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Published December 15, 2012, 05:54 AM

Obama pledges 'meaningful action' after shooting

President tearful while calling for response to Connecticut school fatalities.

By: Ben Feller, The Associated Press

  • Tearful president
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    President Barack Obama wipes his eye as he talks about the Connecticut elementary school shooting Friday in the White House briefing room in Washington. (AP photo)
  • Flags at half-staff

WASHINGTON — A tearful President Barack Obama said Friday he grieved first as a father about the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school, declaring, “Our hearts are broken today.” He called for “meaningful action” to prevent such shootings but did not say what it should be.

“The majority of those who died were children — beautiful, little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” Obama said.

At that point he had to pause for several seconds to keep his composure, and he wiped his eyes.

The scene in the White House briefing room was one of the most emotional moments of Obama’s presidency. Near him, two senior aides cried and held hands as they listened to the president.

Twenty-seven people, including 20 children, were killed when a gunman opened fire inside the school. The shooter blasted his way through the building as young students cowered helplessly. The dead included the shooter.

The story jolted parents and other people across the nation, and the White House was no different.

Obama began his comments with no greeting. He ended them with words of Scripture, walking away in silence.

He recited the future milestones lost, and had to pause again to gather his words.

“They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own,” the president said of those who were killed.

He ordered that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff on public grounds through Tuesday. The White House also canceled a trip Obama was planning to take Wednesday to Portland, Maine. Notably, House Speaker John Boehner, with whom Obama is locked in tense budget negotiations, announced that Republicans would not offer their usual radio address today “so that President Obama can speak for the entire nation at this time of mourning.”

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