Flags to be lowered across Indiana in respect for lost kids, adults

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHI) - President Barack Obama, along with Gov. Mitch Daniels, is proclaiming that U.S. flags be lowered to half-staff for the next four days in respect of the victims of the Friday shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Just as the school day was beginning at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a gunman (and possibly a second) opened fire inside the school, killing 26 people, 20 of them school children between the ages of 5 and 10. Here’s the Associated Press story on the horrifying events.

Just after 4 p.m. Friday, Gov. Daniels directed that flags throughout the state of Indiana and at the Statehouse be lowered to half-staff until sunset Dec. 18.

This is in accordance with a proclamation from the president, which is below:

As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, December 18, 2012. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.