Residents of Aurora, Colo., began gathering on Sunday morning for a day of mourning and memorials for the 12 people killed during a late-night showing of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises.”
President Obama was scheduled to stop in Aurora later in the day to meet with the families of victims and survivors of the shooting, which police now say was planned over several months and carried out early Friday by a single gunman, identified as James Eagan Holmes.
The city plans to hold a vigil on Sunday evening across from the movie theater at the Aurora shopping mall where the shootings took place.
“We need some time to grieve then we’ll move ahead,” Mayor Steve Hogan told the ABC affiliate in Denver. “Things will change in Aurora, but we do have an opportunity to be a better city. We’ll be a great community again.”
Mr. Holmes, an academically gifted 24-year-old who recently dropped out of a prestigious neuroscience doctoral program, was said to be held in solitary confinement as investigators seek answers about his motives.
Even as residents began planning candlelight vigils and making funeral arrangements, local and national leaders were fielding the questions that follow such tragedies, particularly those that have to do with guns and the laws that regulate them.
Over the last two months, the authorities said, Mr. Holmes was able to purchase two handguns, a shotgun and an assault rifle and about 6,000 rounds of ammunition. He also bought a gas mask and body armor that covered him as he carried out his attack.
“This immediately leads to the issue of gun control,” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said Sunday when asked about the shootings on CNN. “To think that somehow increased gun control is the answer, that would have to be proved.”
Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado offered a similar response on CNN about whether he would support heavier restrictions on gun purchases.
“This is a case of evil, of someone who was an aberration of nature,” Mr. Hickenlooper said. “If it wasn’t one weapon, it would have been another.”
Others, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, have forcefully called for a renewed national discussion on gun control. On Sunday, Mr. Bloomberg reiterated a call to President Obama and Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, to make gun control an issue in the presidential campaign.
“Somebody’s got to do something about this, and it requires, particularly in a presidential year, the candidates for president of the United States to stand up once and for all say, ‘Yes they felt terrible, yes it’s a tragedy, yes we have great sympathies for the families, but it’s time for this country to do something,’ ” Mr. Bloomberg said on CBS. “It’s time for both of them to be called, held accountable.”
In Aurora, the police were trying to piece together what led a reserved student to plan what police have described as a calculated attack on a movie theater.
Late Saturday, emergency officials cleared Mr. Holmes’s apartment of explosives and dangerous chemicals that police said were part of a trap meant to kill or injure anyone who entered. Local news media reported that the police had taken away a computer and a hard drive and would continue to search for evidence on Sunday.
Officials also reported that Mr. Holmes’s AR-15 assault rifle most likely jammed during the assault, forcing him to use one of his less powerful weapons and perhaps saving lives.
President Obama was scheduled to stop in Aurora later in the day to meet with the families of victims and survivors of the shooting, which police now say was planned over several months and carried out early Friday by a single gunman, identified as James Eagan Holmes.
The city plans to hold a vigil on Sunday evening across from the movie theater at the Aurora shopping mall where the shootings took place.
“We need some time to grieve then we’ll move ahead,” Mayor Steve Hogan told the ABC affiliate in Denver. “Things will change in Aurora, but we do have an opportunity to be a better city. We’ll be a great community again.”
Mr. Holmes, an academically gifted 24-year-old who recently dropped out of a prestigious neuroscience doctoral program, was said to be held in solitary confinement as investigators seek answers about his motives.
Even as residents began planning candlelight vigils and making funeral arrangements, local and national leaders were fielding the questions that follow such tragedies, particularly those that have to do with guns and the laws that regulate them.
Over the last two months, the authorities said, Mr. Holmes was able to purchase two handguns, a shotgun and an assault rifle and about 6,000 rounds of ammunition. He also bought a gas mask and body armor that covered him as he carried out his attack.
“This immediately leads to the issue of gun control,” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said Sunday when asked about the shootings on CNN. “To think that somehow increased gun control is the answer, that would have to be proved.”
Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado offered a similar response on CNN about whether he would support heavier restrictions on gun purchases.
“This is a case of evil, of someone who was an aberration of nature,” Mr. Hickenlooper said. “If it wasn’t one weapon, it would have been another.”
Others, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, have forcefully called for a renewed national discussion on gun control. On Sunday, Mr. Bloomberg reiterated a call to President Obama and Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, to make gun control an issue in the presidential campaign.
“Somebody’s got to do something about this, and it requires, particularly in a presidential year, the candidates for president of the United States to stand up once and for all say, ‘Yes they felt terrible, yes it’s a tragedy, yes we have great sympathies for the families, but it’s time for this country to do something,’ ” Mr. Bloomberg said on CBS. “It’s time for both of them to be called, held accountable.”
In Aurora, the police were trying to piece together what led a reserved student to plan what police have described as a calculated attack on a movie theater.
Late Saturday, emergency officials cleared Mr. Holmes’s apartment of explosives and dangerous chemicals that police said were part of a trap meant to kill or injure anyone who entered. Local news media reported that the police had taken away a computer and a hard drive and would continue to search for evidence on Sunday.
Officials also reported that Mr. Holmes’s AR-15 assault rifle most likely jammed during the assault, forcing him to use one of his less powerful weapons and perhaps saving lives.