Pause in Gunfire May Have Saved a Half-Dozen Children in Newtown, Conn.
Pause in Gunfire May Have Saved a Half-Dozen Children in Newtown, Conn. : Page All - NorthJersey.com
A momentary pause in Adam Lanza’s shooting spree may have been the difference between life and death for a half-dozen first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
A source said the Bushmaster assault rifle that Lanza used in the shooting is at the Connecticut State Police forensic laboratory undergoing several tests, including tests to determine whether it was jammed. The children escaped from the first-grade classroom of teacher Victoria Soto, one of the six adults Lanza killed in the school after shooting his way through a glass door with the .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle on the morning of Dec. 14.
The revelation by law enforcement sources investigating the second-worst mass shooting in U.S. history comes as the debate over gun control grows more divisive and the head of the NRA maintains that not a single new gun law would make children safer.
“Look, a gun is a tool. The problem is the criminal,” said Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the nation’s largest gun-rights lobby, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
LaPierre’s assertion on Friday that guns and police officers in all schools are what will stop the next killer drew widespread scorn, and even some NRA supporters in Congress are publicly disagreeing with the proposal. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., called it “the most revolting, tone deaf statement I’ve ever seen.”