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 The town, located some 78 miles (126 kilometers) northeast of New
York City, is holding no official events to commemorate the Dec. 14,
2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. There were no formal
events last year either.
"The second anniversary, like the first one last year, will be
recognized in personal reflection and remembrance," said Newtown's
highest elected official, First Selectman Patricia Llodra, and
Superintendent of Schools Joseph Erardi, in a statement.
Besides the prayer service, which was sponsored by the Newtown
Interfaith Clergy Association, there were candlelight vigils across
Connecticut over the weekend. In Fairfield on Sunday, about 30
people, including U.S. Representative Jim Himes, gathered in a small
church to remember the victims.
"We will continue fighting to prevent these kinds of evil acts in
the future," Himes told the congregants, each of whom was holding a
white candle.
The massacre inflamed a national debate over gun control and raised
the prospect of a wave of lawsuits by the families of the first
graders who were killed. The parents of eight of the victims have
notified Connecticut courts they may file wrongful death lawsuits.
 Their initial court filings, related to legal entities created in
memory of their children, do not indicate who the families could
target in their lawsuits, according to a chief court clerk for
Northern Fairfield County Probate Court.
While the parents could not be reached for comment, a spokesman for
Bridgeport law firm Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder said a lawyer at the
firm had recently met with some of the Newtown parents about
potential suits.
"Attorney Josh Koskoff has met with parents about legal action,"
said Geraldo Parrilla, a legal assistant with the firm.
Despite the outrage that followed the Newtown massacre, school
shootings remain common across the United States. Some 95 incidents,
including fatal and nonfatal assaults, suicides and unintentional
shootings have occurred in 33 states since the Newtown massacre,
according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
The group was created by the merger of Mayors Against Illegal Guns,
founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Moms Demand
Action for Gun Sense in America, a group founded after the Newtown
shootings.
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"It's astounding," said Shannon Watts, who founded the Moms Demand
Action group. "There is no other developed country that would
tolerate this kind of gun violence around school-age children."
Gun-rights advocates note that the Second Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution protects the right to bear arms and suggested after the
Newtown attack that armed guards in schools could avert future
violence.
Newtown has razed the school that was site of the attack, which
ended when the 20-year-old gunman, Adam Lanza, shot himself to
death. It recently acquired the home where Lanza lived with his
mother, who he shot dead before the rampage. That building may also
be torn down.
The 12-member Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission is moving
ahead to create a permanent memorial to honor the dead.
"We are meeting monthly, but have taken December off out of respect
for the families who lost their loves ones on that tragic day," said
Kyle Lyddy, chairman of the commission, which includes four parents
of children killed in the attack.
The commission is entering the final phase of recommending either a
single or multiple memorials and is considering such proposals as an
outdoor park and gardens, and indoor murals and art exhibits, Lyddy
said.
(Additional reporting by Barbara Liston in Orlando, Florida; Editing
by Scott Malone, Frank McGurty and Paul Simao)
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