Sandy hook elementary within minutes of the call. We needed to break into the school to get in because the back doors are secured. Reporter how did you get it open . Broke out the window. Reporter it was quiet, and the halls were empty. Chief kehoe searched sandy hook elementary room by room. With the rooms locked, that means the teachers had done their job, locked their doors and hid their children from danger. So we went around the building to the front of the building. Reporter tell me about that. There was a very tragic observation on all parts because then you could see the carnage that was present. Reporter when you saw what was in that classroom, what went through your mind . I was devastated, absolutely devastated. I had no words. I felt a little bit of anger towards the person who had done this. Reporter did you think there was anyone there to save . No. Reporter as a first responder, how do you deal with that . Well, you feel a sense of guilt that you werent there quick enough to do that. But i also know that our response stopped that threat where he was, and he could not proceed any further. Reporter outside the building, captain rios was overseeing the evacuation. It was miraculous. I kept seeing children come out of the building, and i kept wanting more to come out and more. I walked in, and it was horrific, the crime scene itself, and to see the adults and the children that were deceased in the classrooms. It was it was very hard, obviously, to comprehend what had happened. Reporter a year ago, chief kehoe read to a sandy hook kindergarten class. All 20 children killed were first graders. I may have read to some of the students that may have perished or not, and that kind of hit me hard. I know, as part of that reading, they got to ask a lot of questions, and some of those questions were about their safety and why policemen come to the school. And i know that maybe in some way we, you know, failed them. Reporter you feel guilty, you said earlier . I feel some sense of guilt, you know. Deep down inside, i just believe that our job was to keep, you know, kids safe, and its supposed to be a learning environment. Reporter how would you respond to suggestions that having Armed Police Officers in schools could prevent shootings . I dont think we want to arm Police Officers in every school. Reporter the Newtown PoliceDepartment Already has three officers assigned to the school district, but chief kehoe says their primary role is community outreach. Jim . Axelrod Elaine Quijano in newtown, thank you. The debate over guns and School Safety will only intensify as the calls for action in the wake of newtown grow louder. Chip reid is in washington with that part of the story. Columbine. Virginia tech. Tucson. Reporter more than 50 stars joined forces to make this new Public Service announcement calling for an end to gun violence. Its time. Its time for our leaders to act. Demand a plan. Reporter the question now, should a plan include the n. R. A. s call for putting an armed officer in every school . Its total nonsense. Reporter no, is the answer from andrei nikitchyuk, whose eightyearold son was in the hallway at Sandy Hook Elementary School as bullets flew nearby. The solution, he says, is gun control. Why are we allowing sales of weapons . That is terrible in this country. Reporter that is shared by some parents in washington, d. C. , where the son of bola aina attends school. No, we dont want guns in our school. Reporter but some parents here disagree. Armed guards, they say, could be part of the answer. I think any effort to to protect our children is worth it. One of the difficulties is being every place, everywhere, all the time. Reporter School Safety expert Ronald Stephens says having armed guards at schools could help, but he notes there was an armed Deputy Sheriff at Columbine High School in colorado more than a decade ago. He was unable to stop the killing of 13 people by two heavily armed students. Studies show that security measures can make students feel less safe, according to School Psychologist eric rossen. The cues given are that there is a reason to be afraid that there is a danger and risk for violence here. Reporter desiree used to be an n. R. A. Supporter, and now shes not so sure, but her daughter likes the fact that newtown decided to station an officer at her school. When i told her there would be a Police Officer when she goes back on january 2, she said, well, that makes me feel safe. Reporter the n. R. A. s proposal to put an armed officer in every School Across the nation would take one of every seven Police Officers on the streets on school days, according to an analysis put out today by the reuters news agency. Axelrod the n. R. A. President david keene will be bob schieffers guest tomorrow on face the nation, along with republican senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of texas and democratic senator mark warner of virginia. Theyll discuss the future of gun control. Moving now to the weather and a deadly cold snap sweeping across eastern europe. Freezing temperatures there have claimed more than 200 lives. Ukraine has been hardest hit, it has been snowing there for weeks. At least 80 people have died in the ukraine, most of them homeless. In britain, its the rain. Devon in South West England just is one of the areas deluged by storms. Even a Christmas Tree and a town center can not escape getting wet. What about the weather across the u. S. In the next couple of days . The Holiday Travel season is now under way, and a. A. A. Expects more than 93 million americans to be on the move at some point, most of them by car. Meteorologist Jeff Beradelli at our miami station wfor joins us. The next couple of days could affect travelers, could affect shoppers. What kind of weather are we going to see across the country . Reporter jim, its mainly good news. Its pretty quiet across most of the United States right now, with the exception of the west coast. We have a big storm slamming into there. Now tomorrow is going to be pretty quiet also across the United States, so travelers shouldnt have too much to worry about. As we head into Christmas Eve, a small storm is going to be across the southeast that will produce some light rain there, and maybe some snow on the Northern Edge through the ohio valley into pennsylvania maybe eventually new york city late on Christmas Eve night. Axelrod who will see a White Christmas . It looks like the folks around new york area, will see a little snow and then a bigger storm will brew in places like oklahoma and texas during the day on christmas. We could be talking about substantial snowfall. Axelrod jeff, thank you so much. Its nine days now until the fiscal cliff of tax increases and spending cuts. Still, congress has gone home for the holidays. And today, president obama and his family arrived in honolulu, where theyll celebrate christmas. The president says he is ready to return to make a deal. Retailers called today super saturday. It is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Businesses are banking on it because so far this season, Sales Numbers have not been as strong as many had hoped to see. Heres michelle miller. Reporter kidding around is a specialty toy store in new york city. You wont find any of this stuff at target, walmart . No. Reporter the owner says today is his busiest day of the year. Within the last month, what have your sales been . Theyre up from last year about 5. 5 , but some of that is the influence of the early hanukkah. Reporter hes doing better than most retailers. Shoppertrak, which monitors Consumer Behavior nationwide, predicted holiday sales growth of 3. 3 . They just cut it to 2. 5 . The traffic growth has been solid, but people are still very tight with their purse strings. Reporter retailer analyst Craig Johnson noticed a slowdown immediately after thanksgiving door busters sold out. Up and down the spectrum, from luxury to midtier to value, theres a lot of weakness. Its not terrible growth, but its tepid, sluggish growth at best. Reporter retailers say consumer enthusiasm has been dampened by the images from newtown and the threat of higher taxes if washington fails to cut a budget deal. Any time you take income out of the consumers pocket, youre going to reduce consumer activity and reduce retail spending. Reporter so retailers are offering steep discounts to salvage the season. Aeropostale is offering 60 off. Childrens place is offering up to 75 off. When the kids need toys, the kids need toys. When you need a present, you need a present. Reporter what he really needs is a big sales day. Michelle miller, cbs news, new york. Axelrod a federal judge has approved b. P. s settlement with people who lost money and property in the 2010 gulf of mexico oil spill. B. P. Plans to pay 7. 8 billion to settle more than 100,000 claims. The judge still has to rule on medical claims for cleanup workers. Later, searching for peace makers in a wartorn world. The first wedding in the wake of super storm sandy at one hard hit new york church. And protests in india over sexual assaults on women. Those stories when the cbs evening news continues. Hi my name is ltjg. Selina bandy from kandahar afghanistan, i just want to wish my fiends and family from milwaukee wisconsin a safe and happy holiday. 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The document has polarized the nation with critics worrying it gives too much power to islamists. Adding to the instability, egypts Vice President and egypts central banker both resigned today. Pope benedict has issued a christmas pardon to his former butler. The pontiff visited Paolo Gabriele in prison, forgiving him for stealing and leaking his private papers. The butler had been sentenced to 18 months. Next up on the cbs evening news, in this season of peace on earth, a former top u. S. Diplomat suggests weve lost our way when it comes to pursuing it. From the men and woman of pittsburghs 911th airlift wing we want to wish you. Happy holidays oint and stis from Psoriatic Arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. I finally understood what serious joint pain is like. I talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. Enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. 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When i was growing up listening to people like Lyndon Baines johnson or Richard Nixon or hubert humphrey, kennedy, eisenhower before that, their mantra was the highest aspiration of our society should be peace. Its interesting since 9 11 our political leaders have stopped telling us that. Its time they started reminding us again. The ancient elusive goal of peace, its part of the american tradition. Its part of who we are as a country. Axelrod so if the mechanisms of security have to do with the proper personnel and weapon systems and technology, what beyond that produces peace . There are two things. First, it is a matter of national policy. We decide after a time to end wars the way weve ended the war in iraq and will soon end the war in afghanistan. We decide that, at certain times, the threat to other people is so grave that it endangers the general peace in the world, weve got to act, as we must act right now to try to end the civil war in syria, where 40,000 people have died. We cant just stay at home. Axelrod do you think people look at the notion of peace and say, look, peace is wonderful, its noble, its terrific for us to aspire to, but ill talk to you about peace after i feel safe. Its not a binary choice, peace or security. You have to have both. But a Great Society will always remind itself that in the final analysis, our greatness will be determined by whether or not were striving for peace. Thats why we rate lincoln and washington and Martin Luther king and Franklin Delano roosevelt as among the greatest leaders we ever had, because they all stood for peace especially when times were very, very difficult. Axelrod you mentioned a number of politicians that you could tick off as pursuing peace a generation ago. Are there a similar list of politicians to mention now . Its hard to find sitting president s and prime ministers who are saying to their people, my overriding goal is peace in our country or peace in the world. Our politicians, understandably, have to cope with the economic crises, with the age of terrorism in which we live. But you can find people operating below that radar screen, sometimes not with the power of a state at their disposal, who are doing extraordinary things. Things like aung san suu kyi, the democratic leader of burma. People like malala yuseff, who comed the right of girl to go to school in pakistan and she was nearly murdered for that. And we can really be inspired by people who put their lives on the line, who risked everything in their own communities to make them more democratic, to make them stronger and to make them more secure. Axelrod nick burns served as a highranking diplomat in both the clinton and george bush administrations. He is now a professor of International Relations at Harvards Kennedy school of government. Ahead, the wedding day for a couple in a neighborhood struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy [ sniffs ] i have a cold. 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Axelrod finally tonight, it is now nearly two months since super storm sandy devastated new york and new jersey. Few places were hit harder than new york citys breezy point, and few neighborhoods have people more determined to rebuild. Tony guida has a case in point. Reporter tracy rutter arrived for her wedding in breezy point, queens, in a fire truck fitting for a veteran e. M. T. Who was marrying a longtime firefighter. Come hell or high water, this day is going to happen. Reporter hell and high water came. Super storm sandy roared through breezy point, queens, nearly two months ago. 111 homes burned to the ground. Many of the 2,800 other houses were destroyed by floodwaters, including the home tracy rutter shared with her fiance, rich whalen. We were going through two feet of water, even to get down the main road. Rutter and whelen always planned to make a home here in breezy point, to marry here, to raise their daughter here. Sandy nearly wiped breezy point off the map. Because i think Everybody Needs a little bit of hope to see that were going to pull through this and were going to do it one day at a time and were going to rebuild. St. Tormas more church is still struggling from sandy. It has no heat. The rutterwhalen wedding was the first since the storm. Monsignor Michael Curran saw it as an omen. Its kind of a sign of hope, that the bonds of family life are stronger than any wind or fire or flood. cheers and applause reporter those vows were celebrated in breezy point, queens when tracy rutter, e. M. T. , married rutter whalen, firefighter, at st. Thomas more church. Tony guida, cbs news, new york. Axelrod and that is the cbs evening news. Later on cbs, 48 hours. For now, im jim axelrod, cbs news in new york. Good night. Captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org tioned by media acc cc soaking will sock the bay a i do think people waited a little bit and now theyre ready to buy, buy, buy a break in the weather allo shoppers to flood stores. H today is stacking up among the biggest buying days of e year. And putting smiles on hundreds of young faces. Whe bay area Holiday Party was a smashing success. Cbs five Eyewitness News is next. Good evening, im Brian Hackney in for ann notarangelo. ,,,,