Newtown Votes for Armed Guards in Elementary Schools

[tap4154]

The Newtown Board of Education wants more armed police officers in the town's four elementary schools after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Last night, they decided to ask the town to approve the request to include one additional full-time Newtown police at each of the elementary schools in next year's budget.

Members of the board will meet today with state and federal officials about obtaining additional funding for security.

“Our parents are demanding of us that things are made safe and secure and certain measures are put in place,” Chairwoman Debbie Leidlein said. “So we’re being very thoughtful.”

Several police officers have been stationed at all Newtown schools since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 children and six staff members were killed.

Newtown Calls for Armed School Officers | NBC Connecticut

Good for them!

Just too bad they didn't have these aremd guards before the tragedy.

 

[waltky]

Newtown victim’s parents speak to Lanza’s father...

Newtown victim’s parents seek answers from Adam Lanza’s father
22 Mar.`13 - Nothing will bring Robbie and Alissa Parker's 6-year-old daughter back, but learning more about the shooter who took Emilie’s life at Sandy Hook Elementary might help ease their pain.

That mission led the grieving parents to a recent face-to-face meeting with the gunman’s father. "I felt strongly that I needed to tell him something, and I needed to get that out of my system," Alissa Parker told CBS News. "I felt very motivated to do it, and then I felt really good about it and prayed about it. And it was something that I needed to do."

Emilie Parker

Peter Lanza’s estranged son, Adam, shot and killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. The 20-year-old gunman committed suicide as police were closing in. Adam also killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home before going to the school. His parents had divorced in 2009 after a long separation. Reported motives for the rampage have focused on Adam’s mental health, his obsession with violent video games and a fascination with mass killers.

The Parkers, who didn’t reveal what Peter Lanza shared with them during their emotional meeting, said there are still a lot of unknowns, but that they don’t hold him responsible. “Were there missteps in the raising of his son? Possibly,” Alissa Parker told CBS News in the exclusive interview. Some have pointed fingers at Nancy Lanza for reportedly not seeking more help in dealing with Adam’s social and psychological struggles and allowing him to be near guns. “Looking from the outside in, it’s hard to not think that there were things that she could have seen,” Alissa Parker said. “Do I think it was her fault? I’m sure that there were things that she’s going to have to be accountable for, but again, it’s not my burden to carry.”

The Parkers said they weren’t mad at Peter Lanza. Instead, they believe he holds the keys to preventing another similar tragedy. “I wanted to tell him that there was a lot of hope and opportunity to gain from this,” Allisa Parker said. “Because there was information and things to be learned from what happened, and without his cooperation, it would go nowhere.” The day after his daugther’s death, Robbie Parker showed compassion for the shooter’s family, telling reporters, “I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you and I want you to know that our love and our support goes out to you as well." A spokesman for Peter Lanza told Yahoo News that Robbie’s “emotionally brave gesture” help set the tone for the parents to meet. “There was a deep level of appreciation, that given the Parker family’s trauma, that they would still see fit to reach out to Peter,” said Errol Cockfield, the spokesman.

Source

 

[JOSweetHeart]

How much of a help will they be when they could very well end up just being more people for a nuts person to shoot?

God bless you always!!!

Holly

 

[waltky]

NRA protectin' their own...

Warrants Detail Items Seized From Lanza Home
March 28, 2013 - Weapons, journals, certificate from NRA found in gunman's residence

A police search of school shooter Adam Lanza’s home turned up a cache of guns, knives, swords, and ammo, eight journals authored by the 20-year-old gunman, a National Rifle Association certificate issued to the mass murderer, and an NRA guide to the “basics of pistol shooting.” Search warrant inventories released today detail the items seized from the Sandy Hook, Connecticut home Lanza shared with his mother Nancy. The searches were conducted following Lanza’s December 14 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

According to the inventories, police found these items in Lanza’s residence:

* Three photos “with images of what appears to be a deceased human covered with plastic and what appears to be blood.”

* A New York Times article about a “school shooting at Northern Illinois University.” In February 2008, a former NIU student shot five victims to death and injured 21 others inside a lecture hall before killing himself.

* An “Adam Lanza National Rifle Association certificate.”

* An “NRA guide to the basics of pistol shooting.” Two books about Asperger’s syndrome were also taken from home of Lanza, who reportedly suffered from the developmental disorder. One of the books is a memoir by John Elder Robison about living with Asperger’s. After the Sandy Hook shooting, Robison wrote a Psychology Today article debunking the claim that Asperger’s can turn someone into a mass murderer.

The inventories contain no references to medications purportedly prescribed to Lanza.

* A “smashed computer hard drive” that was found on “top of a desk in what is believed to be Adam Lanza’s bedroom.”

The documents also reveal that Connecticut police turned over to the FBI material including Lanza’s “personal writings” and “personal memorabilia,” and a “military-style uniform” found in the killer’s bedroom.

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See also:

Obama: 'Shame on us' if Congress forgets Newtown
Mar 28,`13 WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Thursday not to forget the heartbreak of the Newtown elementary school massacre and "get squishy" on tightened gun laws, though some lawmakers in his own Democratic Party remain a tough sell on an approaching Senate vote to expand purchasers' background checks.

"Shame on us if we've forgotten," Obama said at the White House, standing amid 21 mothers who have lost children to shootings. "I haven't forgotten those kids." More than three months after 20 first-graders and six staffers were killed in Newtown, Conn., Obama urged the nation to pressure lawmakers to back what he called the best chance in over a decade to tame firearms violence. At the same time, gun control groups were staging a "Day to Demand Action" with more than 100 rallies and other events planned from Connecticut to California. This was on top of a $12 million TV ad campaign financed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that has been pressuring senators in 13 states to tighten background-check rules.

But if political momentum was building after the nightmarish December shootings, it has flagged as the Senate prepares to debate gun restrictions next month. Thanks to widespread Republican resistance and a wariness by moderate Democrats from Southern and Western states - including six who are facing re-election next year - a proposed assault weapons ban seems doomed and efforts to broaden background checks and bar high capacity ammunition magazines are in question. In one statement that typifies moderate Democrats' caution, spokesman Kevin Hall said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner is "still holding conversations with Virginia stakeholders and sorting through issues on background checks" and proposals on assault weapons and magazines.

In stronger language this week, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota said, "I do not need someone from New York City to tell me how to handle crime in our state. I know that we can go after and prosecute criminals without the need to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding North Dakotans." Expanding federal background checks to private sales at gun shows and online is the gun-control effort's centerpiece and was the focus of Obama's remarks. The system, designed to block criminals and the mentally disturbed from getting firearms, currently applies only to transactions by licensed gun dealers.

The National Rifle Association opposes the expansion, citing a threat that it could bring federal registries of gun owners, which would be illegal. The NRA says what is needed is better enforcement of the existing system, which it says criminals too easily circumvent. Democratic sponsors are sure to need 60 votes to prevail - a daunting hurdle since the party has just 53 of the Senate's 100 seats, plus two Democratic-leaning independents. In a sign of potential trouble ahead, six Democrats backed a failed GOP proposal last week that would have required 60 votes for all future bills restricting guns. "The week after Newtown, we thought it would be a tough road to 60 votes but we'd get there," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group that Bloomberg helps lead. "Three months after Newtown, it looks like a tough slog but we'll get there."

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[Starlight]

Since most shootings are in gun free zones, I think it's a Very Good idea to have armed guards. The Sandy Hook shooter stopped, when the police arrived.

 

[Sarah G]

We need to write our congressmen to find out why they refuse to do the right thing and ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines and demand background checks in all cases.