NEWTOWN, Conn./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many Americans remembered the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre with a moment of silence on Friday, as a powerful U.S. gun rights lobbying group prepared to plunge into the national debate over gun control.
At the Sandy Hook fire house, where worried parents had gathered a week earlier to wait for news about their children, a handful of people gathered in a driving rain on Friday morning. One couple worked to steady one of the 26 trees that have been placed there as a memorial after it was blown down in the wind.
In the leafy suburban town's downtown, a makeshift memorial rose several feet around two Christmas trees with teddy bears, flower bouquets and printed cards with messages like "We Choose Love" and "Our Newtown Angels rest in Peace." They were memorials to the 20 children, all aged 6 and 7, who died in one of the deadliest mass shooting incidents in U.S. history.
As the church bells began to ring at 9:30 a.m. EST, a small crowd lowered their heads and wept quietly under a steady rain. Churches up and down the East Coast, as far south as Florida and at the National Cathedral in Washington, rang their bells.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy had called for residents of his state to observe the moment of silence to mark a week since a 20-year-old gunman killed his mother and then stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. He killed a total of 28 people that day, including six school teachers and staff, his mother and himself.
Governors in Maine, Illinois, Michigan and several other states also called for moments of silence.
"We have the moral obligation to stand for and with the victims of gun violence and to work to end it," said Reverend Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral, who called on Americans to pray "that we may have courage to act, so that the murderous violence done on Friday may never be repeated."
NRA PLANS NEWS CONFERENCE
The observances were held not long before the National Rifle Association, the largest U.S. gun rights group and one with powerful ties to Washington politicians, was to begin a media campaign to become part of the gun control debate prompted by the massacre.
Laws restricting gun ownership are controversial in the United States, a nation with a strong culture of individual gun ownership. The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms. Hundreds of millions of weapons are in private hands.
About 11,100 Americans died in gun-related killings in 2011, not including suicides, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The NRA remained quiet for four days after the Newtown slaughter, citing "common decency." It released a short statement on Tuesday saying it was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."
The group scheduled a news conference for 10:45 a.m. on Friday in Washington. NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre planned to appear on the NBC television talk show "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
Some U.S. lawmakers called for swift passage of an assault weapons ban.
Vice President Joe Biden convened a new White House task force on Thursday charged by President Barack Obama with finding ways to quell violence.
"We have to have a comprehensive way in which to respond to the mass murder of our children that we saw in Connecticut," Biden told the group, which included Attorney General Eric Holder, Thomas Nee, president of the National Association of Police Organizations, and other officials.
The gunman, Adam Lanza, used a military-style assault rifle and police said he carried hundreds of bullets in high-capacity magazines, as well as two handguns. The weapons were legally purchased and registered to his mother, Nancy, his first victim.
By Thursday, funeral services had been held for more than half of the 27 people Lanza killed last week.
Newtown school officials said that Friday would be a shortened day for students heading into the Christmas break.
Reflecting a heightened state of alert at schools across the United States, a school district near Boise, Idaho, canceled planned assemblies at a number of its 50 schools after receiving a rash of threats that suggested "something bad" would happen on Friday, Meridian school spokesman Eric Exline said.
In Florida, a 13-year-old student was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly posted a Facebook message threatening to "bring a gun to school tomorrow and shoot everyone," said the St. Lucie County Sheriff's office on Florida's east coast.
Even non-violent gestures brought swift retribution. In Roberta, Georgia, a 16-year-old high school student was questioned by police and suspended from school indefinitely after posting on Facebook that he planned a "big surprise" at school, according to The Telegraph of Macon, Georgia.
He had planned to dress up as Santa Claus and hand out candy to classmates.
(Additional reporting by Dan Burns; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Will Dunham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-funerals-newtown-white-house-gun-task-force-003934633.html
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