world: World watches with sympathy, bewilderment

Australia and UK also have had terrible episodes of gun violence in recent yearsThese countries enacted laws sharply restricting gun ownership after tragedies"Nowhere has the policy reaction been so pathetic," British blogger says of U.S.Observers point to power of NRA, political culture that protects individual liberty

(CNN) -- On Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, a line of 26 black crosses stand in the sand, with the Stars and Stripes behind them and a pot of flowers alongside.

They are the tribute of the group Rio de Paz -- River of Peace -- to the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School, from a group that knows all too well what tragedies gun violence can inflict on society.

Brazil, Norway, Britain, France and Australia are among many countries that have seen terrible episodes of gun violence in recent years.

But alongside the many expressions of sympathy and condolences that have poured into Newtown, Connecticut, from around the world, there is also a sense of bewilderment that such tragedies happen on an almost routine basis in America.

"Routine" may seem an exaggerated or callous description, but it was President Barack Obama who said at an interfaith service Sunday night in Newtown: "We can't accept events like this as routine."

Strangers inspired to honor Newtown victims

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Children in Newtown, Connecticut, excluding Sandy Hook Elementary School, return to classes on Tuesday, December 18, four days after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":true,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":1,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Members of the human rights group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption light candles showing the names of those killed during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, during a prayer vigil in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines on December 18.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":3,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Children light candles to pay their respects to the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting at the main square in Tirana, Albania, on Monday, December 17. The deadly gun rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School has provoked strong reactions from around the world.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":4,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Protesters march on the National Rifle Association's Capitol Hill lobbyist offices in Washington on December 17.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":5,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks out for stronger gun control at a press conference at City Hall on December 17. Bloomberg, co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was joined by victims and survivors of gun violence.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":6,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Chris Foye, whose son Chris Owens was killed by a stray bullet in 2009, stands with other survivors and family members of gun violence at Bloomberg's press conference on December 17 in New York.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":7,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Young people mourn at Newtown High School before a memorial service attended by President Obama on Sunday, December 16.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":10,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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From left: Newtown residents Claire Swanson, Kate Suba, Jaden Albrecht, Simran Chand and New London, Connecticut, residents Rachel Pullen and her son, Landon DeCecco, hold candles at a memorial for victims on Sunday, December 16, in Newtown, Connecticut. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":14,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Ty Diaz is kissed by his mother, Yvette, at a memorial down the street from Sandy Hook on December 16.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":16,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Teddy bears, flowers and candles in memory of those killed are left at a memorial down the street from the school on December 16.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":17,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Members of Sisters of Christian Charity go to lay flowers in front of the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 16 in Newtown.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":20,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

A woman receives a hug as she leaves morning service December 16 at Trinity Church in Newtown near the elementary school.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":21,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Parishioners pay their respects to the victims of the elementary school shooting while attending Mass at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown on December 16. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":22,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Police officers honor the victims of the school shooting at the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church on December 16 in Newtown.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":23,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

The Jacksonville Jaguars have a moment of silence in honor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims before their game against the Miami Dolphins on December 16. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":24,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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A police officer removes flowers from a busy intersection on December 16 in Newtown. Police said they were afraid the memorial, left for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, would cause a traffic hazard. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":26,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Angel wood cutouts for each of the 27 victims are set up on hillside in Newtown on December 16.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":28,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans shows his glove in remembrance of the victims before the start of a game against the Indianapolis Colts on December 16 in Houston. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":30,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Donna Soto, right, mother of Victoria Soto, the first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who was shot and killed while protecting her students, hugs her daughter Karly while mourning their loss at a candlelight memorial at Stratford High School on Saturday, December 15, in Stratford, Connecticut.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":31,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Claudia Urbiana and daughter Jocelyne Cardenas, left, hug outside of the entrance to the Sandy Hook school.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":42,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Ken Kowalsky and his daughter Rebecca, 13, embrace while standing at the end of the road leading to Sandy Hook Elementary School on Saturday.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":51,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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A woman sits during a service at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut on Friday, December 14.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":53,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Fans at the NBA game between the Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns participate in a moment of silence for the victims of the Newtown shooting on Friday in Phoenix.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":54,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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People gather for a vigil outside the White House in Washington following the Connecticut elementary school shooting on Friday.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":57,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Hartford, Connecticut, Mayor Padro Segarra speaks emotionally about the students and teachers who died earlier in the day at Sandy Hook Elementary School in nearby Newtown at a candlelight vigil at Bushnell Park in Hartford on Friday.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":59,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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A flag at the U.S. Capitol flies at half-staff after President Barack Obama ordered the action while speaking from the White House. Obama called for "meaningful action" in the wake of the school shooting.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":69,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

Julie Henson of San Francisco joins other people outside the White House to participate in a candlelight vigil on Friday.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":70,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Washington resident Rachel Perrone, left, and her 5-year-old son, Joe, center, join others outside the White House in a candlelight vigil.cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":7,"y":1,"pos":72,"title":"Reaction to Newtown school killings"}

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Reaction to Newtown school killings Event.observe(window, 'load', function() {//report the first gallery image to ADBPif(typeof(cnn_adbptrackpgalimg) == 'function' && typeof(cnnArticleGallery) != 'undefined') {cnn_adbptrackpgalimg(cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[0].image, "");}});var currExpandable="expand27";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='bestoftv/2012/12/17/exp-early-dr-redlener.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121217114832-exp-early-dr-redlener-00005310-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand27Store=mObj;var currExpandable="expand37";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='us/2012/12/17/sot-ct-obama-newtown-vigil.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121217022130-sot-ct-obama-newtown-vigil-00000000-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand37Store=mObj;var currExpandable="expand47";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='us/2012/12/16/ct-shooting-keilar-pkg-gun-control.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121216070915-ct-shooting-keilar-pkg-gun-control-00002025-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand47Store=mObj;var currExpandable="expand57";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var mObj={};mObj.type='video';mObj.contentId='';mObj.source='us/2012/12/16/ct-shooting-lah-parker-family-coping-pkg.cnn';mObj.videoSource='CNN';mObj.videoSourceUrl='';mObj.lgImage="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121216080632-emilie-parker-story-body.jpg";mObj.lgImageX=300;mObj.lgImageY=169;mObj.origImageX="214";mObj.origImageY="120";mObj.contentType='video';CNN.expElements.expand57Store=mObj;Even so, commentaries from abroad often include a sense of resignation that much can or will be done to prevent such atrocities in the future.

John Cassidy, who is British and blogs for The New Yorker, writes of driving to his hometown of Leeds in northern England, as he heard the news of the killings at Sandy Hook.

"Nowhere have mass shootings been as prevalent as the United States, and nowhere has the policy reaction been so pathetic," he wrote this weekend.

Brian Masters, writing in the UK's Daily Telegraph, agreed.

"No American politician will have the nerve to propose the only cure to this repetitive insanity, which would be a sensible, mature and responsible attitude towards the ownership and use of guns," he predicted.

In the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, commentator Tzipi Shmilovitz was more brutal.

"America is not ready to talk about how it is easier to get a handgun than it is to see a doctor, not ready to speak about the video games that have extreme violence. It is just willing to sweep up everything under the carpet of tears."

And over at Haaretz, one of Israel's leading commentators, Chemi Shalev, lamented a "combustible mix of angry American young men, often disturbed and usually white, spurred on by the pervasive and always growing presence of limitless violence in popular American culture, together with the easy-access, open market of guns and ammo, which together produce these shooting slaughters with such sickening regularity. ...

"And if you pour in the often gruesome violence so rampant in the computer and video games that so many American boys are weaned on and addicted to, it should come as no surprise, perhaps, that not only are the most evil and inhuman of mass murders possible, they may soon become commonplace," he added.

Such observations are not new. Five years ago Chris Lockwood, U.S. editor of The Economist wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "We might be a little surprised that a country with all the ingenuity and energy that America has seems simply to throw up its hands when it comes to guns, and in effect declares that the homicide rate and regular appalling school massacres, are insolvable problems."

Obama has now suggested otherwise -- broadening his existing support for a ban on assault weapons.

"We can't tolerate this anymore; these tragedies must end," he said Sunday.

Dunblane: How UK school massacre led to tighter gun control

Commentators and academics from other countries who have looked at this "inaction" in America often raise the following points.

The polarization in U.S. politics means that on the really difficult issues, paralysis is more likely than progress. The power of lobbying interests -- and in the case of guns that means the National Rifle Association -- contributes to that paralysis, they say.

They also assert that the U.S. Constitution and its political culture protects individual liberty -- or license -- to a much greater degree than is the case almost anywhere else. That includes allowing the ownership of powerful firearms capable of killing dozens within a minute.

Sixteen years ago, both Australia and the United Kingdom saw gun rampages similar to those at Virginia Tech, the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, the theater in Aurora, Colorado, and Sandy Hook.

More: How other countries have dealt with massacres

In the town of Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and one adult were shot dead at an elementary school in 1996. The gunman then shot himself. The atrocity led to revisions to the Firearms Act that in effect banned the possession of handguns in Britain.

Jack Straw, the minister who pushed the legislation through Parliament, said after the Sandy Hook killings that he would "not put money" on U.S. laws changing.

In a BBC interview, Straw added: "I think sensible people want it to happen, but the National Rifle Association, which is this extraordinary gun lobby and gun manufacturers' lobby, controls politics in a number of states."

One tweet put it more bluntly: "Dunblane,1996. 16 dead kids+adult. 1.2 million sign petitions. UK govt. enacts new law. Halts private guns. Tag, USA. You're It."

In that same year, a 28-year old Australian killed 35 people with two semiautomatic rifles in just eight minutes. Then-Prime Minister John Howard pushed through a law that banned assault weapons and instituted a gun buy-back policy. (Some 650,000 were taken out of circulation.)

Howard recalls telling an audience in Texas in 2008 that the law was among his proudest achievements in 12 years as prime minister.

"There was an audible gasp of amazement," he wrote in an op-ed this year in The Sydney Morning Herald.

After the mass shooting in Aurora this year, Howard said he was not optimistic it would change anything.

"The responses of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney ... were as predictable as they were disappointing," he said.

"There are many American traits which we Australians could well emulate to our great benefit. But when it comes to guns we have been right to take a radically different path," Howard concluded.

Australian-born media magnate Rupert Murdoch chimed in Saturday on his Twitter account: "When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons? As in Oz after similar tragedy."

Some columnists don't detect any popular pressure in the United States for change, even if the gun control debate has flared in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting.

Mirjam Remie, who writes for the Dutch newspaper Handelsblad, observes that "support for stricter gun laws has been steadily declining for decades. According to Gallup, it is 44%, but twelve years ago it was 66%."

Debate rages about the relationship between the availability of guns in society and the number of deaths caused by guns. But the laws enacted in the UK and Australia sharply restricting gun ownership do appear to have made a difference.

A study (PDF) by researchers at Harvard University in 2011 found that in the 18 years before the new law was enacted in Australia, a total of 13 gun attacks had led to four or more fatalities. In the 16 years since the new law, the number was zero. Individual homicides involving guns have also fallen.

Japan has some of the most restrictive regulations in the world on gun ownership. Shotgun licenses for hunting require a lengthy application; handguns are forbidden. Homicides by gunfire in Japan rarely get into double figures in a year.

In the view of author David Kopel, who has studied Japan's gun control laws in great detail, its regulations work because they are "part of a vast mosaic of social control ... a pervasive cultural theme that the individual is subordinate to society and to the government."

That would not be acceptable in the United States. Even so, while recognizing the power of the Second Amendment, foreign commentators are not shy of recommending what could and should be done to tackle gun violence in the U.S.

In the UK, The Guardian editorialized in the wake of the Newtown shootings: "A proper federal system of regulation, including background checks registration, and limits on the type and number of weapons an individual can own, would bring the U.S. belatedly into line with other civilized countries, as would a determined push back against state legislation allowing the carrying of concealed weapons in public."

Hours before the Sandy Hook massacre, Michigan lawmakers passed legislation allowing those with concealed pistol licenses to carry guns into schools, hospitals and churches among other places.

In the words of one commentator: "No society that holds itself up as an example to the world should, as the United States does, brazenly shrug off what are clearly deep national character flaws when it comes to our love of guns or our celebration of hate politics."

The writer was not a foreigner, but an American -- David Rothkopf -- writing in Foreign Policy. And he was writing not this weekend, but after Jared Loughner shot and killed six people, and injured more than a dozen, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in January 2011.

Watch CNN's LIVE TV coverage of the Connecticut elementary school shooting as the story continues to unfold.

Details continue to emerge about what precisely happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Here is a timeline of events that compiles the latest reporting.

An interactive tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. December 18, 2012 -- Updated 2152 GMT (0552 HKT)

With memories of last week's school massacre still hauntingly fresh, most students in Newtown will return to the classroom with their sense of normalcy shattered. December 18, 2012 -- Updated 1537 GMT (2337 HKT)

Friday began with the mundane. A chilly December day, Christmas on many residents' minds.December 18, 2012 -- Updated 1530 GMT (2330 HKT)

Placing yourself in the path of flying bullets to protect innocents. It's a job description fitting for a soldier or police officer, but not for a school teacher.December 18, 2012 -- Updated 2037 GMT (0437 HKT)

Black vans with tinted windows took the place of school buses carrying dozens of elementary school children. December 18, 2012 -- Updated 1519 GMT (2319 HKT)

Ken Henggeler poured his grief into the thing he loved most: carpentry.December 18, 2012 -- Updated 1521 GMT (2321 HKT)

Nearly three decades ago, a woman disappeared from the Connecticut town of Newtown, leaving behind a trail of questions. December 18, 2012 -- Updated 1849 GMT (0249 HKT)

Nancy Lanza was raising a quiet, socially awkward young man, the kind of teenager who, a former classmate recalled, would just go stand in the corner. December 17, 2012 -- Updated 1045 GMT (1845 HKT)

Robbie Parker has a message for the family of the gunman who killed his 6-year-old daughter and 19 of her school mates. December 17, 2012 -- Updated 1905 GMT (0305 HKT)

The suspect in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took to his grave the reasons that compelled him to mow down more than two dozen people before taking his own life.December 17, 2012 -- Updated 1312 GMT (2112 HKT)

In some cases around the world, mass shootings have been a catalyst for changes in gun control laws.December 17, 2012 -- Updated 1949 GMT (0349 HKT)

Security experts predict what comes next: A strong reaction -- maybe an overreaction -- to school safety. And within months, it'll be back to cuttign security budgets.December 17, 2012 -- Updated 2111 GMT (0511 HKT)

Learn how to help the victims and families affected by the Connecticut school shooting tragedy.

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Tuesday, 18 December 2012

World watches with sympathy, bewilderment

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