Residents and visitors streamed past a police roadblock to add to it. One woman knelt down and sobbed violently.
As children walked down the street in the rain, carrying their toys and signs, a man sat on the back of his parked car playing a mournful tune on a violin to accompany them.
"This is a time to come together," said Carina Bandhaver, 43, who lives in nearby Southbury.
The
children who survived will not have to return to the scene of the
massacre. They will attend classes at an unused school in a Connecticut
town about 7 miles away, school officials said. Classes elsewhere in the
town will resume on Tuesday, except at Sandy Hook.
GUN DEBATE
Several
Democratic lawmakers called for a new push for U.S. gun restrictions on
Sunday, including a ban on military-style assault weapons.
Democratic
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the author of an
assault-weapons ban that lapsed in 2004, said she would introduce new
legislation this week.
"I think we
could be at a tipping point ... where we might get something done," New
York's Charles Schumer, another top Senate Democrat, said on CBS's "Face
the Nation."
Gun rights advocates have countered that Connecticut already has among the strictest gun laws in the nation.
Obama's
appearance will be watched closely for clues as to what he meant when
he called for "meaningful action" to prevent such tragedies.
The
president arrived in Connecticut on Sunday afternoon, a day after
authorities released the names of the dead and more details emerged
about the victims, the gunman and the rampage.
Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary as a child, according to former classmates.
Police
were trying to establish the relationship between Adam Lanza, Nancy
Lanza and the school, and whether the mother and her sons were frequent
visitors to gun ranges, according to a law enforcement official briefed
on the investigation.
In addition to the military-style Bushmaster assault rifle, a civilian version of the weapon used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, police said Lanza carried Glock 10 mm and Sig Sauer 9 mm handguns into the school.
Nancy
Lanza legally owned a Sig Sauer and a Glock, handguns commonly used by
police, in addition to the long gun, according to law enforcement
officials.
Lanza had struggled at
times to fit into the community and his mother pulled him out of school
for several years to home-school him, said Louise Tambascio, the owner
of My Place Restaurant, where his mother was a long-time patron.
Officials
said they were concerned misinformation and threats about the case were
being spread on social media websites. Police said a telephone bomb
threat forced the evacuation of the St. Rose church. It was searched and
declared clear.
David Fein, the
U.S. attorney for Connecticut, issued a stern warning that harassment of
victims or their relatives could be prosecuted. "Harassment not only
includes in-person contact, but also contact via the Internet, social
media and telephone," he said.
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