The weekend after the shooting., Faxon said he tried to come to grips with it all, and to "console our neighbors and friends, and take care of our kids." On Sunday, Dec. 16, Faxon and his family listened to President Barack Obama speak at a local church, where there was empathy for not only the victims and their families, but for the first responders from Newtown.
"These officers came upon a scene that no one should be required to experience. There's going to be significant fallout in that regard," he said. "One thing I'm doing as police commissioner here is being proactive in getting our first responders the support they need in dealing with the trauma they experienced in going into that school."
Faxon also wants to address what he calls "a gap in our law." A post-traumatic stress disorder-type of injury is generally not covered under workers compensation law, he said. "So there has to be a change to recognize that when you have a first responder that goes into this kind of situation, that they're entitled to the protection of the law when they come out."
As a police commissioner, how does he feel about putting officers in every school? Faxon said Newtown's intermediate, middle and high schools already have what are known as school resource officers. No one ever thought they were needed in the elementary schools, he said. "But this may have changed the entire dynamic."
Like others, Faxon wants students to have more access to mental health services. Like others, he wants the public to have less access to "military-style weapons" and high-capacity magazines. "There are no legitimate hunters who use assault weapons to hunt deer. The whole purpose of those weapons with that kind of capacity is to inflict mayhem."
Faxon said he and the legal community are committed to helping Newtown heal. It needs to be "more than just a location where there was a tragedy. It needs to mean something positive for our country — it has to be converted into something positive, somehow. We will exert extraordinary effort to get something done here."•
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