Twenty seven people are dead, including 18 children, at a Connecticut elementary school after a 20-year-old man went on a shooting rampage.
The shooting happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, a town of about 28,000 people an hour outside of Stamford. Newtown Police were called to the school at about 9:30 a.m. Eastern time after receiving a 911 call. They alerted Connecticut State Police and authorities began an active shooter investigation once they arrived at the school, according to Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance.
Authorities held a press conference at 1 p.m. and said students and staff at the school were killed and that the gunman was found dead inside the school. They did not confirm the number of fatalities. However, reports said the school's principal and a school psychologist were among the dead.
Early reports wrongly identified as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, a former Quinnipiac University student. His brother, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, has been identified as the gunman in Newtown who killed 20 children, six adults and himself, according to the Huffington Post. He was armed with four guns and a high-powered assault rifle. Authorities are currently searching his father’s home in New Jersey as part of the ongoing investigation. Lanza's mother lives in Newtown and was a kindergarten teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which has close to 600 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. She was among those killed, according to several news reports.
Police also have a second suspect in custody. According to eyewitness accounts, police found a man in the woods near the school wearing camouflage pants and took him in for questioning. As the man passed parents gathered near the school, he said “I didn’t do it,” according to CBS News.
A parent interviewed on CBS News also told the network that his 8-year-old daughter said she heard an argument and cursing over the school’s loudspeaker, apparently coming from the principal’s office. Her teacher then immediately locked the classroom door as a safety precaution.
A fourth-grade student at Sandy Hook Elementary School told Connecticut’s Channel 7 that he and his classmates were “locked in a closet in the gym” to escape the gunman.
One mother of an 8-year-old girl at the school, Brenda Lebinski, told Patch that her daughter is safe thanks to one teacher's decision to move all kids into a closet when a gunman had entered the building.
Authorities said the scene is now secure and that there is no longer a threat to public safety. They will be providing more details and holding another press conference on the incident as soon as they notify the families of the victims.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice (“DOJ”) is required to promulgate rules to convey information in a timely manner to the NICS database regarding individuals ordered not to possess a firearm under: Wis. Stat. § 51.20(13)(cv)(1) (mental health commitments where the individual is found to be a danger to self or public safety); § 51.45(13)(i)(1) (treatment for and commitment of an individual incapacitated by alcohol or suffering from alcoholism); § 54.10(3)(f)(1) (individuals who have a guardian appointed for them); or § 55.12(10)(a) (order of protective services or protective placement).2 DOJ is also required to promulgate rules to convey information to the NICS database for cancellations of court orders for these mental health-related issues.3
1, Illegal aliens 2, Drug addicts 3, If they have been adjudicated as mentally incompetent, or involuntarily committed to a mental health institution 4, Those with Dishonorable discharge from the military 5, With any conviction of Domestic Violence where force was used or threatened. The NICS just shows a type of crime not if violence was used or threatened. The issue is much of this information is not available to Background investigators or to Police (when checking to see if guns can be returned) That is the failure of the gun ownership laws as they stands.
It would be nice if all these kids could be serviced for mental issues, but we have no money for that either. We barely have money for schools and fire stations. I am not really a gun control advocate. I own and use guns. Maybe we should wonder why this mentally disturbed man's mother had all these weapons (with her son living there.)
Sure, we pay teachers, firefighters etc... However, many of them (teachers and cops for certain) usually have at least a bachelors. So what if they make 40k or 50k? That seems fair to me. I don't know any of them living the high life. Shrinks are not cheap either. We have never been able to afford mental health on a mass scale, and perhaps never will. I would never pay for my child to go to school to major in education, psychology or maybe even criminal justice. The tuition is way too high for such mediocre pay. Plus, like you said, some can't find jobs anyway.
If you like that salary you can send your kid off to teach, not me. Not at tuition of 10k at least a year for 4 or 5 years. I suppose we could cut teacher pay to 20k and cops to 30k and then hire psychologists at 25k. Maybe there are enough desperadoes to work for those sort of wages, even after 4-5 (6 for psychologist w/ masters) years of college. l