Remembering the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting 11 years later
Eleven years ago, a gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle burst into Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he carried out the deadliest mass shooting in Connecticut state history.
On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people inside the school in Newtown, among them 20 first graders no older than 7 years old. The victims also included Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach and four teachers, all of whom were hailed as heroes for doing everything they could to protect their students.
Even after more than a decade, a quiet grief grips the Connecticut community every year the anniversary arrives. Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son, Daniel, was killed in the shooting, told CT Radio it has been an ongoing struggle in the years since the massacre.
“Every day is difficult wrestling with the fact that our little 7-year-old son Daniel was shot to death in his first-grade classroom,” Barden said. “And this week is, of course, no different in that regard.”
Barden, like many who have felt the sting of gun violence, has worked to bring about change that might prevent such violence from occurring again. He is the CEO and co-founder of the Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization that “works for gun violence prevention programs and policy making.” Since it was first established, more than 9.8 million people have taken the pledge, vowing to protect children from firearms, NBC Connecticut reported.
Following the mass shooting, Connecticut lawmakers in 2013 passed new restrictions to the state’s existing assault weapons ban. And this past June, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation banning the open carry of firearms as well as the sale of more than three handguns within 30 days to any one person.
President Joe Biden in a statement on Thursday referenced the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a package of gun safety bills passed in 2022 after mass shootings at Robb Elementary School in Texas and at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
“But it’s not enough,” Biden said. “We will not be able to protect Americans from the threat of gun violence until Congress does its part and takes commonsense and proven measures like passing universal background checks, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and more.”
He added: “Today, Jill and I are praying for the families and survivors in the Newtown community, and every single community that has been ripped apart by this senseless violence. May God bless them.”
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