World News Korner

Newtown shooting 911 calls released.

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:

Newtown school shooting 911 calls reveal a mixture of calm and anguish from the callers, and gunshots from the assailant are heard in the background, audio recordings released today reveal.

The shooting spree at the Connecticut school a year ago killed 20 children and six educators.

Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, released recordings of 911 emergency phone calls from the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School this afternoon.

Gunman Adam Lanza, 20, shot dead his mother at home and then entered the school on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 26 people and then himself.

"They're shooting at the front door, something's going on ... The front glass is all shot out, it kept going on. It's still happening," a man calling himself Richard, sounding agitated and confused, tells a 911 emergency operator in one of the seven phone recordings posted on the Connecticut Post.

The operator calmly tells him to take cover.

Town officials initially tried to prevent release of the recordings. The state Freedom of Information Commission ordered the release of seven calls placed from inside the elementary school.

Here is the audio. (Warning! Very graphic and may cause a severe emotional response.)

I am not sure that I think releasing was necessary, or in good taste.

However I will say that, considering that there are many on the Right who feel this whole thing was a made up tragedy in order to attack the 2nd Amendment, perhaps there simply was not choice.

What I heard on those calls chilled me to the bone and made my stomach clench up tight.

I am still stunned that this tragedy did not result in significant gun control legislation. If this was not enough to bring people to their senses then perhaps there is nothing that ever will.

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