4 Firefighters Shot, 2 Killed in NY 'Trap'

A man who served nearly 17 years in jail for killing his grandmother set a house and car on fire this morning in upstate New York and then began shooting at emergency personnel who showed up, killing two firefighters, police said.

In all, William Spengler, 62, shot four firefighters, killing two and severely injuring two more after setting his "trap," police said.

An off-duty police officer from Greece, N.Y., who responded to the scene early in the morning of Christmas Eve also was injured today.

"It was a trap," said Webster, N.Y., Police Chief Gerald L. Pickering, "set by Mr. Spengler who laid in wait and shot first responders."

Spengler, who was released from prison in 1998, was found dead at the scene following a shootout with police. He was believed to have killed himself with a bullet to the head.

As a convicted felon, Spengler would not have been allowed to own guns legally. Police were working to determine the types of weapons he used and how he obtained them, Pickering said.

Spengler was convicted of manslaughter in 1981 for "beating his 92-year-old grandmother with a hammer," according to state prison documents.

Several weapons were used, Pickering said, and, "probably a rifle was used to inflict wounds of the first responders.

"I know many people are going to be asking if they were assault rifles," Pickering said

There has been a week-long national debate about such weapons after one was used in a tragic school shooting in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14.

Four firefighters, two on a ladder truck and two more in their own vehicles, responded to 911 calls around 5:30 a.m. Monday morning. Spengler is believed to have hidden behind an elevated berm, shooting down on the firefighters and later police.

"Upon arrival, all [the firefighters] drew fire. All four were shot on the scene," Pickering said. "One was able to flee the scene. The other three were pinned down."

Police believe Spengler's sister may have been inside the home, and that he set it on fire.

The blaze spread, engulfing three nearby homes and damaging three more on a sleepy street next to Lake Ontario that police described as a quiet vacation community. The fire was not put under control until late this afternoon.

SWAT team officers used an armored personnel carrier to evacuate 33 residents from homes in the area.

Among the dead firefighters was Lt. Michael Chiapperini, a 20-year veteran of the Webster Police Department and "lifetime firefighter," according to Pickering. Chiapperini was a spokesman for the police department, ABC News affiliate WHAM reported.

Police identified the other firefighter killed as Tomasz Kaczowka, who also worked as a 911 dispatcher.

The chief, choking up, called the incident that shattered the quiet before 6 a.m. on Christmas Eve morning "terrible."

"People get up in the middle of the night to fight fires," he said. "They don't expect to get shot and killed."

Two surviving firefighters were in the intensive care unit at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. Both men were awake and breathing on their own after surgery and were in what doctors are calling "guarded condition."

Joseph Hofsetter was shot once. He sustained an injury to his pelvis and has "a long road to recovery," said Dr. Nicole A. Stassen, a trauma physician.

The second firefighter, Theodore Scardino, was shot twice and received injuries to his left shoulder and left lung, as well as a knee.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement calling the attack a "senseless act of violence" and the first responders "true heroes."

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On gun control, Obama’s record shows an apparent lack of political will — until now

The survivors of a gun rampage in Tucson came to Washington in August with a simple message for the Obama administration: Do something — anything — to stop the violence.

One was a nurse shopping for Brussels sprouts who rushed to do triage after then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) was shot outside a supermarket. Another was a woman struck three times while shielding her daughter. A third pinned the shooter to the ground with her knees until police arrived.

After meeting for 90 minutes with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., they were hopeful.

“Attorney General Holder was not only sympathetic but empathetic and truly touched by our stories and our actions,” said Patricia Maisch, one of the survivors. “And he was sincere about wanting to help us.”

Holder didn’t tell Maisch and the other victims of the mass shooting last year that there was little he could, or would, do. The White House calculated that gun-control measures couldn’t pass Congress, and President Obama’s political strategists determined that it was best for him, and for the Democratic Party, if they put the issue off until after the 2012 election.

It took the massacre of 20 children and six adults in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school this month to spur Obama to action. He vowed last week to push for immediate and concrete gun safety proposals to prevent such carnage.

Obama is a Democrat whose party has long championed gun restrictions, a Chicagoan who came of age in a city ravaged by shootings and the first president from an urban area in the modern era of gun violence. Yet, over four years in office, he took action on guns just once — signing a 2009 law allowing people to carry concealed weapons in national parks. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave him an “F” on its report card the next year.

Obama’s advisers say that even if he had pushed for stricter gun laws, Congress would not have passed them.

“It wasn’t just a matter of competing priorities, but it was a matter of the likelihood of success versus those competing priorities,” said David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political strategist. “There was no consensus in the Congress for action on some of these measures. He could have pursued them, but that would’ve been largely a symbolic act.”

Last week, a reporter asked Obama “where have you been” on gun control for the past four years. The president ticked off the two wars, the recession and other crises that dominated his first term.

“I don’t think I’ve been on vacation,” Obama snapped.

On the back burner

Chicago has been a magnet for violent crime longer than Obama lived there. The president’s home town is grappling with one of the deadliest gun violence epidemics in the nation. In the 2011-2012 school year, 319 Chicago public school students were shot; 24 of them died.

“When you come from where he comes from, when you represent the area that he represented, you’ve been exposed to a lot of grief and a lot of loss, and that has shaped his views over the years,” said Axelrod, also a Chicagoan.

Hours after the Newtown massacre, an emotional Obama lamented not only recent mass shootings but also the everyday slayings on street corners in Chicago.

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Top Australian cleric apologises for abuse

SYDNEY: Australia's most senior Catholic cleric on Monday apologised to those who "suffered at the hands" of priests and religious teachers after a turbulent year for the Church.

Sydney Archbishop George Pell said he was shocked and ashamed, following a series of paedophile allegations against priests and claims that they were hushed up.

In his Christmas message, Pell said his heart went out to "all those who cannot find peace at this time, especially those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians, Christian officials, priests, religious teachers".

"I am deeply sorry this has happened," he added.

"I feel too the shock and shame across the community at these revelations of wrongdoing and crimes."

Without specifically mentioning child sex abuse, Pell said the hurt caused was "completely contrary" to Christ's teachings.

"We need our faith in God's goodness and love to cope with these disasters, to help those who have been hurt," he said.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard last month ended more than a decade of growing pressure by ordering a royal commission to investigate the responses of all religious organisations, schools and state care to allegations of abuse.

Her announcement came after claims by a senior police investigator that the Church had covered up sexual abuse of children in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, to protect paedophiles and its own reputation.

The government in Victoria state is already investigating allegations of sex abuse by the clergy with the Church telling a state parliamentary hearing in September that at least 620 children had been abused since the 1930s.

When Gillard announced the royal commission, Pell welcomed it as an opportunity to help victims, "clear the air" and "separate fact from fiction".

"We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church," he said at the time.

"We object to it being exaggerated, we object to being described as the only cab on the rank. I don't think we should be scapegoated."

Child sex abuse allegations and claims they were covered up have rattled the Catholic Church across the world, particularly in Ireland but also in the United States, Germany and Belgium.

- AFP/jc

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DRDO mulls 'stress-buster' bunkers for Army in Siachen

NEW DELHI: Soldiers sitting in their bunkers in snow-clad Siachen will get to feel sea waves, chirping of birds and winds passing through forests as part of a DRDO project to break the monotonous environment and sense of isolation faced by them in the world's highest battlefield.

As part of its efforts to provide troops with "enriched environment" at isolated locations, DRDO has started working on 'Project Dhruv' to develop new bunkers to tackle various forms of psychological issues and depression among them. "Project Dhruv is aimed at environment enrichment within the shelter.

This is one of the components for removing his stress in such isolated and forward areas," DRDO chief controller, life sciences W Selvamurthy said.

Such measures will help jawans cope with the stress indu8ced by their monotonous surroundings and help in creati8ng a lively atmosphere within the bunkers, he said. The study will be completed in a year and will provide co8ncrete results to move forward, Selvamurthy added. DRDO has taken a slew of me8asures to tackle depression am8ong soldiers, which in recent past had led to various incidents of suicides and fratricides.

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter Institute

Mounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.

Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to.

"You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations," she said.

For example, the A. flavus fungi that she used to write this message from Santa grows very quickly. "The next day, after looking at this plate, it didn't say 'Ho Ho Ho.' It said 'blah blah blah,'" Mounaud said.

The message also eventually turned green, which was the color she was initially after. "It was a really nice green, which is what I was hoping for. But yellow will do," she said.

The hat was particularly challenging. The fungus used to create it "was troubling because at different temperatures it grows differently. The pigment in this one forms at room temperature but this type of growth needed higher temperatures," Mounaud said.

Not all fungus will grow nicely together. For example, in the hat, "N. fischeri [the brim and ball] did not want to play nice with the P. marneffei [red part of hat] ... so they remained slightly separated."

Published December 21, 2012

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NRA Chief LaPierre: 'Call Me Crazy'

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre fired back at his critics today, defending his proposal to put armed guards in every school in the country as a way to prevent future tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six adults.

"If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," the head of the powerful gun lobby said today on NBC's "Meet the Press."

LaPierre and the NRA came under harsh criticism this week for their response to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

After keeping silent for a week, except for a release announcing that the organization would make "meaningful contributions" to the search for answers to the problem of gun violence, LaPierre held what critics described as a "tone deaf" press conference in which he blamed the media, video games and Hollywood for the recent shootings, and suggested that the answer to gun violence was more guns.

Gun control advocates argue that a federal assault weapons ban is necessary to curbing gun violence. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who helped pass an assault weapons ban in 1996 is renewing efforts to pass similar legislation as the original ban expired in 2004.

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

National Rifle Association News Conference Interrupted by Protesters Watch Video

Critics Slam NRA for Proposing Armed School Guards Watch Video

"I think that is a phony piece of legislation and I do not believe it will pass for this reason: it's all built on lies," LaPierre said today.

LaPierre and many pro-gun advocates like him argue that assault weapons bans aren't effective and that violent criminals are solely to blame.

INFOGRAPHIC: Guns in America: By The Numbers

In today's interview, LaPierre pointed out that the Columbine High School shooting occurred after the assault weapons ban passed, but he failed to mention that the shooters obtained the guns they used illegally though a gun show.

He also did not discuss the fact that there was an armed guard on duty at the school when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people there before killing themselves.

Several senators watching LaPierre's interview had strong reactions.

"He says the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. What about stopping the bad guy from getting the gun in the first place?" said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was also on the show, said that he open to discussing increased school security but warned against a quick rush to ban assault weapons.

"I don't suggest we ban every movie with a gun in it and every video that's violent and I don't suggest that you take my right buy an AR-15 away from me because I don't think it will work," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he didn't think having armed guards in schools was a good idea, though the Republican said he was "not commenting on the NRA proposal in particular."

"I am not someone who believes that having multiple, armed guards, in every school, is something that will enhance the learning environment, and that is our first responsibility inside a school, is the learning environment, you don't want to make this an armed camp for kids, I don't think that is a positive example for children," he said. "We should be able to figure out some other ways to enhance safety."

Earlier this week protesters from the group "Code Pink" snuck into the NRA press conference and held up a sign that read "NRA Blood on Your Hand."

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Advocates fear gun control agenda will divert Obama from immigration reform

President Obama’s pledge to pursue a package of gun control measures next month has immigration advocates concerned whether the effort could delay or distract the White House from moving quickly to fulfill another of his second-term priorities.

Latino leaders, disappointed by Obama’s inability to achieve comprehensive immigration reform in his first term, say they understand and support the urgency of Obama’s push to reduce gun violence in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting rampage.

But they said they expect him to make good on his promise to “seize the moment” on immigration in the wake of an election in which Hispanic voters overwhelmingly supported him and other Democrats. Republicans, stung by the losses, have suggested they are open to new immigration reforms as they seek to broaden their own base of support.

“There is clear momentum for it, so it’s really important to get to it immediately because it will not happen overnight,” said Eliseo Medina, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, which spent millions recruiting new Hispanic voters this year. “Our belief is that 2013 is the window of opportunity. We’d like to see it happen in the first part of year, whether it’s three months or six months, but in order to start the clock running we have to start quickly.”

Medina and other advocates said the White House told them to be ready as early as next month to help lobby Congress and rally the public over reforms that could help provide a path to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers. Obama, who won 71 percent of the Latino vote, said during his first news conference after winning reelection that he expected to have a comprehensive legislative bill introduced in Congress “very soon after my inauguration” on Jan. 20.

But that was before a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, prompting Obama to declare that he will use all the powers of his office to reduce gun violence. Last week, the president appointed Vice President Biden to head a commission to develop new proposals that Obama will “push without delay” in January.

Adding further complications to the timetable over the White House’s immigration strategy is the deadlocked negotiations over the looming “fiscal cliff” that could drag into the new year. Asked last week about Obama’s increasingly bloated agenda, White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to rank priorities.

“We need to do all of it,” Carney said. “And this president is committed to just that.”

Immigration advocates say they intend to keep the pressure on. Last week, Latino leaders announced they will keep a scorecard on lawmakers over immigration and mobilize voters in the 2014 election against those who score poorly.

The advocates said they are encouraged that Senate Republicans, led by Marco Rubio (Fla.) and John McCain (Ariz.), have had private discussions about their immigration strategy in recent weeks.

But in the House, where Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said last month the time is right to pursue immigration reform, the GOP named Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.), viewed as a hardliner on immigration, as chairman of the immigration subcommittee. Another hardliner, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Va.), was named chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration. Both have been skeptical of immigration proposals such as the Dream Act.

“As we line up a path to gun control and the response to Connecticut, everybody expects Congress, just like the rest of the American people, will be able to take on more than one thing,” said Clarissa Martinez de Castro, director of civic engagement and immigration for the National Council of La Raza. “There is a real premium for Republicans moving forward on immigration. It’s less about their position with Democrats than with making inroads with a section of the electorate that they will not see the inside of the White House without. That’s their biggest motivation.”

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) was so frustrated with the Obama administration’s record of deporting more than 1 million undocumented immigrants that he was arrested after staging a protest outside the White House gates in July 2011.

Gutierrez also has been active in attempts to push stronger gun control measures. He said he hopes that on both issues, growing public pressure will help break long-standing inaction on Capitol Hill.

“Would I like the White House to be more public and demonstrative about what they’re doing on immigration? Sure,” Guiterrez said. “Do I believe in the end they will be in the forefront of the fight, spearheading the fight? Yes. Might we have to wait a little longer and be patient as the White House grapples with so many different issues? Yes, but in the end I have every expectation I will be standing next to the president on this.”

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CIA chief decries torture in Osama bin Laden hunt movie

WASHINGTON: Acting CIA director Michael Morell said that "Zero Dark Thirty," the Hollywood take on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, exaggerates the importance of information obtained by harsh interrogations.

The movie by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow tells the story of the decade-long search after September 11, 2001 that climaxed in last year's dramatic and deadly raid in May on the Al-Qaeda terror leader's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The film shows US personnel using harsh interrogation techniques like water-boarding -- a method widely seen as torture -- to force captives to speak. The information obtained was crucial, according to the movie, in piecing together the trail that eventually led to bin Laden.

Not so, Morell said in a message to Central Intelligence Agency employees released to AFP on Saturday.

The movie "creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding bin Laden. That impression is false."

Morell's message, sent to the employees on Friday, states that "multiple streams of intelligence" led CIA analysts to conclude that bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad.

He acknowledged that "some" of the information "came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques. But there were many other sources as well."

The controversial techniques were banned in 2009 by President Barack Obama.

Morell said that "whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved."

Morell is widely believed to be a top candidate for the job of CIA director after the resignation of David Petreaus, America's most celebrated military leader in a generation. Petreaus stepped down in November after admitting to an extra-marital affair with his biographer.

Morell's message, first reported by The New York Times, echoes a statement decrying the "Zero Dark Thirty" interrogation scenes signed by three senators, including Republican John McCain, himself a prisoner of war and torture victim during the Vietnam War.

In a letter to the head of Sony Pictures, McCain -- the 2008 Republican presidential candidate -- and Democratic senators Diane Feinstein and Carl Levin wrote that the movie "clearly implies that the CIA's coercive interrogation techniques were effective" in obtaining information that would lead to bin Laden.

"We have reviewed CIA records and know that this is incorrect," the senators wrote. "We believe that you have an obligation to state that the role of torture in the hunt for (Bin Laden) is not based on the facts, but rather part of the film's fictional narrative."

However two CIA officials active when suspects were tortured disputed those assertions.

Jose Rodriguez, who oversaw the CIA's counterterrorism operations when "harsh interrogation" methods were in use, wrote in the Washington Post in April that the path leading to bin Laden "started in a CIA black site ... and stemmed from information obtained from hardened terrorists who agreed to tell us some (but not all) of what they knew after undergoing harsh but legal interrogation methods."

And former CIA director Michael Hayden wrote in a Wall Street Journal in June 2011 that a "crucial component" of information that eventually led to bin Laden came from three CIA prisoners, "all of whom had been subjected to some form of enhanced interrogation."

Hayden claimed that he learned the information when, in 2007, he was first briefed about pursuing bin Laden through his courier network.

But interim CIA director Morell emphasized the film, a likely Oscar contender, "takes significant artistic licence, while portraying itself as being historically accurate."

"What I want you to know is that Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization, not a realistic portrayal of the facts.

"CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs but, as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product."

- AFP/jc

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Govt for stricter penalty in ‘rarest of rare’ rape cases

NEW DELHI: Forced on the back foot by unprecedented public fury over the savage gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus last Sunday, the government on Saturday announced its intent to immediately amend the law to provide for death penalty in "rarest of rare" rape cases.

Simultaneously, five police personnel found responsible for lapses that led to the gangrape going undetected despite the bus passing at least three check points have been suspended and a commission of inquiry is being set up to review the crime and the police response, according to home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

"To ensure a strong law to deal with crimes of this nature, the government will take immediate steps for the amendment of the criminal law for enhanced and more effective punishment in the rarest of the rare cases of sexual assault," Shinde told a special media briefing on Saturday after police and protestors clashed through the day.

Although Shinde did not clearly commit that "enhanced punishment" meant death penalty, the proposed "rarest of rare" clause as in the case of a death sentence for murder comes in the backdrop of a deafening chorus of demands, backed by opposition BJP, for prescribing capital punishment for rape. The minister insisted the issue needs to be weighed legally.

The briefing came in the wake of sharp criticism that the government was "absent" in the face of public demonstrations and after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Shinde urging them to ensure a speedy investigation so that the guilty could be punished without delay.

Even if the law ministry eventually shies away from placing capital punishment within anti-rape laws, legal experts say there are other avenues to make the law more stringent. This may include making such "rarest of rare" rape crimes non-bailable on the lines of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or providing for a life sentence that extends to the lifespan of the rapist.

Shinde said the commission of inquiry, to be set up under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1951, will review the response to the gangrape and suggest measures to enhance the security and safety of women in the Capital. The act gives the inquiry a certain sanctity as the government is bound to present an action taken report.

Shinde, however, ruled out a special session of Parliament to legislate laws to punish rape as demanded by leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

A day after home secretary R K Singh lauded the police for having cracked the gang-rape case swiftly, Shinde announced the decision to suspend five police personnel. It is understood more action may follow as the complaint of a vendor robbed by the accused shortly before the crime was not taken seriously. Also, the account of the victim's male friend that they had been thrown out of a white bus failed to result in a quick response.

The measures were announced by Shinde on a day when spontaneous protests by thousands of youngsters at Rajpath took on a clear anti-Congress hue. This was evident as at least two anti-Congress slogans coined by the Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party - "Jiski Sonia mummy hai, woh sarkar nikammi hai" and "Sonia Gandhi soti hai, desh ki mahila roti hai" - figured prominently in the protests.

Through the day, the government came under fire from protestors and the media for its silence. The Prime Minister remained closeted in meetings, further enraging the agitating students. The lack of an assurance of decisive action by Shinde, Delhi chief minister Shiela Dikshit or senior home ministry officials ensured the protestors stayed put, blocking the access to VIP areas on Raisina Hill.

Sonia's intervention seeking quick action and stern punishment for the gang-rape accused and an increasingly militant sea of protestors forced the government not only to open a channel of communication with agitated students but also to announce decisive measures meeting their demands for enhanced maximum punishment.

Shinde, who also met some student leaders on Saturday evening, sought to assure the protestors that the government shared their outrage and is doing all possible to fast-track the trial. He said though the government respected their right of legitimate protest, the police had little option but to use force, though minimal, when the protestors started forcing themselves beyond the barricades.

"The government is with you and shared your outrage...We have heard and acknowledge your protests over what has happened and will do whatever is possible ... Please rest assured and return to your homes," Shinde appealed to the protestors through the media.

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Urban Advocates Say New Gun Control Talk Overdue

For years, voices have cried in the urban wilderness: We need to talk about gun control.

Yet the guns blazed on.

It took a small-town slaughter for gun control to become a political priority. Now, decades' worth of big-city arguments against easy access to guns are finally being heard, because an unstable young man invaded an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., with a military-style assault rifle and 30-bullet magazines. Twenty young children and six adults were slain.

President Barack Obama called the tragedy a "wake-up call." Vice President Joe Biden met Thursday with Obama's cabinet and law-enforcement officers from around the country to launch a task force on reducing gun violence. Lawmakers who have long resisted gun control are saying something must be done.

Such action is energizing those who have sought to reduce urban gun violence. Donations are up in some places; other leaders have been working overtime due to this unprecedented moment.

The moment also is causing some to reflect on the sudden change of heart. Why now? Why weren't we moved to act by the killing of so many other children, albeit one by one, in urban areas?

Certainly, Newtown is a special case, 6- and 7-year-olds riddled with bullets inside the sanctuary of a classroom. Even in a nation rife with violence, where there have been three other mass slayings since July and millions enjoy virtual killing via video games, the nature of this tragedy is shocking.

Critics Slam NRA for Proposing Armed School Guards Watch Video

Gun Violence Victims, Survivors Share Thoughts After Newtown Massacre Watch Video

But still: "There's a lot of talk now about we have to protect our children. We have to protect all of our children, not just the ones living in the suburbs," said Tammerlin Drummond, a columnist for the Oakland Tribune.

In her column Monday, Drummond wrote about 7-year-old Heaven Sutton of Chicago, who was standing next to her mother selling candy when she was killed in the crossfire of a gang shootout. Also in Chicago, which has been plagued by a recent spike in gun violence: 6-year-old Aaliyah Shell was caught in a drive-by while standing on her front porch; and 13-year-old Tyquan Tyler was killed when a someone in a car shot into a group of youths outside a party.

Wrote Drummond: "It has taken the murders of 20 babies and six adults in an upper-middle class neighborhood in Connecticut to achieve what thousands of gun fatalities in urban communities all over this country could not."

So again: What took so long? The answers are complicated by many factors: resignation to urban violence, even among some of those who live there; the assumption that cities are dangerous and small towns safe; the idea that some urban victims place themselves in harm's way.

In March, the Children's Defense Fund issued a report titled "Protect Children, Not Guns 2012." It analyzed the latest federal data and counted 299 children under age 10 killed by guns in 2008 and 2009. That figure included 173 preschool-age children.

Black children and teens accounted for 45 percent of all child and teen gun deaths, even though they were only 15 percent of the child/teen population.

"Every child's life is sacred and it is long past time that we protect it," said CDF president Marian Wright Edelman in the report.

It got almost no press coverage — until nine months later, when Newtown happened.

Tim Stevens, founder and chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project in Pittsburgh, has been focusing on urban gun violence since 2007, when he said Pennsylvania was declared the worst state for black-on-black violence.

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