Multiple people, including children, have been killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The number of victims is unclear. Many of the shootings took place in a kindergarten classroom, sources said.
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Shortly after 9:40 a.m., police reported that a shooter was in the main office of the school. A person in one room had “numerous gunshot wounds,” police said.
Groups of students — some crying, some holding hands — were being escorted away from the school by their teachers. Some students were still in the school at 10:30 a.m., parents said.
School and local emergency officials are accounting for the children, who will be released to their parents to get them home. A staging area has been set up at the Sandy Hook fire department, directly in front of the school.
First out of the gate to politicize the mayhem, the despicable David Frum.
Update: Unbelievable.
Twenty-seven people are dead including 14 children after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Newtown, CBS News reports.
Officials say the gunman was also killed and apparently had two guns. It happened around 9:40 a.m. Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Fox is reporting that 18 children were killed. There may also have been a second gunman. The murder who is known to be dead may have been a father of a student at the school.
Update: There will be calls for gun control after this horrific day. That’s unavoidable, both because opportunists will seize the chance and because we all want to make sense of tragedy and find a way, however misguided, to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Connecticut is one of the 32 concealed carry states. Rather than limit the rights of millions of law-abiding citizens, it would make more sense to make sure teachers can get fast tracked for firearms training and concealed carry permits, and for schools to keep firearms on hand where volunteer teachers and administrators can get to them quickly. One reason killers attack schools and crowded theaters is because they know they face no armed opposition.
Update: The shooter is dead and his body is inside the building. He is said to be a 20-year-old male.
Update: The White House has chosen not to politicize the shootings today.
Update: Reports now that the shooter killed his mother before attacking the school.
Update: Police have identified the murderer as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza. This is apparently his Facebook profile. (Update: It has been taken down. Update: Some commenters say that that page is not the killer’s so I’m breaking the link.) Police are saying that he murdered his mother before going on his rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Stories of a second shooter appear to be untrue at this point.
Update: Fox reported that the police have confirmed that Lanza murdered both of his parents this morning. They also confirmed that 20 of the dead are children.
Update: President Obama just delivered remarks on the tragedy. Teary eyed, he offered condolences for the lost and healing for survivors.
Update (2:46 central): Now the killer’s identity is in question.
Update (3:02 central): Fox is reporting that the killer was Adam Lanza. Ryan, his brother was taken into custody and questioned. The killer murdered his mother in Newtown, CT and his father in Hoboken, NJ. He killed 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10, and five adults at the school, before turning his gun on himself. His mother worked at the school.
In the coming days we will hear much about this story. We will hear many things that turn out not to be true. And we will hear politics inserted where they don’t belong.
Update: Earlier reports that the father of the shooter was killed were not true. The brother is said to be cooperating with police.
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