Obama promises Newtown, Conn., he’ll do more to protect children

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Before a town devastated by a rampage against its children, and a nation wondering how it could happen again, President Obama vowed to use the power of his office to prevent such calamities and fulfill what he called America’s foremost obligation.

“Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?” Obama asked. “I have been reflecting on this in the past few days, and if we are honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We are not doing enough and we will have to change.”

His remarks departed from similar speeches after other mass shootings, when he made vague calls for conversation but did not promise action. Though he made no specific policy proposals Sunday, his statements strongly signaled a political battle to come over gun control.

TRANSCRIPT AND VIDEO: Obama’s full speech

“In the coming weeks I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have? We can’t accept events like this as routine.

“Are we really prepared to say we are powerless in the face of such carnage? That the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?”

Obama’s speech Sunday evening capped a cold, rainy day in Newtown that seemed to augur the toll setting in from Friday’s shooting. Residents huddled together in their homes, sought solace in churches and set up makeshift memorials for the 20 first-graders and six staff members killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Funerals were set to begin Monday.

“Everyone is trying to sit together and support each other right now,” said Kalianna Faust, 16, a student serving coffee at Caraluzzi’s grocery store. Between shifts, Faust had been obsessively scrolling through her friends’ Twitter and Facebook accounts, reading tributes and gazing forlornly at photographs of the dead children. Her 15-year-old sister, Monica, spent the weekend holed up in sorrow in her bedroom. Kalianna ventured out only on Saturday to light candles at the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church.

“We just hold each other and watch the news,” she said.

FULL COVERAGE: Shooting at Connecticut school

Many turned to St. Rose for comfort. Even the normally sparse 7:30 a.m. Mass was filled to capacity Sunday. The vaulted red-brick church, set behind stately trees, lost eight young members Friday and has eight funerals to prepare.

People came to find a shred of peace, to memorialize angels that so recently sat and fidgeted among them in the pews. But they met only new despair. During the noon Mass, Msgr. Robert Weiss abruptly interrupted the sermon to evacuate the building; a threat had been called into the church’s offices.

“It was a menacing call that threatened to disrupt the Mass in a violent way,” said a stoic Brian Wallace, spokesman for the diocese, standing in front of the church.

Filing out, people were “distressed” and “very sad,” he said. “There was some anger. But no panic. We have seen incredible dignity in the faces of these people.”

Police searched the premises and determined there was no danger, but the day’s events were canceled.

“I don’t think anyone can be surprised about anything after what has happened,” Wallace said.

Authorities continued Sunday to release details about the shooting, but nothing to answer why it happened.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, carried hundreds of bullets when he shot his way into the school and fired a Bushmaster .223 semiautomatic rifle at the children and adults, Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said Sunday. Lanza then shot himself in the head with a Glock 10-millimeter handgun.

“The Bushmaster was used in the school, in its entirety,” Vance said.

WHO THEY WERE: Shooting victims

Lanza carried multiple, high-capacity magazines for the rifle, each with 30 rounds, and multiple magazines for both handguns, with “hundreds of bullets,” Vance said. He was also armed with a Sig Sauer pistol. A shotgun, the type of which was not identified, was found in the trunk of his car outside the school.

Before going to the school, Lanza shot his mother in the head multiple times, Vance said. Authorities did not say what type of gun he used on Nancy Lanza, 52.

The fact that a type of assault weapon — federally banned until 2004 — was used to kill 6- and 7-year-old children, renewed debate on gun control in Connecticut and Washington.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pledged Sunday that she would introduce new gun-control legislation at the beginning of next year’s congressional session.

Feinstein, a leading figure in the passage of a 1994 bill that banned assault weapons, said her legislation would be a renewed version of the original to get “weapons of war off the streets of our cities.”

On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, said even his state’s strict gun laws were not enough.

PHOTOS: Connecticut school shooting

“These are assault weapons. You don’t hunt deer with these things,” Malloy said. “And I think that’s the question that a lot of people are going to have to resolve in their own minds. Where should this line get drawn?”

Closer to home, guns were the talk at Sacred Heart Church, just east of Newtown. With a crowd of worshipers spilling outside into the vestibule, Pastor Joseph “Father Joe” Donnelly lamented that violence had become “such a pervasive part of our culture.”

“Assault weaponry?” Donnelly asked, his voice etched with outrage. “Who needs that in their house?

“May this particular tragedy and this particular Christmas come together to accomplish something we have been talking about for decades, and maybe we just might be able to do it.”

He said his flock had peppered him with the inevitable, confounding question: Why did God let this happen? He explained that God endowed humans with free will.

“You and I have to live with other people’s freedom to do good and evil,” he said. “Where is the good God in the middle of all of this? He is weeping with us. He is weeping with Sandy Hook.”

So was the nation. Grief counselors and child psychologists from all over the country gathered at Reed Intermediate School in Newtown to console families.

In one of the school’s brightly lit art class rooms, three volunteers in red T-shirts set out paint brushes, arranged stuffed animals and spread out puzzle pieces decorated with candy canes for children to put back together.

While the children played, parents talked through the effects of the shooting with mental health professionals and were given techniques to help their children handle their grief and fear. Just two days earlier, many of the same children huddled in classrooms, closets and bathrooms as a gunman hunted down their classmates.

“Playing helps them maintain a sense of normalcy amid all the chaos,” said Ken Murdoch, who has lived in Newtown for nearly 20 years and helped set up the room. “They can still have their childhood.”

Murdoch is the chief information officer for Save the Children, an international aid organization based in Westport, Conn., that sponsored the playroom. The organization delivers food to children and, in times of disasters, sets up child-care rooms like this one where children can briefly escape the traumatic events around them.

He never thought he would be doing this in his hometown.

“My heart bleeds for these kids,” Murdoch said.

Jeanne-Aimee De Marrais, who played with children over the weekend here and is director of U.S. emergency programs for Save the Children, said that many children came into the sunny room looking “closed off” and “shut down.” But once they started to play, “the weight lifted off.”

One father said his son had been in a classroom next to the shooting. “If you can get him to say something, that would be great,” the man whispered. After a few minutes of playing, the boy began to open up and talk with other children.

One boy told De Marrais about how his teacher locked his class in the bathroom for two hours and there was nothing to do except play tic-tac-toe. “It was so boring and so scary,” he told her.

As children made reindeer ornaments out of clothespins, De Marrais tried to ask questions about their holiday plans.

“They need to know there is something to look forward to, that things will go on,” she said, suddenly tearing up. “This is a place of joy. There can be no sadness here.”

A makeshift memorial has sprung up at the base of a flag pole outside the rooms being used for counseling. One student painted yellow rays of sun and a picture of Sandy Hook Elementary School’s principal, Dawn Hochsprung, who was killed as she lunged to stop the gunman.

Written in silver glitter and pink letters across the page are the words: “Dear Mrs. Hochsprung you are so nice because you take care of us.”

Obama arrived in the early evening and met with the families of victims. In his speech at Newtown High School, he talked of teachers’ heroics, children’s bravery and the town’s strength and solidarity.

He told how one teacher hunkered down with her students in a bathroom and told them to be quiet and “wait for the good guys to come.”

One boy said: “I know karate. So it’s OK, I’ll lead the way out.”

Obama said the country was inspired by Newtown.

“I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow nor can they heal your wounded hearts. I can only hope it helps for you to know you are not alone in your grief, that our world too has been torn apart, that all across this land of ours we have wept with you. We’ve pulled our children tight.

TRANSCRIPT AND VIDEO: Obama’s full speech

“You must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide. Whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear. Newtown, you are not alone,” he said.

At the end of his speech, as the audience wept and wiped their eyes, Obama slowly read the first names of the 20 children killed: “Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase. Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison.”

“God has called you home. For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on and make us worthy of their memory.”

tina.susman@latimes.com

brian.bennett@latimes.com

joe.mozingo@latimes.com

Susman and Bennett reported from Newtown and Mozingo from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Matt Pearce in Los Angeles and Kathleen Hennessey and Richard A. Serrano in Washington contributed to this report.