On December 14, 2012, “a gunman armed with a weapon of war claimed the lives of 20 first-graders who had their entire lives ahead of them, and of six educators who courageously sacrificed their own safety to protect them, in a matter of minutes.” he said, referring to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut.
Biden stressed, “We shouldn't have to live like this,” noting that his administration is implementing the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which has taken “dozens of executive actions.”
He noted that this fall he created the first Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House, taking every measure available to save lives, but acknowledged that it was not enough.
“We will not be able to protect Americans from the threat of gun violence until Congress does its part and takes proven, common-sense steps like implementing universal background checks, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and more,” the president said emphasized.
He recalled that the children who died in today's fatal shooting should be “high school students who have big dreams and are about to begin their adult lives.”
“Our nation is indebted to the courageous survivors, their families, first responders and Connecticut officials who turned their deep grief into action,” the president said, according to a press release from Government House.
The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown was carried out by Adam Lanza, a young man who, before opening fire on the school, killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in the house where they lived.
Lanza used a Bushmaster model XM15-E2S rifle in the shooting and three weapons were found near his body.
The cycle of armed violence in schools in the United States is a trauma that is difficult to overcome, especially for many young people, the New York Times published in February of this year.
Many feel that this is a cycle that repeats itself, and they are right. So far in 2023, there have been at least 80 mass shootings in schools across the country, around 29 of which have been reported at universities, the most recent being in Nevada, Las Vegas, where a professor killed three people and seriously injured others.
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