(Reuters) - At least 27 people, including 18 children, were killed on Friday when at least one shooter opened fire at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, CBS News reported, citing unnamed officials.
If confirmed, it would be one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. The holiday season tragedy follows a series of shooting rampages in the United States this year that have killed multiple victims, and it was certain to revive a debate about U.S. gun laws.
The principal and school psychologist were among the dead, CNN said. Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots with some saying as many as 100 were fired.
The suspected shooter, 24, was armed with four weapons and wearing a bullet-proof vest, WABC reported.
There were unconfirmed reports of a second shooter.
But what I want to point out is that a headline has also appeared today that I knew would be coming and America best brace itself for the biggest push for a complete ban on guns in this country. Here's the other headline from a report at IBTimes:
Connecticut School Shootings Recall 1996 Dunblane Horror In Scotland
From that article, we see some of the details of what happened back in 1996 in Scotland:
In any case, the horrific mass murder of schoolchildren brings to mind the tragedy that occurred in Dunblane, Scotland in March 1996.
A gunman named walked into the school gym at the Dunblane Primary School in the morning and sprayed bullets from four weapons at random, killing 16 children and their teacher. One of the twelve other children who were wounded later died in hospital.
One student who survived the carnage later told UK media: "We heard these gunshots from the gym and looked round and thought he must be firing at a target or something then he came out through a fire exit and started firing at our huts and we were all petrified."
Most of the child victims were only five or six years old.
Here is what I'm trying to draw together for you - today's incident in Newtown, Connecticut WILL BE America's Dunblane Massacre. The Dunblane Primary School Massacre in Scotland brought such emotional reaction to the people of Great Britain that it brought about the most sweeping gun control action that the free world has ever seen as Great Britain subsequently outlawed all handgun ownership in the country. Years earlier, another mass shooting had brought the elimination of ownership of semi-automatic weapons and rifles.
Yes, we sit now on the head of a pin in America and I want all of my fellow gun owners in this country to be damned prepared - not just for the huge push to ban guns in America by our usual enemies on the Left but be prepared for an avalanche of emotion from all of America.
At the same time, someone needs to get off of their ass on the gun ownership side of things and start to do some real investigation of just why the number of mass shootings in America has spiked so incredibly under Barack Obama...why all of these shooters are so young....why many of these shootings make no sense. I want to know the links between all of these shootings because yes, I'll say it because no one else will....this all reeks to me as a "crisis" manufactured for a specific goal to be met.
UPDATE:
And so it begins....
At least 27, including 18 children, dead in Connecticut school shooting: report
(Reuters) - At least 27 people, including 18 children, were killed on Friday when at least one shooter opened fire at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, CBS News reported, citing unnamed officials.
If confirmed, it would be one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. The holiday season tragedy follows a series of shooting rampages in the United States this year that have killed multiple victims, and it was certain to revive a debate about U.S. gun laws.
The principal and school psychologist were among the dead, CNN said. Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots with some saying as many as 100 were fired.
The suspected shooter, 24, was armed with four weapons and wearing a bullet-proof vest, WABC reported.
There were unconfirmed reports of a second shooter.
Another person was being held in police custody after he was detained in the woods near the school wearing camouflage pants, CBS reported.
Sandy Hook Elementary School teaches children from kindergarten through fourth grade - roughly ages 5 to 10.
"It was horrendous," said parent Brenda Lebinski, who rushed to the school where her daughter is in the third grade. "Everyone was in hysterics - parents, students. There were kids coming out of the school bloodied. I don't know if they were shot, but they were bloodied."
Television images showed police and ambulances at the scene, and parents rushing toward the school. Parents were seen reuniting with their children and taking them home.
"This is going to be bad," a state official told Reuters, requesting anonymity because the scope of the tragedy remained uncertain.
President Barack Obama was notified and would receive regular updates throughout the day, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
"We're still waiting for more information about the incident in Connecticut," Carney said when asked about the president's reaction to it.
Carney called the event "tragic" and said there would be time later for a discussion of policy implications.
Obama remains committed to trying to renew a ban on assault weapons, Carney said.
All Newtown schools were placed in lockdown after the shooting, the Newtown Public School District said.
Lebinski said a mother who was at the school during the shooting told her a "masked man" entered the principal's office and may have shot the principal. Lebinski, who is friends with the mother who was at the school, said the principal was "severely injured."
Lebinski's daughter's teacher "immediately locked the door to the classroom and put all the kids in the corner of the room."
Danbury Hospital, about 11 miles west of the school, had received three patients from the scene, a hospital spokeswoman told NBC Connecticut. The mayor of Danbury, Mark Boughton, told MSNBC: "They are very serious injuries."
A girl interviewed by NBC Connecticut described hearing seven loud "booms" as she was in gym class. Other children began crying and teachers moved the students to a nearby office, she said.
"A police officer came in and told us to run outside and so we did," the unidentified girl said on camera.
One child was carried from Sandy Hook Elementary School by a police officer, and the child appeared to have been wounded, the town's weekly newspaper, the Newtown Bee, said on its website.
Connecticut State Police said its officers were at the scene with local police but provided no additional details. The emergency call to police occurred at 9:41 a.m., state police said.
Newtown, with a population about 27,000, is in northern Fairfield County, about 45 miles southwest of Hartford and 80 miles northeast of New York City.
Sandy Hook is one of four elementary schools in the district.
The United States has experienced a number of mass shooting rampages this year, most recently in Oregon, where a gunman opened fire at a shopping mall on Tuesday, killing two people and then himself.
The deadliest attack came in July at a midnight screening of a Batman film in Colorado that killed 12 people and wounded 58.
