Sandy Hook Elementary news round-up: Heroes, victims and calls to action

Firefighters pray in front of a memorial along the road to Sandy Hook Elementary School, a day after a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut on December 15, 2012. More information has come out today about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn. Among developments:

• The official list of the dead, with their heartbreaking ages, was released by the Connecticut State Police. USA Today has a gallery of photographs of some of the victims.
• The New York Times reports that the state's chief medical examiner said that all the children were shot multiple times. The same story reports that the alleged shooter, Adam Lanza, used the weapons of his mother, Nancy, to kill her at her home and then the victims at the elementary school. Apparently Nancy Lanza was a gun enthusiast, and the weapons'two semi-automatic pistols and one semi-automatic rifle'were all legally registered in her name.
• The heroics of the teachers and staff who died in the shooting cannot be measured. Victoria Soto, 27, died shielding her students'and saved them. Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach immediately left a meeting to pursue the gunman, according to NBC. (For an inspiring post that's equal parts honoring these heroes and defiance of the right-wing's scorn of teachers, VetGrl's terrific diary is a must-read.)
• The White House announced late this afternoon that President Obama will be traveling to Newtown to meet with families and attend an interfaith service:
  

  Tomorrow evening, the President will travel to Newtown, CT to meet with the families of those who were lost and thank first responders.  The President will also speak at an interfaith vigil for families of the victims as well as families from Sandy Hook Elementary School scheduled for 7PM EST.  More details will be released as they are available.

• Discussions about restrictions on gun ownership are once again a priority. From the New York Times: "We genuinely believe that this one is different," Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in an interview on Saturday. "It's different because no decent human being can look at a tragedy like this and not be outraged by the fact that it can happen in our nation. And because this time, we're really poised to harness that outrage and create a focused and sustained outcry for change."

Help make those words come true'let's work to make this a "focused and sustained outcry for change." Please sign the petition asking President Obama to help start a national conversation about gun control.