President Barack Obama wipes his eye as he speaks about the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, in the briefing room of the White House.
Obama: 'Our Hearts Are Broken Today'
WHITE HOUSE —
U.S. President Barack Obama wiped away tears Friday, as he offered government support and emotional support to the families of those killed in a mass shooting in a school in Connecticut. Obama said he was reacting as a parent, not a president.
As the father of two daughters, the president said “our hearts are broken,” and he spoke of parents across the country hugging their children tighter tonight.
“We have endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learned the news, I react not as a president, but as anybody else would, as a parent,” he said. "And that was especially true today. I know there is not a parent in America who does not feel the same overwhelming grief that I do. The majority of those who died today were children - beautiful little kids between the ages of five and 10 years old.”
Photo Gallery:
Deadly Elementary School Shooting in Connecticut
Reports from the northeastern U.S. state of Connecticut say at least 20 people, including children, were killed in a shooting at an elementary school.
Mass killings in US fact box
Mass killings, like Friday's schoolhouse slaughter in Connecticut, have become a troubling and recurring fact of life in the United States.
Other recent mass shootings include:
* August 2012: An Army veteran kills five men and a woman at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
* July 2012: A student opens fire at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie at a Colorado theater, killing 12.
* January 2011: U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 other people are shot outside a supermarket in Arizona.
* November 2009: An Army psychiatrist kills 13 soldiers and civilians on the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.
* April 2007: A students kills 32 people on the campus of a large university, Virginia Tech.
* April 1999: Two students at a Colorado high school kill 12 classmates and a teacher.
The Mother Jones magazine says that since 1982, there have been at least 61 mass murders in the U.S., which U.S. authorities define as an assault in which a gunman kills four or more people, typically in a single location.
The president spoke several hours after children and adults were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Obama paused several times during his short statement and struggled to keep his composure when he described the victims.
“They had their entire lives ahead of them - birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own,” he said. "Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.”
This is at least the 10th mass shooting in the United States since Obama took office in January 2009, with several taking place in previous years.
The president mentioned several of the incidents, including the killings of three people at a shopping mall in the northwestern state of Oregon just three days earlier.
He said something must be done to stop further violence in public places.
“These neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children," he said. "And we are going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”
Obama did not discuss specific steps that might be taken. Social media in the United States were full of demands Friday for tougher gun control legislation.
Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the president remains committed to renewing the federal ban on assault weapons, which lapsed in 2004.
Out of respect for the shooting victims, Obama has ordered the flag atop the White House flown at half-staff, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, has done the same at the U.S. Capitol.
Speaker Boehner has released a written statement, calling on Americans to “lock arms and unite as citizens…to rise above unspeakable evil.”
