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Funerals Today Add To Town's Grief; New Details On Connecticut Gunman; Computers At Lanza Home Smashed; Sales of Semi-Automatics Jump; Gun Laws Are As Varied As States

Aired December 18, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Most of the students in Newtown, Connecticut are back in school today but life as you can imagine is anything but routine. Sandy Hook Elementary remains closed. Funerals are held for two more children killed in that massacre. I'm Suzanne Malveaux in Atlanta.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Suzanne. I'm Ashleigh Banfield in Newtown, Connecticut. And this is NEWSROOM special coverage Newtown Remembers. Today, families are saying good bye to a six-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy. Yesterday, two little boys were laid to rest. It is a heartbreaking scene that is playing out over and over and it will continue to do so this week. Connecticut's governor is trying to comfort the grieving families here.

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GOV. DANNEL MALLOY, CONNECTICUT: The reality with respect to the relatives as you try to feel their pain but you can't. You try to find some words that you hope will be adequate, knowing that they'll be inadequate. And you see little coffins and your heart has to ache.

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BANFIELD: Governor Dan Malloy. And we also want to update you on the new developments in the aftermath of the tragedy here in Newtown. The schools are back in session for the first time since Friday's massacre. And the sight of buses perhaps a bright spot.

That said, more police and extra counselors are on hand to make sure that this transition goes smoothly. Sandy Hook Elementary where this massacre took place, that will remain closed for the foreseeable future until further notice. More funeral services being held today. One of them, six-year-old Jessica Rekos. She loved horses, and she was expecting a brand-new pair of cowgirl boots for Christmas, her parents tell CNN.

And also, a former director of security for Newtown schools is shedding light on the gunman who perpetrated this horror. That person was assigned to keep track of students who were having problems, students including Adam Lanza. But he also says he never thought of Adam Lanza particularly as a threat. We want to update you more on the investigation into this massive crime. And some more information, new information, that we're just getting in now from the medical examiner. Our Deb Feyerick has been working that part of the story, and she's outside of the Lanza home with more details on that angle. Deb, can you get us up to speed?

DEB FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We want to let you know that a number of investigators are on scene right now. They're looking at whatever they can that remains inside the house. You know, one of the big problems about this investigation, Ashleigh, is that authorities are confirming that, in fact, the computer that belonged to Adam Lanza was, in fact, smashed. And so, they are having difficulty re-creating all the forensic information.

We want to talk to you a little about a conversation with the medical examiner, H. Wayne Carver. He confirms to CNN that, in fact, toxicology tests were performed on the body of Adam Lanza to determine whether, in fact, he was on any kinds of medication that may have triggered this violent outburst.

Also, although the medical examiner was told that, in fact, he has Aspergers, the medical examiner's being extra careful, trying to determine whether that's all that was going on in this young man. He is trying to see whether there was something else, something deeper, something more pathological, something psychiatric. The bodies of the mom and her son, autopsies were completed. They've not been released. Nobody's claimed them yet. What's going to happen is that the bodies will be released and then buried before any notification is given to any members of the press. The family wants to keep it private. They want to make sure that nothing happens during that burial process.

A couple of gruesome details, Ashleigh. You know, the -- it took place here. Adam Lanza allegedly shooting his mother while she slept in her pajamas in her bed. He shot her four times in the head.

Now, the computer, the smashed computer, not clear at what point that was actually done. But after he killed his mom, he went over to the school. He killed himself after his rampage with a single shot, that also to the head. And according to the divorce documents, the mother was in charge of his mental care. What's so crazy, Ashleigh, is that there was a three-year period in which Adam Lanza seems to have disappeared. He was -- he looked like he was pursuing an education but even then, things were going on. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): Little is known about Adam Lanza, but as a gawky high school freshman, in 2007, Lanza seemed so vulnerable, the former school security director at Newtown High School tells CNN. He warned his school officers to keep an eye on the child so he would not be picked on or bullied. Lanza was also assigned to a school psychologist, says the security director. Although Lanza joined the tech club, he remained withdrawn.

In 2008, age 16, Lanza enrolls the student at Western Connecticut University, about 15 minutes from his home. Taking, among other classes, German, computer science, American history, and macro economics. He dropped out in 2009 and did not return.

When Lanza's high school friend ran into Nancy Lanza a few years ago, he says the mom described Adam as doing really well in college. She also apparently told him he had taken up shooting as a hobby and liked to go to the gun range.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): And what was so interesting is that Nancy Lanza was doing everything she could to try to mainstream her son. He clearly had issues but she was trying to keep things as normal as possible and getting him to different schools where she could tap into what's described as his genius, his sort of superb intellect.

We did speak to a friend who knew Nancy, and he says that she kept a gun lockbox in the basement of the home. He saw it eight months ago when he was in the home doing some work. And he also said that one of the reasons that she ultimately taught her son how to shoot or took him to those gun ranges, because she didn't like to leave him alone for big periods of time. She's described as a country girl, liked shooting, liked going out to the range and she took Adam with her and, clearly, that's when he developed a like for the sport -- Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Oh, Deb, it is just so troubling to hear those details, the gun lock box and this mother who was home schooling and working so hard or at least trying to do the normalcy schooling the -- for regular students. Very, very upsetting, indeed. Deb Feyerick reporting for us live.

Suzanne, back to you.

MALVEAUX: Well, we know that the school is a crime scene, so students at Sandy Hook Elementary, they are not returning to class today. When they go back, it'll be a new school. The town is updating a former middle school. It's in nearby Monroe, and that is where my colleague, Ashleigh, took a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: While the kids in Newtown, Connecticut are going to be returning to school today, the kids from Sandy Hook will not be. That's because they're eventually going to come here to the Monroe Middle School campus. Specifically, look over to the left. The Chalk Hill school, that was a school that, actually because of declining enrollment, closed down and was set to reopen as a community center but now Monroe County has decided to avail its services to the kids from Sandy Hook. Look across the street at the sign that has shown up, welcome Sandy Hook Elementary. It's really just heartwarming to see that.

But here's how it's going to work. They're not going to be here today, and we don't know exactly when they're going to be here. If you look up there, there's a police officer who's blocking the entrance to the media, and we want to be very respectful.

They're allowing teachers that are going into an adjacent middle school and also people who are moving all of the contents from Sandy Hook Elementary actually into Chalk Hill, so that when these children eventually arrive here, their artwork from their elementary school will be on the walls there. Their desks will be in place there. And there's even reportedly photographs that were taken at Sandy Hook Elementary of what the classrooms look like so that the professional movers could move everything in and make it look exactly the same which is really truly a remarkable feat given all of the duress that everyone's under.

But I can tell you this, over the last couple of days, trucks have been coming up and down delivering all of that equipment, the desks and just all of the gear that you need to actually functionally make a school happen for little children.

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MALVEAUX: It is a somber reality for Newtown, the funerals are going to go on for days. Yesterday, we saw two first grade boys being buried. Today, a six-year-old girl. Sandra Endo, she is joining us from Newtown where you have been seeing folks trying to cope with these waves of grief, but I imagine this will continue for some time. And, today, there is a little girl, Jessica Rekos, who is being buried. I understand that we know a little bit about her.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Suzanne. And it's just heartbreaking to see what this community is dealing with and we saw the funeral procession pass through the streets here. And people are constantly coming by this makeshift memorial in the middle of town and trying to pay condolences to the lives lost. But you mentioned being laid to rest today, Jessica Rekos, she was six years old. And according to her family, she loved horses. She couldn't wait until her 10-year-old birthday when she was promised to get a horse. And she liked to dress in cowboy hats and boots and she's being remembered as the family CEO. Her family members say that she would plan everything and write down journals and notes and leave them for the family. Here's what they say they remember most about her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTA REKOS: She was a ball of fire. She ruled the roost. She --

RICHARD REKOS: Our little CEO we called her. You know, she was -- she was the boss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENDO: And she is survived by her two brothers. Also, being laid to rest today is James Mattioli, six years old. And family members say that he loved to tee-shirts and shorts, regardless of the weather. And he loved to swim, he swam like a fish and loved sports. He sang at the top of his lungs. And these are just so many of the different stories we're hearing about these remarkable children who, unfortunately, their lives were taken way too soon -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: I don't know why, Sandra, but it makes me feel just a little bit better when I learn more about these -- about these kids and what they were look like. I understand that there are two -- the visitation for two other students, Charlotte Bacon and Daniel Barton. Are we learning a little bit more about them as well?

ENDO: Yes. And this is, unfortunately, going to be the new normal for the next few days, Suzanne, just funeral after funeral in the days to come. You mentioned Charlotte Bacon, six years old, outgoing redhead. Her smile just lit up a room. She is survived by an older brother who also attended Sandy Hook Elementary school. And she loved the color pink. So, she wore her favorite pink dress to school that day, according to her family, even though she was supposed to wait for the holidays to wear it.

And we are also learning about Daniel Barden who passed away, seven years old. According to his parents, he was an old soul. He would open doors for strangers and for older people and he would just stand there and his family would leave and he's still opening the door for people. So, clearly a wonderful soul and had so much love for others. And, again, Suzanne, as you mentioned, it's so heartbreaking to hear stories, as you learn more about these individual children, more about their personalities and what type of little children and people they were.

MALVEAUX: They are really beautiful. It must be hard to try to figure out a eulogy for a six year old, what you actually say, but they break it down. It's just very simple. You know, it reminds you, they are just six years old. Thank you, Sandra.

Many people, of course, are wondering, how do you help? You know, all of these people who are impacted by this. We put a list together, charitable organizations on our Web site. You can go to CNN.com, slash, impact. There is a lot to be done.

Police say Adam Lanza used a gun like this one to kill his victims at Sandy Hook Elementary. We're going to take a look at the AR-15 223 caliber rifle and why its sales are now skyrocketing.

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MALVEAUX: We see gun violence every single day in this country. Just this morning, another multiple shooting. If you can believe this. This one is in Colorado. Police say four people were found dead at a home in Longmont. That is about 15 miles from Boulder. Police are treating this case as a murder/suicide.

High profile shootings, often followed by threats of copycat killers. Authorities are now taking no chances. Police have arrested three teenagers in separate indent whose threatened to carry out similar attacks as the Sandy Hook massacre. Seventeen-year-old Hunter Ray Green, he was arrested at his high school in South Carolina for allegedly having weapons in his car, including a loaded .22 caliber handgun. And there's eighteen-year-old Sergio Cabada. He has allegedly left messages online saying he supports the actions of the school shooter. And then a teenager in Tennessee was arrested for posting messages on FaceBook saying he felt like going on a rampage. Now experts say it's going to be difficult to prosecute the cases because of freedom of speech. BANFIELD: Suzanne, one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the world has decided to suspend the sale of some of the semiautomatic rifles right across the country. It's called Dick's Sporting Goods. It's also removed all of the guns from the store that it has closest to this community where I am, Newtown. This is, of course, where the shooting occurred on Friday. The company says that it made this move out of respect for the victims and, of course, for their families, as well.

And also, in light of that story, some gun shops are reporting a spike, an actual spike in the sales of semiautomatic weapons, including the type of gun that was used to kill those 20 children and six faculty members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. And our Chris Lawrence found out that the AR-15 model is the most popular rifle in America.

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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The AR-15 has always been a top seller at this Virginia gun shop. But Chuck Nesby says, since Friday's shooting, sales have been surging.

CHUCK NESBY, NOVA FIREARMS: People want to get them before the government imposes any restriction. And they're buying them up in record numbers right now.

LAWRENCE: We weren't in the store for five minutes before customers started calling for guns and ammo.

NESBY: Those magazines are selling fast and in anticipation of possible ban on magazines.

LAWRENCE: And Nesby can't keep enough of the AR-15.

NESBY: But we do have in stock in the store three other guns that are the same quality as the Bushmaster.

LAWRENCE (on camera): How many rounds can this fire per second?

NESBY: How fast can you pull the trigger?

LAWRENCE (voice-over): The AR-15 is semiautomatic, meaning one bullet per trigger pull. An average clip carries 30 rounds. It's a variation of the military's M-16. It looks tough, ominous. Police say Adam Lanza used an AR-15 in Connecticut. It was also used to kill 12 people in a Colorado movie theater this summer.

LAWRENCE (on camera): Who buys this weapon?

NESBY: Everybody.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): "Guns and Ammo" magazine estimates that 1.5 million have been made in the last five years alone. Dealers say it's most popular rifle in America for good reason.

LAWRENCE (on camera): How quickly could someone use this rifle? NESBY: To shoot it? Very little training to shoot it.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): It weighs about eight pounds, takes all kinds of ammo, and can be easily customized with various lasers, stocks and gun locks. The AR-15 is accurate and it has very little kick.

NESBY: There's literally no recoil from this because you're just shooting a high-powered .22 round. That's one of the things that make it very, very controllable.

LAWRENCE (on camera): You can buy these rifles at 1,700 Wal-Mart stores across the country. There are magazines dedicated to the AR-15. So there are literally millions of these rifles in homes across America. And, honestly, that shows no signs of slowing down.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: We're going to take a look at federal and state gun laws as we continue our special coverage of the Connecticut school shooting.

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SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: It's not so much as rethink it. But, you know, who would have ever thought in America, or anywhere in the world, that children would be slaughtered? You know that -- it's changed me. But with that being said, people are free to talk about some things that just basically should be talked. I don't know of anybody that goes hunting with an assault rifle.

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BANFIELD: The school massacre here in Newtown, Connecticut, has more pro-gun lawmakers changing their views. Senator-elect Joe Donnelly of Indiana is the latest Democrat endorsed by the National Rifle Association, who now says that he is committed to looking at new ways to tighten gun laws. And he told CNN, quote, "I think we have a responsibility to make sure that this never happens again."

And also, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, also a Democrat, and also a longtime member of the NRA, said that he has changed his position after the massacre and now supports gun control legislation.

Lawmakers are hearing today from more than 20 family members and victims of mass shootings right across this country. In fact, those people all came together on Capitol Hill and decided they needed to meet with leaders in Congress and leaders in the White House. They are demanding that they seriously address gun violence in America. Each person who came had a very emotional story to share and they included a father whose 24-year-old son was killed in Aurora, Colorado, while shielding his girlfriend from the shooter who took so many lives in that theater. A mother whose son was gunned down on a Chicago bus. A father who lost his 15-year-old son during the Columbine tragedy. And those heartbreaking stories and the list just went on and on. And the photos kept coming out. Their message, about 32 people are killed every single day by guns in this country and that it has got to stop.

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DAN GROSS, PRESIDENT OF BRADY CAMPAIGN: Today, there will be 32 more families that know the pain and horror that you just heard here today. So we pay a lot of attention and appropriately so to these mass shootings, the one that Andre's (ph) son miraculously survived, but we also have to be aware that this happens in our nation every day and, as you're going to hear today, as a nation, we are better than this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: That was Dan Gross, who spearhead today's call for action. He is the head of the Brady Campaign, which is a non-profit that has long fought to reform the gun industry through laws and also through education, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Current gun laws are as varied as the states that govern them. George Howell, he's taking a look at some of the varied regulations. Just watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What happened in Newtown, Connecticut, has put the spotlight on gun laws in the U.S. Government Dannel Malloy says even with his state's tough gun regulations, it's not enough.

GOV. DANNEL MALLOY (D), CONNECTICUT: In the absence of a federal framework in which we limit really the explosive nature of the weapons and ammunition that's used, no state would ever be safe based on simply its own laws. That's why the Brady Bill, that's why the assault weapons ban was so very important.

HOWELL: The only federal ban on assault rifles became law in 1994, but expired in 2004. Connecticut still has a similar law on its books banning assault rifles, but that law didn't apply to the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle Adam Lanza used during his shooting rampage. The state's gun law would have banned the 30 round magazine that Lanza used.

ROBYN THOMAS, LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE: Right now, as everyone's probably aware from the tragedy of last Friday, assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazine, is also completely legal in this country under federal law. And as we're talking about, you don't even need a background check in most states to get those types of military-style weapons.

HOWELL: Robyn Thomas, with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, says federal laws are minimal at best. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. government requires a person must be 21 years old to purchase a handgun from a licensed dealer, 18 years old to purchase a long gun, like a rifle, from a licensed dealer, but federal law does not regulate private sales between individuals or sales at gun shows or online. It becomes more of a state's rights issue. Some with tougher gun laws than others. The Brady Campaign for gun control rates these five states at the top of its scorecard for gun regulations with California at the top of the list.

THOMAS: We have universal background checks. So you need to get a background check on any transfer of sale of a firearm, whether it's a gun dealer, a gun show, or a private seller.

HOWELL: Laws that can be easily avoided in some cases simply by crossing state lines. The Brady Campaign's scorecard rates these states as having some of the weakest gun regulations.

THOMAS: You know, in California, we might have good, strong gun laws, but if you want to buy an assault weapon, you just drive across to Nevada or Arizona and you can buy them there very easily without a background check and bring them across the border. So we really do need some basic measures at the federal level.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: George, I mean, that's really a patchwork of different laws from different states.

HOWELL: Yes.

MALVEAUX: I mean it's kind of unbelievable when you think about it from one state to the next. All you do is just cross the board, right, and you buy a weapon in another state. California, you said, one of the toughest. How so?

HOWELL: Well, you know, California, you heard there that there are background checks, but they also regulate the gun owners. They ban assault rifles. There's a waiting period in California, a 10-day waiting period. And you look at the state of New York. There's a 90- day waiting period there. So when you put these measures in place, you know, people -- advocates for these gun laws, I should say, they say that that makes a big difference.

MALVEAUX: So why is it that these laws do not apply for the private sellers or the gun shows? Why is that even permissible? Why is it allowed?

HOWELL: Again, state by state. And when you talk about gun shows, that's really the big loophole because unlike a licensed dealer, gun shows don't have to do background checks and they may miss several things. People are prohibited by federal law from owning guns if they hit a long list of several things. If you're a convicted felon, if you were dishonorably discharged from the armed services. It's a long list of things there. And, you know, when you don't have to do the background check, you may not know, and then you can make the sale.

MALVEAUX: Do you think there's a will here? Do you think there's really a political will to push this forward? It seems like people are certainly talking about changing this or something in place.

HOWELL: Well, Suzanne, you know, and just digging into the law, and then -- and hearing from people on both sides, you can tell that people, you know, who support gun laws, they want to see something change. And you can also tell people who own guns and, you know, stand for the second amendment, they want to see some sort of change as well. You see it on social media. You see people talking about it. You know, you get the sense that something will change given what we saw in Newtown.

MALVEAUX: All right, thank you. Appreciate it, George.

HOWELL: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: It has been four days since that gunman opened fire on that first day, that first grade class at Sandy Hook Elementary. We are still learning about the many victims, as well as the heroes. We're going to hear from one man who helped kids escape the massacre.