White House readies gun control plan
After the shooting spree at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, Lanza killed himself.
The family of the school's slain principal, Dawn Hochsprung, invited mourners to visit at a local funeral home on Wednesday afternoon, though her burial was due to be private at an undisclosed time.
Another of the teachers, Victoria Soto, was among those to be buried today.
At the funeral of Daniel Barden, aged seven, a bagpipe played America the Beautiful as hundreds of police officers and firefighters, some from New York City and distant towns, lined the driveway outside the service. The little boy loved his family, riding waves at the beach, playing drums, foosball, reading, and making s'mores around a bonfire at his grandfather's house, said an obituary in the Newtown Bee newspaper.
Funerals also were scheduled for Charlotte Bacon and Caroline Previdi, both six, and Chase Kowalski, seven.
Across the nation, Americans joined Newtown's grieving, one woman traveling from Iowa to bake and deliver apple pies to residents, another woman from outside Albany, New York, posting daily to Facebook the latest of 26 watercolor flower paintings she is creating, each with a different victim's name.
"I wanted to memorialise the victims," said artist Pamela Hollinde (60), of Delmar, New York, who also substitute teaches at an elementary school. "In a way, it's therapy for me too. I'm having a difficult time. Our students are our kids too."
While most students in Newtown were back at school on Wednesday, the surviving children from Sandy Hook Elementary stayed home as school authorities made plans to relocate to a different location - the unused Chalk Hill School in nearby Monroe - when classes resume in January after the winter break.
The impact of the shooting was felt in the business world yesterday when private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP said it would sell its investment in the company that makes the AR-15-type Bushmaster rifle that was used by Lanza.
The NRA gun lobby broke its silence yesterday for the first time since the shootings, saying it was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions" to prevent such massacres. A news conference was called for Friday.
The massacre prompted some Republican lawmakers to open the door to a national debate about gun control, a small sign of easing in Washington's entrenched reluctance to seriously consider new federal restrictions.
Reuters
