Newtown residents remember heartbreak in Sandy Hook after Texas shooting

In Newtown, the site of the 2012 attack that killed 20 children and six adults, residents were shocked on Tuesday at the similarities between the two shootings and the ages of the victims – while expressing frustration that little had been done over the past decade to prevent tragedy from happening again.

Nicole Hockley, mother of six-year-old Sandy Hook victim Dylan Hockleyappeared on MSNBC on Tuesday night angry at what she said was a lack of action by Congress to pass meaningful gun control laws following numerous school shootings.

“It’s a generation, when I think of Sandy Hook, 10 years ago, they’re kids now that, that’s all they’ve known all their lives, that’s school shootings and the psychological trauma and the impact of it all,” said Hockley, co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, an organization that aims to prevent gun violence. “They are the ones who are going to create the change because our Congress is not going to do it for them.”

So few years have passed since the Sandy Hook attack that many of the students who survived the attack are still attending high school a few miles away.

On Tuesday evening, Newtown School Superintendent Lorrie Rodrigue said in an email to staff and families that counseling teams would be ready to offer assistance to students at each of the district’s seven schools, especially at Newtown High School.

Additionally, Rodrigue said she is working with Newtown Police to provide an “enhanced police presence” at schools in the district.

“In Newtown, this news resonates with our students, staff and families in ways that many communities may not understand – and hopefully never will,” Rodrigue said in the E-mail. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the students, families and staff of the Uvalde school community. We will also contact the administration there to offer our support during this difficult time. »

Po Murray, president of Newtown Action Alliance and neighbor of several families who lost children in the Sandy Hook attack, said Tuesday that the targeting of another elementary school was particularly shocking to Newtown residents.

“Obviously we are all devastated by what happened and the similarity between this shooting and the Sandy Hook shooting breaks our hearts because we know exactly what they are going through right now,” Murray said.

In another striking similarity between the two attacks, police reported on Tuesday that the suspect in the Texas shooting was suspected of shooting his grandmother before the attack. Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook shooting, shot and killed his mother the morning of the attack.

Murray noted gunshot deaths are on the rise Across the country in recent years, and that his organization has called on Congress to pass legislation requiring safer gun storage, as well as President Joe Biden to create a national gun violence prevention office.

“Other nations have understood this and so can we if we had elected leaders who would distance themselves from the [National Rifle Association]the [National Shooting Sports Foundation] and the gun industry and start passing common sense gun laws that the majority of Americans already support,” Murray said.

Weiss, the local monsignor, also questioned the lack of national action on gun control that Connecticut’s political leaders pledged to address on Tuesday.

“If we haven’t been able to control gun violence after how many school shootings, when will that ever happen?” Weiss said. “How do you control it, how do you stop these things from happening?”

Immediately after the attack, however, Weiss said residents of Uvalde, the small town where the shooting happened, should focus on the welfare of their children and ensure they have the opportunity to ask questions and have their feelings heard.

“I’m sure the country, like they’ve done here, there’s going to be an outpouring of affection and an outpouring of things to get them through this, but right now it’s time for these people to get on their feet. behind the doors of their own home and just being together, making their children feel safe and certainly turning to the Lord,” Weiss said. “It’s bad, it’s bad in our face when something like this happens.”