NEWTOWN, Conn. -- The outpouring of shock and grief from around the world over the horrific events in this picturesque New England town has given way to another widely felt, powerful emotion: the urge to support the shattered families of the victims.   

“I just had a lady call from Montana,” said Scudder Smith, publisher of the Newtown Bee, the local paper. "She said she’s going to send me a box of bears to distribute when the time is right so the kids can hug some bears.”

As details of Friday’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary continue to unfold, residents remain stunned by the mayhem unleashed by a lone gunman. On Saturday, authorities disclosed the names of the 12 girls, eight boys and six adult women who were killed in the nation's second-worst school shooting. 

The scope of the tragedy has been matched by a torrent of offers to help.

Since just hours after the massacre, local churches and social service agencies have been besieged with phone calls and emails from around the country and the world -- as far away as Taiwan, Australia and West Africa. Some callers express a sense of powerlessness in trying to help shattered families rebuild their lives, along with a bewilderment in trying to know what to do.

Leo McIlrath, chaplain at the Lutheran Home of Southbury, said one way to support the wounded community is to “pray from a distance.”

“That’s more powerful than anything they can do up close - including providing food or shelter," he said. "We do all that already in this community. We don’t need people to put something in a box, I don’t think, and send it here. We need to be as of one mind and one heart and one spirit. And I feel that’s coming across.”

Slideshow: Connecticut school massacre

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images

The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.

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The outpouring of global grief has generated a flood of offers of financial contributions, according to Newtown Savings Bank President John Trentacosta.

“We’ve been hearing from people all over the country asking how they can help and what they can do to support he families,” he said. “This all happened so quickly.”

In response, several groups have set up websites to accept contributions, including a joint effort between Newtown Savings and the United Way of Western Connecticut. The Sandy Hook School Support Fund is accepting donations via the Web, or by check mailed to Sandy Hook School Support Fund, Newtown Savings Bank, 39 Main St., Newtown CT 06470. Donations are also being accepted at the bank's local branches.

Local residents have also taken up the cause. Neighbors and friends have been preparing meals for the bereaved families, and counseling agencies have tapped an influx of volunteers to help cope with the psychological trauma.   

Santas for Sandy Hook
Clad in Santa caps and armed with a handwritten "Santas for Sandy Hook" sign, Zoe Walter, 21, her sister and a friend stood outside a local coffee and donuts shop Saturday asking for donations to the newly created support fund.

As she briefly silenced her handbell, Walter said she was shaken by the killings.

"I just want them to know that we care and we're here, and we'll do anything that we can (to) help," said Walter, a college student, as she broke down in tears. "I just want them to know that we're thinking about them."

At New Hope Community Church, pastor Jim Solomon has been fielding calls since shortly after the Friday morning tragedy.

“We’ve been getting what seems like literally thousands of inquiries,” he said. “I’m touched by the level of support not only from all around our nation but from around the world. They want to do something practical.”

In response, Solomon has also set up a fund on the church’s Web site, asking contributors for suggestions on how the money should be spent.

Antonio Lacerda / EPA

A woman puts some flowers next to crosses on Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro. Brazil, on Saturday as a tribute to the shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“If they indicate what the funds are for, the church treasurer is going to dispense those funds to help each of the particular families,” he said. “We’re going to use that money to help each family with food or funeral and memorial services, burial expenses or any other needs so we can help them in a very practical way."

Solomon, a counselor, is also a board member at Newtown Youth and Family Services, which is offering free counseling to victims’ families and other residents.

In the aftermath of natural disasters, communities often see an influx of donated food, clothing and other emergency supplies. Local clergy say the school shooting in Newtown was a very different type of disaster, calling for a very different response.

“There’s an awful lot to just knowing that people care,” said Rev. Raymond Petrucci, a chaplain at nearby Danbury Hospital. “If there’s any way people can communicate through the public media or whatever forms of saying, ‘We truly are supporting and praying for you hoping for you,’ that type of emotional support - especially for that community, it’s already close-knit - is the most appropriate way of approaching this.”

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

Gun control supporters take part in a candlelight vigil at Lafayette Square across from the White House on Saturday.

In a world awash in social media, grief also flowed online.

On Twitter, the #Newtown hashtag emerged almost immediately, promptly flooded with emotional outpouring and soon began trending. On Google+, many gathered around the topic "Sandy Hook" for consolation. Facebook users created multiple pages to share news and prayers with friends.

Reddit users inundated the Connecticut subreddit with fundraising initiatives, local news, and opportunities to "vent your fears, anger, frustration and anything else." By midday Saturday, the local NewtownPatch had drawn more than 500 “I want to help” comments on a page devoted to supporting local residents.

In Newtown, some people are showing their support just by showing up.

At a Friday night vigil at St. Rose of Lima church, the crowd spilled out into the freezing weather, trying to make sense of the tragedy. Another townwide vigil is planned for Sunday night at Newtown High School.

Arshad / Zuma Press

Pakistani children light candles to pay tribute to U.S. elementary school shooting victims in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.

“I know people will be coming from out of town,” said McIlrath. “There using the high school because there is no church big enough.”

McIlrath, who plans to speak at the service, was still working out what he wants to say.    

“I heard a lot of people say the joy is gone,” said McIlrath. “I want to say, ‘No, the joy isn’t stolen from us - no more than Grinch stole Christmas. Death isn’t going to steal the joy out of this community.”

NBC's Miranda Leitsinger and Rosa Golijan contributed to this report.

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Mark Blinch / Reuters

People observe a moment of silence at a candlelight vigil at Dundas Square in Toronto on Sunday after a shooting across in nearby Eaton Centre shopping mall left one dead and at least six others wounded.

A suspect has been arrested over the shooting at a downtown Toronto shopping mall that left one man dead and at least six others wounded on the weekend, police said on Monday.

The man handed himself in to police in the early hours, Canada's CTV reported.

Police said on Sunday they believed they knew the identity of the shooter and said the victim, 24-year-old Toronto resident Ahmed Hassan, may have had some gang affiliation.

The shooting occurred Saturday evening at the Eaton Centre, one of Toronto's top tourist destinations. It shocked Canada's largest city, which has a reputation as one of the safest in North America.

CTV said the injured included a 13-year-old boy who suffered a gunshot wound to the head. He was listed in critical but stable condition at the Hospital For Sick Children, it said.

Another 23-year-old man was in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and chest, CTV added.

Toronto police confirmed Monday’s arrest on Twitter but declined to provide further details. A spokeswoman said a news conference would be held at 2 p.m. ET.

1 dead, 7 hurt in shooting at downtown Toronto mall

“Our investigation clearly suggests that this is a targeted shooting and not a random act of violence against the members of the general public," Brian Borg, a Toronto police detective, said in a media briefing on Sunday.

"Whether this is a gang-motivated shooting has not been definitively determined. But I can say it is being closely looked at given that at least one of the victims has known gang associations."

The incident revived memories of another shooting close to Eaton Centre on Dec. 26, 2005, when a 15-year-old girl was killed and several other people were wounded. That shooting was also believed to be gang-related.

Canada has stringent controls on handguns and a lower rate of gun-related violence than the United States. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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68,000 guns recovered by Mexican authorities in the past five years have been traced back to the United States, authorities said Friday.

The flood of tens of thousands of weapons underscores complaints from Mexico that the U.S. is responsible for arming the drug cartels plaguing its southern neighbor. Six years of violence between warring cartels have killed more than 47,000 people in Mexico. 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released its latest data covering 2007 through 2011. According to ATF, many of the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to ATF for tracing were recovered at the scenes of cartel shootings while others were seized in raids on illegal arms caches. All the recovered weapons were suspected of being used in crimes in Mexico. 

At an April 2 North American summit in Washington, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the U.S. government has not done enough to stop the flow of assault weapons and other guns from the U.S. to Mexico. 

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Calderon credited President Barack Obama with making an effort to reduce the gun traffic, but said Obama faces "internal problems ... from a political point of view." 

There is Republican opposition in Congress and broad opposition from Republicans and gun-rights advocates elsewhere to a new assault weapons ban or other curbs on gun sales. The Obama administration says it is working to tighten inspections of border checkpoints in the absence of an assault rifle ban that expired before Obama took office. 

For more than a year, ATF has been reeling from accusations that some of its agents in Arizona were ordered by superiors to step aside rather than intercept illicit loads of weapons headed for Mexico. 

The Justice Department's inspector general and Congress have been looking into the Arizona gun probe, Operation Fast and Furious. 

The issue of gun control legislation hasn't been part of the Republican-led probe of Fast and Furious by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. 

The number of all types of ATF-traced firearms manufactured in the U.S. or imported into the U.S. and later recovered in Mexico rose from 11,842 in 2007 to 14,504 in 2011, according to ATF. The figures for U.S.-sourced firearms were 21,035 in 2008; 14,376 for 2009; and 6,404 in 2010. Included in those totals, the number of rifles recovered in Mexico, submitted to ATF for tracing and found to have come from the U.S. rose from 4,885 in 2007 to 8,804 last year. 

One killed every half hour in Mexico drug-related violence

Mexican law enforcement officials report that certain types of rifles such as AK variants with detachable magazines are being used more frequently by drug trafficking organizations, ATF said in a news release. 

Mexico has provided ATF information on 99,691 guns. ATF determined that the source for 68,161 of the weapons was the U.S, 68 percent of the total. For the remainder, ATF was unable to determine a U.S. source or was unable to trace the request to a country of origin. The 68 percent figure is down from estimates of 90 percent in years past when Mexico was sharing less information with the U.S. 

During the Obama administration, ATF has undergone a management shake-up and Attorney General Eric Holder has called Fast and Furious a flawed operation that must never be repeated. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that thorough gun statistics are hard to come by and tricky to interpret. 

"The only guns Mexico is going to submit for tracing are guns they know are from the United States, which clearly paints an incomplete picture of the firearms found in the country," Grassley said. 

 In the Obama administration's efforts to slow the illicit trafficking, gun store owners in Southwestern border states are suing to overturn a requirement that they report to ATF when customers buy multiple high-powered rifles within a consecutive five-day period. To date, the program has been upheld in one federal court. ATF says the reporting requirement, imposed six months ago, has led to 100 criminal investigations and the referral of 30 cases for prosecution involving 100 alleged gun trafficker defendants.

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