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First funerals held for Conn. shooting victims
Updated at 7:06 p.m. ET
NEWTOWN, Conn. A grief-stricken Newtown began laying to rest the littlest victims of the school massacre, starting with two 6-year-old boys -- one of them a big football fan, the other described as a whip-smart youngster whose twin sister survived the rampage.
Nov. 13, 2012 photo provided by the family via The Washington Post shows Noah Pozner, 6
/ AP/Family PhotoFamily, friends and townspeople streamed to two funeral homes to say goodbye to Jack Pinto, who loved the New York Giants and idolized their star wide receiver Victor Cruz, and Noah Pozner, who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically.
A rabbi presided at Noah's service, which was attended by Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and in keeping with Jewish tradition, the boy was laid to rest in a simple brown wooden casket adorned with a Star of David. Outside the funeral home, well-wishers placed two teddy bears, a bouquet of white flowers and a red rose at the base of an old maple tree.
Jack Pinto, 6, a victim of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
/ Rex Features via AP Images"If Noah had not been taken from us, he would have become a great man. He would been a wonderful husband and a loving father," Noah's uncle Alexis Haller told mourners, according to remarks he provided to The Associated Press. Both services were closed to the news media.
Haller described a smart, funny and mischievous child who loved animals and Mario Brothers video games, and liked to tease his sisters by telling them he worked in a taco factory.
"It is unspeakably tragic that none of us can bring Noah back," Haller said. "We would go to the ends of the earth to do so, but none of us can. What we can do is carry Noah within us, always. We can remember the joy he brought to us. We can hold his memory close to our hearts. We can treasure him forever."
60 Minutes reports: Tragedy in Newtown
Victims of Conn. school shooting
Noah's twin sister, Arielle, who was assigned to a different classroom, survived the killing frenzy by 20-year-old Adam Lanza that left 20 children and six adults dead last week at Sandy Hook Elementary in an attack so horrifying that authorities could not say whether the school would ever reopen.
At Jack's service, which Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman attended, hymns rang out from inside the funeral home. A mourner, Gwendolyn Glover, said that Jack was in an open casket and that the service was a message of comfort and protection, particularly for other children.
"The message was: You're secure now. The worst is over," she said.
The funeral program bore a quotation from the Book of Revelation: "God shall wipe away all tears. There shall be no more death. Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain."
Jack was described in the program as "an incredibly loving and vivacious young boy, appreciated by all who knew him for his lively and giving spirit and steely determination" who enjoyed baseball, skiing and wrestling in addition to the Giants.
"One speaker at the cemetery said Jack would be throwing a football in heaven, knocking halos off angels," Jerry Reinholz, who attended the funeral, told CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. "Everyone laughed at that."
A fir tree opposite the funeral home was strung with paper angels carrying the names of everyone who died, including the teachers.
Gov. Malloy called on Monday for a moment of silence and for churches to ring bells Friday, exactly one week after the shooting. Speaking to reporters in Hartford, Malloy asked churches ring their bells 26 times to honor the victims.
Veronika Pozner waves to the assembled press as she leaves after a funeral service for her son, 6-year-old Noah Pozner, Dec. 17, 2012, in Fairfield, Conn.
/ AP PhotoAt both funeral homes, people wrestled with the same questions as the rest of the country -- what steps could and should be taken to prevent anything like the massacre from happening again.
"If people want to go hunting, a single-shot rifle does the job, and that does the job to protect your home, too. If you need more than that, I don't know what to say," Ray DiStephan said outside Noah's funeral.
He added: "I don't want to see my kids go to schools that become maximum-security fortresses. That's not the world I want to live in, and that's not the world I want to raise them in."
With more funerals planned this week, the road ahead for Newtown, which had already started purging itself of Christmas decorations in a joyful season turned mournful, was clouded.
"I feel like we have to get back to normal, but I don't know if there is normal anymore," said Kim Camputo, mother of two children, 5 and 10, who attend a different school. "I'll definitely be dropping them off and picking them up myself for a while."
Sandy Hook Elementary: Students may never return
With Sandy Hook Elementary still designated a crime scene, State police Lt. Paul Vance said that it could be months before police turn the school back over to the district. The people of Newtown, consumed by loss, were not ready to address its future.
"We're just now getting ready to talk to our son about who was killed," said Robert Licata, the father of a student who escaped harm during the shooting. "He's not even there yet."
One funeral home, Horan's, will hold 11 ceremonies from now until Christmas, Axelrod reports. Funeral Director Shauna Molloy said it's a lot for small children to handle.
"I think some do [understand what happened]," Molloy said. "I don't know if they can fully -- I mean they are so little. You know, unfortunately, they probably understand more than they should."
A man, center, reacts while others shovel dirt onto the grave of Noah Pozner, a six-year-old killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, was laid to rest at B'nai Israel Cemetery, Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, in Monroe, Conn. Authorities say gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home on Friday and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before taking his own life.
/ AP Photo/Julio CortezPopular on CBSNews.com
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The company in question is Freedom Group, a privately-held firearms conglomerate formed by private equity and hedge fund group Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus created the platform in April 2006 via the acquisition of Bushmaster, after which it added another 10 makers of firearms, ammunition and accessories (including Remington, Marlin Arms and Barnes Bullets).
The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) committed to invest a whopping $500 million into a $7.5 billion Cerberus fund that has helped bankroll Freedom Group.
How does that grab you?
I understand your anger and frustration. I think every parent hugged their children extra tight these last few days and imagined what our world would be like if it were our children that were taken from us. But not every gun owner is a GUN NUT or an idiot. I own weapons that are safely stored, under lock and key, with the ammunition stored separately. I have taught my children that they are not to touch them under any circumstances. To my knowledge, neither of them has attempted to get to those weapons. But they are trained to use them in the event that they are ever needed. Note please that my children are 22 and 19 years old and they have never been able to access those weapons. I agree with you that there should be stronger restrictions and that there should be mental health evaluations needed to own a weapon. But please, lets put a hold on the name calling. Its not helpful and won't help us to find solutions if we're all on the defensive. Merry Christmas.
The constitution was written when there were flintlock muskets that took a minute to reload with a musketball between shots. The right to bear arms (if you read the whole ammendment) was clearly written to support a citizen militia which was needed at the time. Now we have weapons that can shoot hundreds of rounds a minute and even handguns with 30+ round clips like the one Jared Loughner used in Tuscon. Most people don't realize during that shooting there was a CCW holder there who couldn't use his weapon due to the crowd.
I have a CCW here in AZ and I have three firearms. None of them are assault weapons used on the battlefield and I don't own any 30 round clips. Honestly two of the three weapons were my fathers (a police chief) and the one I bought is a small handgun I carry in my car because I often go into a really bad area of Phoenix. As far as I'm concerned if I ever have to pull my weapon I've already failed.