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Victims Remembered; Gun Control in America; Investigating Adam Lanza; Post-Traumatic Stress in Children

Aired December 17, 2012 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield live in Newtown, Connecticut. A town in mourning to say the least. The images that we have seen throughout this town are heartbreaking. Makeshift memorials on several street corners. Everything from teddy bears to candles to flowers and angels' wings.

It is such a beautiful community here. Just so quiet and pristine and bucolic because what you can hear about Newtown, Connecticut, and it is so filled with grief. It is only the beginning though as this town prepares to bury those who were killed on Friday. And there will be so many burials. The first of the funerals begins today at 1:00 p.m., these would beautiful children, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner.

It is going to be a tragic several weeks and no one knew that more than President Obama who came here to speak to this town at a touching memorial last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Surely, we do better than this. If there is even one step we can take to save another child or another parent or another town from the grief that's visited Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek and Newtown, in communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that, then surely we have an obligation to try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Surely we have an obligation to try, as Newtown remembers.

Here are some other tragedies. Adam Lanza has been identified officially as the killer. That is his mother in better times on the right, Nancy Lanza. Her home remains a crime scene and it will remain so for quite some time.

The police aren't giving any indication right now as to a motive, although they say they are accumulating quite a bit of evidence, including the hard drive of his computer at home, apparently, the computer, though, smashed.

They also say that two adults at Sandy Hook Elementary are recovering from gunshot wounds. Now, we are now hearing two survivors who were shot, they are expected to be able to help in the investigation. The police saying today when it is appropriate, when the time is right, they will be able to question those two adults further. We don't know when those 600-some-odd kids will be able to return to school, those children from Sandy Hook Elementary. We're now told that that school is closed indefinitely until they are able to reopen it.

But it is a crime scene and there is a lot of processing and, so, this morning, we were told that it could be months and months before that school opens. And the same goes for the Lanza family home.

Here is the latest word from the Connecticut state police this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEUTENANT J. PAUL VANCE, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: We are holding both crime scenes, the school and the secondary crime scene, indefinitely. We've seized it under search warrants and we're going to hold those locations until we've completed our work and we feel it is appropriate to let them go.

So, as not to read anything into that, it is common practice to do that, to hold on to the crime scene, as long as is needed for investigatory purposes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: My colleague, Don Lemon, joins me now.

You've been doing a lot of coverage, Don, on this since this broke on Friday. I want to talk a little bit about the schools. They've been trying to piece together some kind of plan not only for the kids at Sandy Hook, but also all of the kids in the district here in Newtown.

What do they know so far?

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And not only for the kids, for the teachers, as well, and staff. They don't feel safe.

They're beefing -- they're adding officers. You heard J. Paul Vance talk about it in his press conference. Beefing up security, they have officers at schools and, of course, the school officers are already there. They will make sure that they have more.

And that's what they are doing to assure safety as much as they can as possible for people who are going back to school and are concerned about this.

And they said that they're meeting with teachers, as well, and staff.

BANFIELD: No one today.

LEMON: No one today.

BANFIELD: No one today, back at school, though.

LEMON: No. No one is back at school, but they're meeting with teachers and they have plans to meet with them all week until they figure out exactly when they want to go back (INAUDIBLE) ...

BANFIELD: So, it's likely that the rest of the children outside of Sandy Hook will be going back to their schools around this district tomorrow, obviously with a whole other plan and mode for how to handle the crisis that has happened.

LEMON: And it's a working plan. Because, you know, what happened here was extraordinary. And, as you have been walking around here and talking to people and I have, everyone's wearing their hearts on their sleeve. And they walk up and they want to hug us and touch us ...

BANFIELD: Even the police.

LEMON: Even the police.

BANFIELD: Even the police. It's not something we see when we arrive on these emergency locations which you and I have done for so many years. There's often a tension between the police and the press and the people and I'm not feeling that as much here as I ever have.

LEMON: To have people walk up and usually they're like oh, my gosh, you guys have taken over our town. They're like, thank you so much for being here.

And it's very refreshing in a way and it also lets us know that, as tragic as this is, and you have kids who are in school in Connecticut, that this -- the communities around here, people really pull together and reaching out and they will get better.

BANFIELD: There are people that I just encountered this morning from 20, 30, 45 minutes away that have just come to bring teddy bears and just see or just be or just feel or just at least show that they care.

One other quick thing I wanted to ask you, as far as those 600 or so kids from Sandy Hook, they're not going to be going back for several months to that school, but they are make arrangements -- is it Chalk Hill School in Monroe?

LEMON: It's in Monroe, Chalk Hill School in Monroe, and that was the initial word. We got the official word last night, but, again, as we say, it is a work in progress because they've had to talk to parents, they've got to talk to teachers and staff and make sure that the facility is big enough to take in all of the students who are at the school here that won't be going back to the school here.

But I want to say this just before we go. I thought one of the people I spoke to yesterday who knew Nancy Lanza, one of her friends, said our town has changed forever and it's definitely changed over the last couple of days.

He says, as we were talking, sirens were going off and, you know, there was a motorcade going by of some dignitary. It wasn't the president. And he said it is like we're in the middle of a circus except nobody is having fun with this. And that sums up what's happening in this town. BANFIELD: I thought that Friday night as I was driving away from this town late about -- I think it was midnight when we might have finally wrapped up here. I was driving along and seeing all the Christmas lights and seeing all the lights on inside these homes, realizing a lot of these homes may be the ones affected.

And there were so many that I thought this town will never, ever be the same, without question.

LEMON: Those 20 kids will not be running down the stairs and bolting towards a Christmas tree to see what Santa left them. Instead their parents are trying to pick out coffins for them. And that's a sad reality.

BANFIELD: All right, Don, thank you. Don, stand by, if you will

Our colleague, Alison Kosik, has been working on the other side of this story which is the investigation which has to go on as those who mourn and plan their burials.

Those police officers who are now being dispatched to cover the funerals and do security for funerals are also working on the investigation of Adam Lanza, why he did what he did, how he did what he did and exactly how it all transpired.

Still, the timeline isn't very clear, but Alison Kosik is live out in front of the Lanza home. Alison, what are you finding out today?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, we're standing in front of the Lanza home. It's the one behind me here on the hill. It's really picturesque when you look at it. It's huge. It's sitting on a beautiful green lawn. There's even a wreath over the front door.

This, though is still an active crime scene and the investigation really does continue into what Adam Lanza was doing in the days and the weeks and the months before this massacre on Friday.

And investigators now have proof that the gunman -- was -- at, at least, one shooting range. They're not say when. They're not saying where.

They're also saying that his mother, Nancy Lanza, who also lived with him at the house behind me, who he shot and killed before he went to the school, that she also visited at least one shooting range several times. Once again, they're not saying when. They're not saying where.

And there was a press conference, also, a short time ago where police were asked if they recovered anything from a smashed hard drive and the way the lieutenant put it is that they're investigating all electronic evidence in this case.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: Alison, I'm just curious. Oftentimes when we cover these tragedies, the person at the center is -- leaves some kind after footprint behind, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, photographs from the yearbook. There seems to be some kind of a -- at least a photographic personality we can put together. We can get interviews with people who knew them to at least try to piece together what kind of people they were.

This is one of those stories where we have had a terribly difficult time figuring out who this young man was or even finding out what he looks like. Why is that?

KOSIK: It has been very tough because this is a family that -- the mother and the son who lived behind me, they kept to themselves. They really weren't that sociable. At least, that's what we hear from neighbors.

You know, what we know is what he did on Friday. He sort of came out into the open. He shot his way into that school. He fired dozens of bullets into his victims, using a semiautomatic weapon.

And did you know, Ashleigh, he had hundreds of unused bullets on him and it really makes you think he was really out to kill.

And at this same news conference that I'm talking about, someone had asked the lieutenant, was he out to kill that much? And the police didn't want to go that far. Listen to how police put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I can't speculate what would have occurred. That would be wrong on my part.

I can tell you that the faculty and staff in that school did everything that they possibly could to protect those children.

I can tell you that the first responders that got to that scene, when the active-shooter team entered the school and saved many human lives.

And I can tell you it broke our hearts that we couldn't save them all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: And authorities found three weapons in the classroom inside that school. And, Ashleigh, they found one other weapon, a fourth weapon, a shotgun inside his car that was parked in the school parking lot.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: All right, Alison Kosik for us live this morning. Thank you for that.

Obviously, the police have said that they have an extraordinary amount of work ahead of them. Not only are they processing that school as a crime scene, which the officer said this morning could take months, but they are also trying to find out why this young man did what he did, how he perpetrated this crime and if there was anything anyone could have done to prevent it.

We have more from Dr. Sanjay Gupta after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR DANNEL MALLOY (D), CONNECTICUT: We will move on. We will never forget. We will, in many ways, become stronger from what has transpired. And we will get better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The Connecticut governor speaking at a memorial -- a touching memorial -- last night. Hundreds of people crowding into the high school here where the president was, as well, saying that we will get better.

Newtown will get better, but they will be forever scarred. The emotional toll that this will take not only on the people here, but people everywhere.

Just a personal anecdote, I don't live far from here. I have two small children in an elementary school and we've been getting regular updates and e-mails about how our school is going to be handling this and our district is going to be handling thing.

And this just you an idea of reverberations that this kind of a tragedy is having close by -- the security that will be beefed up at other schools around this community, the mental health professionals that are going to be on-site, the meetings that were taking place district-wide.

Again, this is in my school district just a few towns away just to handle what these kids will likely be coming to school with because they'll have heard it on the news or they'll have heard it from their parents or they will have heard it on the playground.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now to talk about not only what, obviously, these children in Newtown are going through, but all kids as we go throughout Connecticut, Georgia, California, Washington state. I mean, it is really a powerful, powerful thing to process.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We -- and we know that even, obviously, people who are most directly involved are going to having the highest impact and greatest impact on them.

But, yeah, you're right. The people who are more remote that have been watching it, learning about it, talking about it, there have been studies on this, Ashleigh, and they find that there's a component of post-traumatic stress even in those populations.

We're talking about children here. We typically think about post- traumatic stress in adults, but even after Virginia Tech, for example, up to a few months later, 15 percent of people who were involved -- went to colleges, who watched this very closely, still had some component of it.

Seventy-seven percent of students at Virginia Tech had it, so obviously much higher in the people most ...

BANFIELD: Wow, 77 percent?

GUPTA: Even three to four months later, so, you know, it's significant.

There's a couple of things to keep in mind. One is that the quicker some of those symptoms and signs are recognized and dealt with, the much better prognosis people have. These are tough conversations but, you know, they're important in terms of trying to ward off these symptom.

BANFIELD: My school district -- again, just a couple of towns away -- suggested we talk to our children and we let them know. So, I had that conversation with my kids on Saturday and I wasn't quite sure what to make of their reaction.

They seemed very disinterested. They were playing with their toys while I was telling them. I tried to mitigate some of the detail, obviously, and the devastating fact.

But I wonder if this is something where, you know, in a couple of weeks or months, they're going to start questioning me more, where it'll start to settle in and affect them at a different time.

GUPTA: No question. You've just given sort of a textbook example of that.

First of all, how children, you know, sort of react. You know, they can be decidedly non-verbal. You watch how they're playing, how they're interacting with each other, most importantly, how they're sleeping. That is a very, very powerful predictor of how they are going to cope in the long run.

But they may seem disinterested. There are stages to grief, Ashleigh. I know you've talked about this. People know that and children can go through these stages differently than adults.

But you're right. That conversation could happen at any time.

BANFIELD: Just quickly, let me ask you this. Some of those children who witnessed this, they were asked to avert their eyes as they left the building, but clearly, they are going to need so much care and attention.

Can we help them? Can we truly help these little children get over what they've gone through?

GUPTA: I think so and, if there is any good news in this, that seems to be a consistent answer that I've received as well from the experts who deal with this sort of thing.

Again, everything here is unprecedented, so you can't say, oh -- there's no template, but, you know, they can over it in the sense that -- you know, go on to have functional lives.

Getting over it doesn't mean forgetting it or ignoring it, but, you know, going on to have normal lives and normal activities and daily living, I think absolutely.

BANFIELD: Dr. Gupta, I wish we could talk under different circumstances.

GUPTA: I know.

BANFIELD: I always appreciate your insight.

GUPTA: Yours, as well. I watched you from the beginning and I think, you know, being a parent myself, you just -- you really -- I think you brought it home and made it something, you know, relevant to people.

BANFIELD: I'm finding that all of our colleagues are affected in a way I've never seen before. Reminds me of 9/11 somewhat.

GUTPA: Yeah, I know.

BANFIELD: Dr. Gupta's going to stay on-scene with us and we're going to continue to bring all the details as we can. It's a very difficult story for everyone.

It's important we share this because I think a lot of people across the country and around the world are feeling it. They're feeling it like we are and they're feeling it and they want to pour out their hearts to this community, as well.

We'll be right back after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Some of the moving moments from the memorial last night here in the town of Newtown, Connecticut, at the high school. If you didn't see it, it was just such an emotional time between the interfaith members of the community here and the president himself.

There have been a couple of different reactions across the country to what has been happening. I mean this in a technical way. San Francisco-Oakland area, there was a gun buy-back, several different events, gun buy-back events.

They were planned before what happened here in Newtown, but there were much larger crowds turning out than they had expected. You can see some of the evidence of what had been brought in.

People were given about $200 to bring in their guns and just hand them over to the authorities. And the local reports say that about 600 guns were turned in over the course of this event, some people saying to the authorities that they just needed to have those guns out of their homes.

The president is calling for, quote, "meaningful action" on guns and many Democrats are calling for strict new gun control laws. Of course, the assault weapons ban expired in 2004 and there is some talk that maybe -- maybe -- bringing that back would be afoot.

The effect of what you saw in San Francisco and Oakland was different elsewhere, for instance, like Arizona. Some of the gun buyers in Arizona became very afraid actually that this new national conversation, particularly in light of what happened this beautiful town, could make it very difficult all of a sudden to get certain kinds of guns.

CNN's Casey Wian with more on that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson, a movie theater in Colorado, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, an Oregon shopping mall.

Even with those mass shootings, it has become easier for most Americans to carry a gun, own an assault rifle or use high-capacity magazines.

But in the aftermath of Connecticut, voices, most notably from a tearful President Obama, are calling for tighter gun control. You won't hear them at a California gun show held the day after the Connecticut massacre.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody is in a panic. I've never seen so many people at a gun show. I think they're worried about their Second Amendment rights.

WIAN: There is sympathy for the victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's horrible that those children did die.

WIAN: But the solution here? More guns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If one of those teachers, one of them, a faculty member, a janitor, had a gun, bam, he would have killed an eighth -- nothing compared to what he was capable of doing. You have to allow us to protect ourselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guns really didn't kill people. It was the person who was crazy. He was mentally unstable.

WIAN: Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper said, two days before the Connecticut shooting, it's time to consider gun control legislation, but acknowledges it will be difficult.

GOVERNOR JOHN D. HICKENLOOPER (D), COLORADO: I took my son, 10-year- old son out shooting pigeons two weeks ago. I think that part of it -- that part of a gun culture is so deeply ingrained in Colorado, in the United States, I mean, literally almost everywhere, that to try and change it would be, you know, a very steep hill to climb.

WIAN: There is a precedent. Great Britain banned nearly all handguns after a mass shooting at a primary school in 1996.

At a Mesa, Arizona, elementary school, parents reflected, a nation divided over gun control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There should be more gun control, yes.

WIAN: Why do you think that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, guns are -- guns in the wrong hands are very dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guns don't kill people. People kill people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely, it should be a gun control issue. There should be no guns out there. A lot of crazy people don't know how to handle guns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think that taking guns out of civilians who are good contributing members of society are the answer.

WIAN: Since the Connecticut shooting more than 100,000 Americans have signed an online petition demanding President Obama produce legislation limiting access to guns.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: And Casey Wian joins me live now outside of an elementary school in Phoenix.

And, Casey, watching that story, you are reminded of the juxtaposition of the opinion that so many people want their freedoms and their right to bear arms and so many people fear what that freedom could bring, as well.

Talk to me about what you're feeling in that community today.

WIAN: Well, it's really a community divided. It's a nation divided, Ashleigh, on this issue.

That last parent who was in our report who we spoke with, he's an assistant pastor at a local church here and he says he believes the answer is for more people to be armed. You hear that a lot from gun rights advocates.

And at that gun show in California over the weekend, people were busily buying guns, afraid that gun control legislation could be on the horizon, wanting to get the guns they wanted before that happened.

Also, talked to a lot of parents in places like that are very afraid and say now is the time important gun control. It is long overdue. They are worried about bringing their kids to a place like this where they are supposed to be safe and realizing they're really not, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Casey Wian, live for us in Phoenix, Arizona, thank you for that.

And, by the way, I just wanted to quote a statistic for you. In case you're wondering about the number of people who are interested in buying guns, the FBI is reporting that just this year -- just this year, 2012 -- 16.8 million background checks were performed for gun purchases.

And how does that compare to, say, 10 years ago? That is double the number than a decade ago.

We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REVEREND MATT CREBBIN, SENIOR MINISTER, NEWTOWN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH: We needed to be together here in this room, in the gymnasium outside the doors of this school, in living rooms around the world. We needed to be together to show that we are together and united.

(END VIDEO CLIP)