ran out of guns. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. homicides involve a gun, a far greater fraction than in other industrialized countries. Our homicide rate is also much higher than in those countries. It would therefore seem likely that our homicide rate is so high in part because guns are so easily available. Research indeed shows this to be true.
But guns are not the whole story. In Switzerland, every adult male is issued an assault rifle for militia duty and is allowed to keep the gun at home. On a per capita basis, Switzerland has more firearms than just about any other country, and yet it is one of the safest places in the world. In other words, guns do not cause crime.
... One deterrent that has proven moderately effective is a stiff increase in prison time for anyone caught in possession of an illegal gun. But there is plenty of room for improvement. Not that this is likely, but if the death penalty were assessed to anyone carrying an illegal gun, and if the penalty were actually enforced, gun crimes would surely plunge.
... Then there is an opposite argument—that we need more guns on the street, but in the hands of the right people (like the high-school girl above, instead of her mugger). The economist John R. Lott Jr. is the main champion of this idea. His calling card is the book More Guns, Less Crime, in which he argues that violent crime has decreased in areas where law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry concealed weapons. His theory might be surprising, but it is sensible. If a criminal thinks his potential victim may be armed, he may be deterred from committing the crime.
Handgun opponents call Lott a pro-gun ideologue, and Lott let himself become a lightning rod for gun controversy. ... Then there was the troubling allegation that Lott actually invented some of the survey data that support his more-guns/less-crime theory. Regardless of whether the data were faked, Lott’s admittedly intriguing hypothesis doesn’t seem to be true. When other scholars have tried to replicate his results, they found that right-to-carry laws simply don’t bring down crime.
*** [12/24/12]
After a weeklong silence, the National Rifle Association announced Friday that it wants to arm security officers at every school in the country. It pointed the finger at violent video games, the news media and lax law enforcement — not guns — as culprits in the recent rash of mass shootings.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A. vice president, said at a media event that was interrupted by protesters. One held up a banner saying, “N.R.A. Killing Our Kids.”
LaPierre said that the NRA is calling on Congress to put armed security guards in every school. The NRA has set up a website to advance the cause.
"The only way — the only way — to stop a monster
from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a
plan for protection," LaPierre said. He added that gun-free zones "tells
every killer that schools are the safest place" to go and carry out
mass shootings.
The N.R.A.’s plan for countering school shootings, coming a week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School
in Newtown, Conn., was met with widespread derision from school
administrators, law enforcement officials and politicians, with some
critics calling it “delusional” and “paranoid.” Gov. Chris Christie of
New Jersey, a Republican, said arming schools would not make them safer.
***
In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 15 people and wounded 23 more at Columbine High School. The destruction occurred despite the fact that there was an armed security officer at the school and another one nearby -- exactly what LaPierre argued on Friday was the answer to stopping "a bad guy with a gun."
***
Leaders of the National Rifle Association said Sunday that they would fight any new gun restrictions introduced in Congress, and they made clear that they were not interested in working with President Barack Obama to help develop a broad response to the Connecticut school massacre.
During an appearance on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," Wayne LaPierre, vice president of the powerful gun lobby, was openly dismissive of a task force established by Obama and led by Vice President Joe Biden that is examining ways to reduce gun violence.
"If it's a panel that's just going to be made up of a bunch of people that, for the last 20 years, have been trying to destroy the Second Amendment, I'm not interested in sitting on that panel," LaPierre said, adding that the "NRA is not going to let people lose the Second Amendment in this country, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people."
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