Newtown residents press for gun control at hearing

Gary Stoller, USA TODAY | USATODAY

NEWTOWN, Conn. — During an emotional six-hour hearing inside Newtown High School Wednesday night, parents, top local officials, and law enforcement officers made an impassioned call for stricter gun-control measures following the massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school on Dec. 14.

The parents of children killed in last month's shootings said during the state hearing that society must learn from the December massacre.

Parent David Wheeler said his son, Ben, was lost "to an unstable, suicidal individual who had access to a weapon that has no place in a home."

Wheeler was referring to gunman Adam Lanza, who took his own life after killing his mother, Nancy Lanza, and 26 others at Sandy Hook Elementary. Wheeler told the members of the Connecticut Legislature presiding over the hearing that access to weapons is where they must focus their efforts.

"Military-style assault weapons belong in an armory under lock and key, not in a weapons safe at home," Wheeler said.

He also pressed for a better way to identify people in mental distress "that leaves their dignity and self-respect intact."

The hearing is the final one of the Connecticut legislature's task force on gun violence prevention and children's safety. It is the first one in Newtown — a community still reeling as it tries to recover from the events of Dec. 14.

It also comes as Congress, prodded by the tragedy, debates gun-control measures.

The hearing stood in contrast to Monday's hearing in Hartford, during which numerous gun owners told Connecticut lawmakers that no new gun-control measures should be enacted. Nearly all the Newtown residents who spoke Wednesday called for tougher gun-control laws.

Parent Nicole Hockley said she will remember forever the wailing of her son, Jake, when he was told that his brother, Dylan, had died. Hockley said a gun like the one used in the shootings might be safe with an expert, but, "in the hands of someone with a mental imbalance, it's a death machine."

Parent Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse was killed in the massacre, told the hearing that she thinks about "kissing Jesse's sleeping cheek all the time."

She said the world must learn from the way it united over the tragedy. "We need to hold onto that feeling of oneness," she said. "Let's turn this tragedy into the event that turned the tide."

Mary Ann Jacob, who was working in the school library when the Sandy Hook attack took place, said she heard hundreds of shots "that seemed to last forever." Of Lanza, she said, "No one needs a gun that can shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition in three minutes."

Douglas Fuchs, a Newtown resident who is police chief in neighboring Redding, Conn., called for a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazine clips. "No one has ever made a cogent argument" as to why public citizens should have access to assault weapons, he said.

Earlier in the night, Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra, who received a standing ovation from the audience and the legislature before she spoke, called for similar bans.

Llodra, a Republican who is the town's chief executive, said weapons like the Bushmaster rifle used by Lanza in the fatal shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School should not be in the hands of public citizens.

Llodra said she wonders "how we as a society have become so desensitized to violence," and called for improved access to good mental health care and safer schools.

David Ackert suggested heavily taxing guns and related products as a way to curb violence, citing safety messages and taxes imposed on tobacco products to discourage use. "Please stand up to the self-serving gun lobby,'' said Ackert, founder of the Newtown Action Alliance, which aims to curb mass shootings.

While most attendees called for stricter gun control measures, some speakers defended the right to bear arms.

Newtown resident Michael Early, a hunter and military veteran, said the "common denominator" in these mass shootings is mental health. "It's a shame that I have to be here tonight to defend the Second Amendment," Early said.

Michael Majeski, a Newtown resident, cautioned the Legislature "against any rush to add more laws." He said moves to enact legislation in response to the Sandy Hook tragedy are a "knee-jerk reaction to a criminal who broke laws."

The full Connecticut Legislature attended Wednesday night's hearing, unlike three previous hearings over which smaller legislative groups presided.

The Newtown tragedy led to the creation of the state legislature's task force, which held the three previous hearings in Hartford. The first hearing on Jan. 25 focused on school safety, the second hearing on Monday was about guns and yesterday's hearing was on mental health.

Wednesday's hearing started shortly after 6 p.m. ET and ended at midnight.

Contributing: Melanie Eversley, William M. Welch; Alia E. Dastagir