A Rising Chorus, But Not Quite Consensus, On Guns

The reaction to the Newtown shootings spread to corporate America on Tuesday, as a private equity firm said it would immediately sell the company that made the assault-style rifle used in shootings. Separately, Dick's Sporting Goods, the national chain, suspended the sale of “modern sporting rifles.”

Around the country, gun-control advocates continued on Tuesday to seize on public grief and anger about Friday's massacre of 20 young children to insist on quick, broad action by President Obama and Congress to regulate firearms, confront mental illness and address violence in the media and video games.

Residents of Newtown, Conn., where a young man killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as his mother and himself, announced the formation of a new group called Newtown Uni ted, focused on turning the tragedy in their community into political pressure to confront the country's gun culture.

“I would like, when you think of Sandy Hook, you think, ‘Oh, that's where they banned assault weapons,' ” John Neuhoff, a Newtown resident, told Reuters. “If we can ban fireworks, we should be able to ban assault weapons.”

Four days after the shootings, the gun-control debate is intensifying even as the residents of Newtown slowly carry on with the grim task of burying their loved ones. Funerals for the victims of the shooting are being held throughout the week, ahead of the Christmas holiday next Tuesday.

In announcing the sale of the gun manufacturer, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management made clear that the decision stemmed from the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary Schoo l. “It is apparent that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level,” Cerberus said in a news release.

The firm said it planned to sell the Freedom Group, which makes the .223 Bushmaster rifle used in the massacre. Cerberus acquired Bushmaster in 2006, later merging it with other gun companies to create the Freedom Group.

Tuesday's announcement follows a statement from the California State Teachers' Retirement System, a large pension fund, that it was reviewing its investment in Cerberus in light of the firm's holding in the Freedom Group.

Cerberus is one of several private equity firms that have holdings in gun manufacturers. Colt Defense, which was spun out of the maker of the .44-40 Colt revolver, is jointly owned by Sciens Capital Managemen t, a fund advised by the Blackstone Group and another fund operated by Credit Suisse.

Dick's Sporting Goods, as part of its announcement, also said it had “removed all guns from sale and from display in our store nearest to Newtown.”

At the same time, some gun-rights advocates said that they would resist new limits on firearms and two of the nation's Republican governors said the Connecticut shootings should not curtail the rights of their citizens to carry concealed weapons.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas told a Tea Party group on Monday that he opposed “knee-jerk reaction from Washington, D.C.” in the wake of the shootings and said that school teachers and administrators should be allowed to carry concealed weapons, according to The Dallas Morning News.

In Ohio, Gov. John R. Kasich said he still inten ded to sign a bill allowing guns in the parking garages of the State Capitol building, saying in a statement to The Cleveland Plain Dealer that he is “a Second Amendment supporter and that's not going change.”

“There are a range of issues at play here involving mental health, school security and a culture that at times fails to reject the glorification of violence that can desensitize us to the sanctity and majesty of life,” Mr. Kasich told the paper. “Going forward, we need to pay close attention to what the experts conclude from this incident in order to see if there are lessons to be learned and applied here in Ohio.”

The nation's largest gun rights organization - the National Rifle Association - remained largely silent Tuesday even as some gun-right advocates began speaking up against new gun regulations.

“Automobiles kill more pe ople on our streets than guns do,” Philip Van Cleave, the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said on CNN's “Piers Morgan” show Monday night. “This was a maniac in a state that had a lot of gun control.”

Still, the events in Newtown appear to have energized gun-control advocates who view the somber aftermath of the tragedy as an opportunity - but only if change comes quickly, before the memory of the children and their teachers fades.

Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, wrote that the killings of the children in Connecticut should prompt America to confront its failures when it comes to accepting a culture of violence.

“If this traged y does not produce universal gun control, what can and what will?” Mr. Wiesel wrote. “What else do we need for preventing further horrors such as this?”

On the White House Web site, a petition calling for the immediate introduction of gun-control legislation had gathered 173,000 signatures by Tuesday morning. The petition, which is on a page that lets people post petitions, calls for “a set of laws that regulates how a citizen obtains a gun.”

In Washington, another group is collecting signatures for a separate petition from people who will promise to call the White House and their member of Congress every month until new laws are passed. The Web site - gunpromise.com - went live Monday evening.

Late Monday night, David Letterman, the comedic host of CBS's “Late Show” offered a rare, serious commentary, noting that there have been 70 school shootings since 1994. Mr. Letterman said he was encouraged by Mr. Obama's speech at Sunday's memorial that he is poised to take action.

“So right there, I feel better,” Mr. Letterman said. “It can't be an ‘excuse for inaction.' That means he's committed. He is going on the record. Some kind of action.”

The calls for action follow Monday's reversals by some Democratic lawmakers who have for years been opposed to stricter gun rules. They were echoed Tuesday by many columnists and newspaper editorials who took Washington politicians - including Mr. Obama - to task for dragging their feet after past mass shootings.

In an editorial, The New York Post urged lawmakers to ban assault rifles that have been used in several of the recent mass shootings.

“Weapons designed expressly to kill human beings, and then modified (wink wink) to meet the federal machine-gun ban, have no legitimate place in American society,” The Post wrote. “Time to get rid of them.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote in an editorial that lawmakers should consider revisions to the Constitution's Second Amendment if necessary to place limits on gun ownership.

“Any serious discussion of preventing more slaughters has to start with significant restrictions on the availability of high-power firearms and large magazines,” the paper wrote. “But it also has to examine how guns are bought and sold in this country and the terms under which people can own them. It has to be far-ranging and fearless, inc luding the possible repeal or revision of the Second Amendment if that is what it takes to regulate private arsenals and enact meaningful gun control.”

But Mr. Obama and some lawmakers continue to be vague about what specific new laws or regulations they might support in the weeks and months ahead.

In a statement, Heidi Heitkamp, the Democratic senator-elect from North Dakota, said only that she would “give thoughtful and studied consideration” to any proposals for new laws about mental health and guns in the country.

“Many ideas will be put forth, and I will give thoughtful and studied consideration to any legislation that may arise as result of this tragedy,” Ms. Heitkamp said. “As always, I will listen closely to North Dakotans and seek their input on any possible changes to current law.”

Late Monday evening, David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, e-mailed millions of people on the president's campaign database, urging them to watch a video of the president's speech at the memorial service Sunday.

“We must also, as the president urged, consider how each of us can play a part in making our country worthy of the memory of those little children,” Mr. Axelrod said.

But the e-mail, which links to a page at the president's campaign Web site, does not offer any specifics for the president's supporters. Mr. Axelrod remains as vague about the need for action as the president's spokesman, Jay Carney, was on Monday.

Mark Scott contributed reporting.