Look like family problem cause man to kill in elementary school in USA

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'Mommy, I'm okay, but all my friends are dead': Harrowing story of how one six-year-old girl became the sole survivor of her class by playing dead

One incredibly brave little girl is the only survivor of her first grade class because she played dead while her friends were killed around her by gunman Adam Lanza.

The unnamed girl's story was revealed after her mother attended grief counseling with a local pastor Jim Solomon.

The unnamed girl, 6, waited until she believed it was safe hiding among the corpses, then ran from the building covered with blood from head to toe.

She was the first student to run out of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The other 15 members of her class were numbered among the lost Friday.

When she finally reached her mother, she told her: 'Mommy, I'm okay, but all my friends are dead.'

All told, Lanza murdered 20 children as he shot his way through the school after murdering his mother earlier that morning.

Solomon passed the girl's story along to ABC News.

'What did she see in there?' Solomon asked. 'Well, she saw someone who she felt was angry and somebody who she felt was mad.

'How at 6 1/2 years old can you be that smart, that brave? I think it's impossible outside of divine intervention. She has wisdom beyond her years.'

Solomon said the girl's family is doing 'as well as you can expect them to do' and while they are relieved to have their daughter home they feel some survivor's guilt because many of their friends lost children.

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One father to another: Touching moment President Obama set politics aside to comfort grieving dad of Emilie Parker, 6, and share a cuddle with her sisters before addressing Sandy Hook memorial

Behind-the-scenes pictures show President Obama lifting the spirits of the blonde girls whose sister was killed in the tragic school shooting in a Connecticut elementary school on Friday.

The President is seen grinning widely as Emilie Parker's siblings climb on his knee as they wait in a band room at Newtown High School before the Sunday night interfaith memorial service.

In a tender moment where he clearly shifted roles from President of the United States to simply a father of young daughters, Mr Obama comforts Emilie's father Robbie with a gentle embrace.

Just yesterday, Mr Parker was fighting back tears as he spoke lovingly of his deceased daughter at a press conference, telling of how he had been teaching her Portuguese and their final conversation was one where she said that she loved him.

On Sunday evening, there were no tears coming down the cheeks of any of the Parker family, though the emotion of the tender exchange with President Obama just moments before he went to address the public in the interfaith ceremony.

The personal approach to the evening continued when Mr Obama used scripture in an effort to comfort the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

You are not alone in your grief. Our world too has been torn apart,' President Obama said.

'All across this land our world too has been torn apart. All across this land we wept with you and pulled our children tight. Newtown, you are not alone.'

In one of the most religious speeches of his presidency, Mr Obama talked about how the ultimate goal for a society is to protect their children.

'If we don't get that right, we don't get anything right. By that measure, can we truly say as a nation that we are doing our obligations?' he said.

'We gather here in memory of 20 beautiful children and six remarkable adults. They lost their lives in a school that could have been any school in a quiet town full of good and decent people that could have been any town in America.

'All across this land of ours, we have wept with you. We've pulled our children tight, and you must know whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide it.'

As expected, he made several references to the prospective- and likely- legal battles that will come as politicians fight for tougher restrictions on guns in the wake of the shooting. That said, he was clear to avoid specific plans, but took aim at the arguments made by activists who point to the Second Amendment's right to bare arms as a reason to keep guns accessible.

'Are we prepared to say that such violence visited upon our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?' he said.

A particularly poignant moment came in the speech when Mr Obama read the first names of all 20 children who died in the shooting.

'We can't accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage?' he said, referring to the four other mass shootings that have taken place since Mr Obama was elected.

In his introduction, Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy said that Mr Obama told him privately that Friday was the most difficult day of his term in office.

Deep sobs and sniffles filled the room throughout the service - but tears did not truly begin until Jason Graves took the podium to offer a Muslim prayer on behalf of the Al Hedeya Islamic Center of Newtown. Mr Graves' voice choked and crackled as he assured the mourners that God's love was there for anyone asked for it.
Adults and children sitting in the audience, who initially turned their faces away as a prayer was recited in Arabic, were reduced to deep sorrowful cries.

The service started nearly an hour late because the President was delayed by spending more time than expected meeting with the families of the victims from Friday's shooting.

One of those visits was with Cristina Hassinger, the grown daughter of school principal Dawn Hochsprung who died trying to prevent the shooter from entering the building.

Ms Hassinger tweeted a picture of the President holding her own young daughter with the poignant caption: 'My mom would be SO proud to see President Obama holding her granddaughter. But not as proud as I am of her'.

Once the family visits were finished, the President entered into the packed auditorium where decorations were kept very sparse. Along with the American and Connecticut flags on stage, a table in front of the podium was filled with candles to memorialize the victims, and a pianist played solemn songs on a grand piano.

Several families whose children were at Sandy Hook Elementary school during the shooting were denied access to the auditorium where President Barack Obama spoke tonight because organizers allowed hundreds of people from outside the community in first.

'We're very disappointed,' said one mother who was forced to watch the president on a video screen in the gym.

Hans Barth, who had two children at the school on the day of the horrific shooting, said he brought his son and daughter to the memorial service with the president hoping that it would help them confront the horror they experienced on the day of the shooting.

'They're in shock right now,' he said.

A Newtown High School teacher who was helping seat people inside the gym said the organizers were aware that several of the Sandy Hook families had been left out, but, she said organizers had already managed to find seats in the auditorium for 40 additional families from the elementary school.

Families lined up started as early as 3.30pm or 4pm, even though President Obama did not take the stage until shortly before 8pm.

Mr Barth said he could not understand why the organizers allowed the auditorium to fill with people from outside the community at the expense of families who endured the tragedy firsthand.

'They didn't even differentiate between us. This place is full of Sandy-Hookers. The other people coming in before us, I didn't even recognize a single face,' he said.

Michelle Capozza and her mother Maggie traveled from Westin, Connecticut to show their support for the Newtown victims.

'We thought it was beautiful, we really felt that people loved him. It was really everything we came here to see,' Michelle said.

Luz Rodriguez brought her small daughter from Bridgeport to hear the president speak.

She said she wanted her child, the nearly same age as the small victims of the shooting, to hear

Obama's uplifting message and she thought it was important to come pay respects.

'It was very moving, very powerful,' she said.

Ms Rodriguez said she believes that there should be tougher gun control laws, but she doesn't blame the president for not explicitly pushing for new restrictions.

'It wasn't the right time,' she said.
Those families were some of the hundreds of people huddled in a miserable drizzle as they waited in line at Newtown High School to see President Barack Obama preside over an interfaith worship ceremony on Sunday night.

Several members of the audience clutched red cross blankets around their shoulders as they huddled together, many of them breaking down in tears throughout the service.

The same blankets were handed out while the attendees waited in the long line that wrapped around the building and snaked through the parking lot before heading inside to get settled for the service.

The President reportedly wrote much of the speech himself, but he did work with the same speech writer who helped him write the remarks in Tuscon, Arizona after the shooting which left Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in critical condition. The speechwriter also helped on the eulogy that the President gave for Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral.

Outgoing Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Richard Blumenthal and Senator-elect Christopher Murphy were all in attendance.

 

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The nativity play with a missing little angel: Beaming Olivia wears her wings for role she will now never play

With a beaming smile, six-year-old Olivia Engel holds up a gold star while wearing the wings she was going to put on for her role as an angel in this weekend’s nativity play at Newtown’s main Catholic church.

Instead she became one of the victims in the Sandy Hook school massacre – and the performance remained an angel short in her memory.

The Rev Robert Weiss of the St Rose of Lima church said: ‘She was supposed to be an angel in the play. Now she’s an angel up in heaven.’
The evening nativity play was one of the few events running as planned in the town as church leaders and parents sought to provide something that would distract youngsters from the school tragedy.

Another young victim was Benjamin Wheeler, six, whose family had relocated to Newtown from New York City seeking a safer place to live. The youngster was said to love listening to his music teacher mother Francine sing and had inherited her musical talent.

Jack Pinto, six, loved to watch his favourite football team, the New York Giants. The team’s star receiver Victor Cruz has written the young victim’s name on his football jersey as a tribute after being told the young boy idolised him.

Friends and family described little Olivia as a wonderful big sister to her three-year-old brother.
She adored school, took ballet and music lessons, and loved to play with the family’s dog, Petey.

The other young victims were Josephine Gay, Madeleine Hsu, Avielle Richman, Allison Wyatt and British boy Dylan Hockley, all aged six.

With packed local churches opening 24 hours a day over the weekend to keep with huge demand, Michelle Grossman, the mother of two of the other nine angels, said religion was deeply important to the town’s close-knit community.

'We’re strong and we’ll be there for our community,” she said.

'We’re all devastated of course. You don’t expect not to see your child at the end of a day - you just don’t.'

Her mixture of defiance and yet utter confusion was common among local people, many of whom moved with their families to the area because the schools were so good and the neighbourhood supposedly so safe.

The 300-year-old town, still possessing many of its original Georgian buildings, is the type of community that decks its lampposts with red ribbons and foliage at Christmas.

Now, it is festooned in home-made posters and painted sheets draped by roadsides which say simply: 'Pray for us' or, in one case, 'Hug a teacher”.

With many local people lost for words to describe their reaction to the shootings, they have shown their grief, sobbing at makeshift memorials of candles, flowers, teddy bears and even toy cars that have been sprung up throughout the town.

Jennifer Nykyforchyn, a sales executive who has lived there 17 years, has no children but came to leave daffodils under a flagpole - its stars and stripes flying at half mast - that serves as the old town’s roundabout.

'You can just feel the tension here. You just never know where you’re going to be safe,' she said.
Her husband, Wayne, a Canadian-born businessman, said the news of the outrage 'almost sucked the life out of me” when he read it on an iPad during a plane change at Chicago airport.

At the Episcopalian Trinity Church, whose congregation boasted two of the children who died, former congregation members had driven up from New York to offer solace to the stream of worshippers who have been coming in.

The church had printed out a list of suggested books for children 'experiencing loss or trauma” and another sheet giving advice for 'Christian families' trying to cope with tragedy.

Scudder Smith, one of the oldest locals, has lived in Newtown 77 years. The only previous murders he could recall were a double killing involving the Hells Angels and a local man who put his wife into a wood chipper.

'Everyone thinks it’s a small New England town where nothing happens,' he said.

'Unfortunately once in a while something does happen and it turns out to be the worst thing that could possibly occur.'

 

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Adam Lanza's father 'struggling to make sense' of how shy 20-year-old turned into child killer... as nobody comes forward to collect bodies of gunman and his mother

Nobody has yet come forward to claim the bodies of Adam Lanza and his mother Nancy, who he shot dead before slaughtering 26 innocent children and teachers at Sandy Hook elementary on Friday.

The news comes after the gunman's father, Peter Lanza, opened up about how he too is searching for answers to explain why his introverted 20-year-old committed such a senseless act of violence.

According to a spokesman for the Connecticut chief medical examiner, the bodies of Lanza and his 52-year-old mother were still at the facility late on Saturday night. He would not comment on what would happen to them if they remained unclaimed.

'No one from any funeral home has come forward,' the spokesman told MailOnline. 'The bodies are still here.'

In the wake of the devastation, Peter Lanza said on Saturday that he and his family are in disbelief at the atrocity his son committed at the Newtown elementary school.

'We too are asking why,' he said in a statement.

'Like so many of you, we are saddened, but struggling to make sense of what has transpired.


Father: Peter, a wealthy executive for General Electric, who is believed to earn $1million a year, moved out of the family home in 2006

'Our family is grieving along with all those who have been affected by this enormous tragedy.'

He said that all living members of the Lanza family, including himself and Adam's older brother Ryan, have been fully cooperating with police and plan to help in any way that they can as the repercussions of the shooting are felt.

'No words can truly express how heartbroken we are,' he said in the statement.

Adam's first victim was his own mother, Nancy, whose dead body police eventually found at the Newtown home that she shared with Adam.

It took several hours to confirm that she was the victim, however, since she had been shot in the face and was hard to identify.

Peter Lanza had divorced Nancy in 2009 because of ‘irreconcilable differences,’ and now lives in Stamford, Connecticut with a new wife. A reporter for the Stamford Advocate broke the news to him that his son had allegedly shot and killed 26 people, including his ex-wife.

Friends and neighbors said the divorce, as far as they knew, was amicable.

Jim Leff, a musician who knew Nancy through a local bar and music spot that she frequented, called her a 'lovely person.'

But he said he never became close friends with her because she was 'high-strung.'

'What held me back was my impression that she was a little high-strung,' Leff wrote on his blog.

'But now that I've been filled in by friends about how difficult her troubled son (the shooter) was making things for her, I understand that it wasn't that Nancy was overwrought about the trivialities of everyday life, but that she was handling a very difficult situation with uncommon grace.'

Ryan, Adam's 24-year-old brother was immediately embroiled in the shooting as Adam reportedly had Ryan's ID on him when police found his body in the Sandy Hook elementary school.

In fact, he was at work in the Manhattan office of Ernst & Young when television news reports started connecting his name to the shooting in Connecticut, and that was when he started to understand that his brother may have been involved.

Lanza quickly told his boss: 'I need to go.' He then walked out of his Times Square office, according to a co-worker who spoke to MailOnline on condition of anonymity.

Thirty minutes later, New York police officers stormed the office. Between leaving his place of work and being taken in for questioning, Lanza defended himself in a series of bizarre Facebook posts when he was mistakenly named as the killer after his ID was found at the scene.

Lanza, 24, seemed unaware that his younger brother, Adam Lanza, had gunned down 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown before taking his own life.

'Everyone shut the f*** up it wasn't me,' he insisted on his Facebook page on Friday. 'I'm on the bus home now it wasn't me. IT WASN'T ME I WAS AT WORK IT WASN'T ME.'

Brett Wilshe, a friend of Ryan Lanza's, told the AP that he sent Ryan a Facebook message Friday asking what was going on and if he was alright.

According to Wilshe, Lanza's reply was something along the lines of: 'It was my brother. I think my mother is dead. Oh my God.'

 

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We're having a wonderful American adventure, said Dylan's father. Days later, the British boy was dead

Days before the tragedy, the father of a British boy killed in the Sandy Hook massacre told friends in the UK that his family was enjoying a ‘dream life’ in America.

Ian Hockley, whose six-year-old son Dylan was one of 20 youngsters murdered, had proudly shown former neighbours pictures of his two children when he returned to finalise the sale of their old home in Hampshire last week.

Mr Hockley, who is in his early 40s, told friends at his local pub that he and his U.S.-born wife, Nicole, were having a ‘wonderful American adventure’ after moving to New England with Dylan and his older brother Jake in January 2011.

Relatives said they emigrated for a ‘better life for the family’ and chose to settle in Newtown, Connecticut, because it seemed so ‘safe and peaceful’.

The house they moved into was directly across the street from the home of crazed gunman Adam Lanza, who opened fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday after shooting his mother dead.

Before the massacre, Mrs Hockley gave a poignant interview to the local newspaper in Newtown, describing her new home as a ‘wonderful place to live’.

The devoted mother said the family had ‘felt happy and comfortable’ leaving Eastleigh, Hampshire, where she had lived with IBM finance manager Mr Hockley for nine years, to move to New England.

In the article posted on The Newtown Bee website, the 42-year old said: ‘The schools here have been amazing, and the people in my neighbourhood are incredible.

‘Newtown is a wonderful place to live and we’re looking forward to being here a long, long time.’

Mr Hockley’s cousin, David Lutkin, 48, from Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, yesterday said the entire family was in shock.

‘They chose to move to that area because it’s the last place you’d expect something like that to happen and it had a good school,’ he said.


Heartbreaking: Dylan Hockley was described as a 'lovely little boy' by the family's next door neighbour

‘Obviously there was one bad apple in the neighbourhood. You can’t account for that.’

Mr Lutkin added that Dylan had been ‘very close’ to eight-year-old Jake, who would have taken the loss very hard.

‘They are just a fabulous family. They are not good at the moment.’

Maria Sweet, 81, a retired nanny who lived next door to the Hockleys in Eastleigh, said the news left her ‘brokenhearted’.

She said: ‘Dylan was such a lovely little boy and very intelligent too, he enjoyed school.

‘I would often offer him a drink and some biscuits and he’d come up to me and give me a cuddle.’

She still has cards from Dylan and his brother thanking her for presents.

One read: ‘Dear Mrs Sweet, thank you so much for the chocolate bars, we love chocolate. We hope you had a nice Christmas and Happy New Year and hope to see you again soon.’

She described Mr and Mrs Hockley as ‘fantastic parents’. She said: ‘They both had so much time for the kids and loved them so much.

‘Ian was back here only last week to finalise the sale of their house – they had settled in America and were enjoying life there.

‘Ian and Nicole worked so very hard here and I think they wanted to move to America for a quieter life.

‘I remember Nicole being really excited about going and the two boys were looking forwards to seeing their grandparents more. They thought it would be a nice place to bring up their children.’

Peter Missen, 55, of Southsea, Hampshire, who worked with Mr Hockley at IBM in Hampshire, said:

‘We kept in touch via Facebook and he would upload family snaps of himself with his beloved boys.
‘Although Ian was a serious professional man, he was happy go lucky and you could tell he was a doting dad.

He seemed very happy with their new life over in the States and this is absolutely tragic for them. I feel completely devastated.’

Dylan’s devastated grandmother Theresa Moretti, who lives in the US, said her daughter had previously described the town as ‘safe and lovely’.

She said she heard the news as she was out buying Christmas presents for Dylan and Jake.

‘I got a garbled message on my answerphone from my daughter. She was almost incoherent. I called her back and she told me what had happened.

'She kept saying, “Mum, how do you tell an eight-year-old his six-year-old brother is dead and not coming back?”

‘Jake was at school that day. He heard the gunfire that killed his brother.

'The family isn’t doing well . . . Why did he have to shoot 20 innocent babies? They were only six and seven years old.


Killer: Adam Lanza shot 26 people dead, 20 of them schoolchildren aged five to ten, and then shot himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut

‘Dylan was a lovely boy. He had dimples and blue eyes and a mischievous grin . . . We are shattered and will never be the same.’

Close family friend Kristen Trudeau said the Hockleys were being comforted by hundreds of messages of support that have flooded in.

But she said the family’s agony was made even worse by the fact that they lived in the same road as Lanza.

‘They are totally bereft over the loss of Dylan, but to know you have lived with the killer is just unreal,’ the mother of two said.

Another friend added: ‘Losing your son in such a way is unimaginable, but having to live within sight of the killer’s home is just sick.

'They must want to get away from here as quickly as possible.’

Mrs Trudeau, 36, and her husband Brian, 38, got to know the Hockley family soon after they moved to Newtown.

Mrs Hockley joined a newcomers’ club and with another British woman, Jillian Cruwys, became one of the main organisers. The club arranges social events to help people moving into the town make friends.

The family were also regular visitors to a shop that sold British goods in Newtown called UK Gourmet.

‘The children like to go there to get their Flakes and other chocolate bars,’ said a friend. ‘I don’t think the boys really liked our American chocolate.’

Prayers were said yesterday for the family at St Nicholas’s Church in Eastleigh, and advent candles were lit for them during the service.

 

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Teacher hid pupils in closet and sacrificed her life to save them from gunman

Bravery: Victoria Soto, 27, is believed to have sacrificed her life to save the children in her care

Out of the chaos and horror of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School emerged incredible stories of bravery and selflessness from teachers and staff who were prepared to lay down their lives to protect the children in their care.

Teacher Victoria Soto is believed to have hidden her pupils in a classroom closet but stood outside, possibly because there was no room for her to hide in there too.

When Lanza demanded to know where the children were, the 27-year-old lied and told him they were at the other end of the school in the auditorium.

But six of her pupils tried to escape and Lanza shot them, Miss Soto and a teaching assistant who was in the room.

Police later opened the closet and found the remaining seven members of the class, who told them what had happened.

Miss Soto’s cousin Jim Wiltsie said: ‘She took her kids, put them in the closet and by doing so she lost her life protecting those little ones.

'I’m just proud that Vicki had the instincts to protect her kids from harm.’

He added: ‘It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children, and, in our eyes, she’s a hero.’

Miss Soto, who had worked at the school for five years, was popular with the students – not least because she liked to chew gum in class, a habit usually frowned upon during lessons.

The teacher, who lived with her family in nearby Stratford, Connecticut, was single and doted on her black labrador Roxy. She called her pupils her ‘little angels’, said a friend.

Scores of mourners, including Miss Soto’s mother Donna, sisters Karly and Jillian and brother Matthew, gathered in Stratford on Saturday night for an emotional vigil.

Grief: Donna Soto (right), mother of Victoria, the first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who was shot and killed while protecting her students, hugs her daughter Karly (centre)

 

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A boy holds on to a man's coat while they hug at a makeshift memorial near Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a mass shooting took place, in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 16, 2012. Worshipers filled Sunday services to mourn the victims of a gunman's rampage at the school that killed 20 children and six adults

A U.S. flag flies at half-staff honoring the victims that were killed a day earlier, on December 15, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut.

 

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David Freedman, right, kneels with his son Zachary, 9, both of Newtown, Connecticut, as they visit a sidewalk memorial for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, on December 16, 2012, in Newtown.

Newtown Police Officer Maryhelen McCarthy carries flowers near a memorial for shooting victims, on December 16, 2012. The flowers and other memorial items were taken to nearby Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church.

A couple and their daughter grieve after paying tribute to shooting victims in Newtown, on December 15, 2012.

 

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People embrace at a memorial for the victims of the shooting near Sandy Hook Elementary School, on December 16, 2012.

A man plays a violin along Church Hill Road in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 16, 2012. The sign reads: "Our tears are on your shoulders, and our hands are in yours."

Connecticut State Troopers bow their heads during an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School, on December 16, 2012 at Newtown High School.

 

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Residents pray during a vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting at Newtown High School, on December 16, 2012.

resident Barack Obama, after speaking at a vigil held at Newtown High School, on December 16, 2012. Obama consoled the Connecticut town shattered by the massacre of 20 young schoolchildren, lauding residents' courage in the face of tragedy and saying the United States was not doing enough to protect its children.

A woman holds a class photo on her lap, as President Barack Obama speaks at an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 16, 2012.

 

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Children hold stuffed animals during a vigil held at Newtown High School, on December 16, 2012.

Mourners listen to a memorial service over a loudspeaker outside Newtown High School, on December 16, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut.

In Moscow, Russia, a woman places a toy near the US Embassy, on December 16, 2012. The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world.

 

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Hundreds gather on the New Haven Green during a candlelight vigil to support the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 15, 2012.

A man embraces a young boy as they look at a memorial in front of the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 16, 2012.

 

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Oh yeah tries to diffuse the situtation by bringing in china and the knife incident


It's always like this when something horrific happens in these better countries or something committed by a certain group of ppl it's always causally brushed off or some silly excuse is given.

get real. the reality is that the NRA and PrezObama has blood on their hands. you would hear all the crappy soul searching, talk cock, right to bear arms nonsense and then after a few months it would quiet down and come a few years the cycle repeats itself. tell me , is this the first time? NO. would this be the last time? NO. they have Waco incident, Columbine high school, University of Texas Clock Tower Shootings, Virginia Tech shootings, Bath School disaster, etc and all the nonsense by the Prez and all who does nothing concrete. this is karma. he who does not remember the past is condemned to REPEAT it. I told an american that it would happen again when the columbine high School massacre (often known simply as Columbine) occurred on April 20, 1999. usually it is some spoilt brats from middle or high income with some tantrum who then goes berserk. no amount of psychological test or profiling would help. let be circumspect. the kids got killed because the adults ask for it. hope somebody sue NRA etc. it would happen again and again, and all the oprah winfrey talk cock media circus(for what?) would go into overtime. some idiot would do some soul searching and in the end nothing would get done and the cycle repeats itself.

 

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'The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun': NRA's astonishing response to Sandy Hook massacre - as protestors storm their first press conference since tragedy

In the National Rifle Association's first major statement since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the group's CEO Wayne LaPierre put the blame for mass shootings on violent media, rejected new gun control measures, and called for more security in the nation's schools.

'The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,' LaPierre said as he addressed a room of press.

'I call on Congress today to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation,' he said.

Scroll down for video


No new regulations: NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre broke his organization's silence today rejecting new gun control measures and calling for more security and guns in schools


Divided: Wayne LaPierre's statement was interrupted twice by protests blaming the NRA for a culture of violence

Following the Sandy Hook shootings the NRA was conspicuously silent, making no statements in the days immediately following the tragedy and even taking down its Facebook page amid a vicious backlash blaming the organization for a gun culture that encouraged such tragedies.

Sandy Hook was one of the worst school shootings in American history, claiming 20 children and 7 adults.

The group had said today's conference would be a the start of 'meaningful contributions' to preventing more spree killings.

'For all the noise and anger directed at us over the past week nobody has addressed the most important pressing and immediate question we face,' he said. 'How do we protect our children right now, starting today, in a way that we know that works.'

Mother whose 7-year-old son was gunned down at Sandy Hook describes the 'best day of my life' when he visited her in a vision two days after the tragedy
Feds raid gun store that sold weapon to shooter's mother after security cameras capture man stealing deadly rifle - just four days before massacre
'The only way to answer that question is to face the truth. Politicians pass laws for gun free zones...they brag about them, post signs advertising them, and in doing so they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest places to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.'

Besides calling for more security in schools, LaPierre made a brief criticism that the nation did not register people with mental health problems and blamed the media - specifically films, movies, and video games - glamorizing violence.

'You've got blood on your hands!': Two protestors had to be removed from the conference after pulling out banners blaming the NRA for promoting violence and dangerous assault weapons

'There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt, shadow industry that sows violence against its own people,' he said before naming entertainment like the game Grand Theft Auto and films like National Born Killers and American Pyscho.

'They all have the nerve to call it entertainment, but is that what it is?' he said. 'Isn't fantasizing about killing as a way to get your kicks really the dirtiest form of pornography?'

LaPierre's statement did no go unchallenged, with two protestors interrupting him with banners blaming the NRA for school shootings who were then escorted out of the conference.

Anti-firearm protestors burst in on Wayne LaPierre's speech this morning, waving placards that accused the NRA of having 'blood on its hands' after the Sandy Hook massacre.

The protestors were members of Code Pink, a self-described 'women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement.'

Two separate demonstrators managed to stop the National Rifle Association CEO mid-speech, holding up signs blaming the nation's largest U.S. gun rights group for the killing of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Connecticut, one week ago today.

As LaPierre claimed that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun was a good guy with a gun, the protestors held up banners claiming 'NRA: Killing Our Kids' and 'NRA: Blood on Your Hands.'

After silencing LaPierre for a number of minutes and stealing the attention of the media, the protestors were escorted out of the room as they screamed the slogans on their banners.

LaPierre derided calls for gun control, even as many have made impassioned pleas for bans on automatic and semiautomatic weapons in the last week.

One of Lanza's guns, the .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, has received such a backlash that private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced it would sell its stake in the weapon's manufacturer, Freedom Group.


It's the media: LaPierre blamed violent games like Grand Theft Auto and films like American Psycho for encouraging young people to kill

LaPierre declined to take questions after the press conference but will appear this weekend on Meet the Press to further discuss his organization's reaction.

Some immediately reacted by calling the conference a public relations disaster in which LaPierre seemed despairingly out of touch.

'There will be time, later, to tick off the litany of factual errors and logical missteps in LaPierre’s speech, such as the notion that a single armed security officer would have stood much of a chance against an assailant with a high-powered assault rifle and two semiautomatic pistols, but for now, it is worth noting that while LaPierre’s reaction was completely predictable, he didn’t have to do it now.,' wrote Mediaite, a blog covering politics and entertainment in the media industry. 'He didn’t have to do it today, exactly one week after the nation first began to learn of the tragedy, at this time, when the echoes of a moment of silence in Newtown still hung in the spiritual air. This was an act of defiance, and it will result in punishment for anyone who stands with LaPierre going forward.'

Slate called the press conference, 'unhinged' and reported that LaPierre's proposal to put armed security in every school would cost approximately $5.5 billion.

The New York Daily News called him a 'mad gunman' giving a 'wild rant' disguised as a speech.

Especially mocked was NRA president Dave Keene's somewhat contradictory statement to reporters: 'This is the beginning of a serious conversation. We won’t be taking questions today.'

'Even if you think the NRA is dodging the gun question, I hope you'll concede LaPierre has a point about our media and violent culture,' tweeted Matt K. Lewis, writer for the Week and the Daily Caller.

Erick Erickson, editor in chief of the conservative political blog Red State tweeted: 'While I agree with the NRA and LaPierre's points in substance, I'm not sure this presser was good in style a week after Newtown.'

Until this morning, the NRA has avoided entering the gun debate.

Gun rights advocates declined appearances on Meet the Press Sunday while New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg used the forum for an impassioned argument for greater regulation.

Meanwhile NRA-backed politicians like West Virginia Sen. Mike Machin, a Democrat, came out in favor of new gun laws calling the Sandy Hook shootings 'bigger than just about guns. It's about how we treat people with mental illness, how we intervene, how we get them the care they need, how we protect our schools. It's just so sad.'

The NRA finally broke its silence Wednesday, releasing a statement mourning Sandy Hook's victims but dodging the gun control issue.


Passion: Before the NRA's statement President Obama released a video calling for public support for gun control

'The National Rifle Association of America is made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters - and we were shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in Newtown,' the statement read.

'Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting.'

'The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again.'

U.S. President Barack Obama preempted the NRA's statement with a video release this morning, asking for public support for new legislation.

'It's encouraging that many gun owners have stepped up this week to say there are steps we can take to prevent more tragedies like the one in Newtown, steps that both protect our rights and protect our kids,' Obama said.

 

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'We should put armed security in every school': The full text of NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre's remarks
The National Rifle Association's 4 million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters join the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families of Newtown, Connecticut … who suffered such incomprehensible loss as a result of this unspeakable crime.

Out of respect for those grieving families, and until the facts are known, the NRA has refrained from comment. While some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectfully silent. Now, we must speak … for the safety of our nation's children.

Because for all the noise and anger directed at us over the past week, no one— nobody — has addressed the most important, pressing and immediate question we face: How do we protect our children right now , starting today, in a way that we know works? The only way to answer that question is to face up to the truth.

Politicians pass laws for Gun-Free School Zones. They issue press releases bragging about them. They post signs advertising them. And in so doing, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.

How have our nation's priorities gotten so far out of order? Think about it. We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards. American airports, office buildings, power plants,courthouses — even sports stadiums — are all protected by armed security. We care about the President, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents. Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by armed Capitol Police officers. Yet when it comes to the most beloved, innocent and vulnerable members of the American family — our children — we as a society leave them utterly defenseless, and the monsters and predators of this world know it and exploit it.

That must change now! The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters — people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly
ever comprehend them. They walk among us every day. And does anybody really believe that the next Adam Lanza isn't planning his attack on aschool he's already identified at this very moment? How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame — from a national media machine that rewards them with the wall-to-wall attention and sense of identity that they crave — while provoking others to try to make their mark? A dozen more killers? A hundred? More? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation's refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?

And the fact is, that wouldn't even begin to address the much larger and more lethal criminal class: Killers, robbers, rapists and drug gang members who have spread like cancer in every community in this country. Meanwhile, federal gun prosecutions have decreased by 40%— to the lowest levels in a decade. So now, due to a declining willingness to prosecute dangerous criminals, violent crime is increasing again for the first time in19 years! Add another hurricane, terrorist attack or some other natural or man-made disaster, and you've got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization.

And here's another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people. Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm,Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one:it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?

Then there’s the blood-soaked slasher films like "American Psycho"and "Natural Born Killers" that are aired like propaganda loops on"Splatterdays" and every day, and a thousand music videos thatportray life as a joke and murder as a way of life. And then they havethe nerve to call it "entertainment." But is that what it really is? Isn't fantasizing about killing people as away to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?

In a race to the bottom, media conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate and offend every standard of civilized society by bringing an ever-more-toxic mix of reckless behavior and criminal cruelty into our homes — every minute of every day of every month of every year.

A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18. And throughout it all, too many in our national media … their corporate owners … and their stockholders … act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators. Rather than face their own moral failings,the media demonize lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws and fill the national debate with misinformation and dishonest thinking that only delay meaningful action and all but guarantee that the next atrocity is only a news cycle away.

The media call semi-automatic firearms "machine guns" — they claim these civilian semi-automatic firearms are used by the military, and they tell us that the .223 round is one of the most powerful rifle calibers ... when all of these claims are factually untrue. They don't know what they're talking about! Worse, they perpetuate the dangerous notion that one more gun ban — or one more law imposed on peaceful, lawful people — will protect us where 20,000 others have failed!

As brave, heroic and self-sacrificing as those teachers were in those classrooms, and as prompt, professional and well-trained as those police were when they responded, they were unable — through no fault of their own — to stop it. As parents, we do everything we can to keep our children safe. It is now time for us to assume responsibility for their safety at school. The only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away ... or a minute away?

Now, I can imagine the shocking headlines you'll print tomorrow morning: "More guns," you'll claim, "are the NRA's answer to everything!" Your implication will be that guns are evil and have no place in society, much less in our schools. But since when did the word "gun" automatically become a bad word? A gun in the hands of a Secret Service agent protecting the President isn't a bad word. A gun in the hands of a soldier protecting the United States isn't a bad word. And when you hear the glass breaking in your living room at 3 a.m. and call 911, you won't be able to pray hard enough for a gun in the hands of a good guy to get there fast enough o protect you.

So why is the idea of a gun good when it's used to protect our President or our country or our police, but
bad when it's used to protect our children in their schools?They're our kids. They're our responsibility. And it's not just our duty to protect them — it's our right to protect them.

You know, five years ago, after the Virginia Tech tragedy, when I said we should put armed security in every school, the media called me crazy. But what if, when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, he had been confronted by qualified, armed security? Will you at least admit it's possible
that 26 innocent lives might have been spared? Is that so abhorrent to you that you would rather continue to risk the alternative?Is the press and political class here in Washington so consumed by fear and hatred of the NRA and America’s gun owners that you're willing to accept a world where real resistance to evil monsters is a lone, unarmed school principal left to surrender her life to shield the children in her care? No one — regardless of personal political prejudice — has the right to impose that sacrifice.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no national, one-size-fits-all solution to protecting our children. But do know this President zeroed out school emergency planning grants in last year's budget, and scrapped "Secure Our Schools"
policing grants in next year's budget. With all the foreign aid, with all the money in the federal budget,we can’t afford to put a police officer in every school?

Even if they did that, politicians have no business — and no authority — denying us the right, the ability, or the moral imperative to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm. Now, the National Rifle Association knows that there are millions of qualified active and retired police; active, reserve and retired military;security professionals; certified firefighters and rescue personnel; and an extraordinary corps of patriotic, trained qualified citizens to joinwith local school officials and police in devising a protection plan for every school. We can deploy them to protect our kids
now.

We can immediately make America's schools safer — relying on the brave men and women of America’s police force. The budget of our local police departments are strained and resources are limited, but their dedication and courage are second to none and they can be deployed right now. I call on Congress today to act immediately, to appropriate whatever isnecessary to put armed police officers in every school — and to do it now, to make sure that blanket of safety is in place when our children return to school in January.

Before Congress reconvenes, before we engage in any lengthy debate over legislation, regulation or anything else, as soon as our kids return to school after the holiday break, we need to have every single school in America
immediately deploy a protection program proven to work —and by that I mean armed security. Right now, today, every school in the United States should plan meetings with parents, school administrators, teachers and local authorities — and draw upon every resource available — to erect a cordon of protection around our kids right now. Every school will havea different solution based on its own unique situation. Every school in America needs to immediately identify, dedicate and deploy the resources necessary to put these security forces in place right now. And the National Rifle Association, as America's preeminent trainer of law enforcement and security personnel for the past 50 years, is ready, willing and uniquely qualified to help.

Our training programs are the most advanced in the world. That expertise must be brought to bear to protect our schools and our children now. We did it for the nation's defense industries and military installations during World War II, and we'll do it for our schools today. The NRA is going to bring all of its knowledge, dedication and resources to develop a model National School Shield Emergency Response Program for every school that wants it. From armed security to building design and access control to information technology to student and teacher training, this multi-faceted program will be developed by the very best experts in their fields.

Former Congressman Asa Hutchinson will lead this effort as National Director of the National School Shield Program, with a budget provided by the NRA of whatever scope the task requires. His experience as a U.S. Attorney, Director of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security will give him the knowledge and expertise to hire the most knowledgeable and credentialed experts available anywhere, to get this program up and running from the first day forward. If we truly cherish our kids more than our money or our celebrities, we must give them the greatest level of protection possible and the security that is only available with a
properly trained — armed — good guy.

Under Asa’s leadership, our team of security experts will make this the best program in the world for protecting our children at school, and we will make that program available to every school in America free of charge. That's a plan of action that can, and will, make a real, positive and indisputable difference in the safety of our children —starting right now. There'll be time for talk and debate later. This is the time,this is the day for decisive action.

We can't wait for the next unspeakable crime to happen before we act. We can't lose precious time debating legislation that won’t work. We mustn't allow politics or personal prejudice to divide us. We must act now. For the sake of the safety of every child in America, I call on every parent, every teacher, every school administrator and every law enforcement officer in this country to join us in the National SchoolShield Program and protect our children with the only line of positive defense that's tested and proven to work. And now, to tell you more about the program, I'd like to introducethe head of that effort — a former U.S. congressman, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas and former administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Honorable Asa Hutchinson.