NEWTOWN, Conn. — It's been 10 years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The students, who would have been between juniors in high school, were taken too soon.
On December 14, 2012, 20 students and six educators were slain and since then, families have had to learn to live without their loved ones for the past 10 years.
Families have not stopped fighting against gun violence. Relatives of the victims keep hope for a better future.
Sandy Hook Promise is a non-profit organization that was created after the mass shooting by relatives of the victims. The organization works to fight against gun violence and save lives. Founders Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley, who lost their sons in the shooting, remain activists.
“For me, Dylan is still this 6-year-old boy, forever frozen in time,” Hockley told the Associated Press. “This journey that we’ve been on the last 10 years, it doesn’t feel like a decade and it doesn’t feel like 10 years since I last held my son, either.”
A decade hasn't diminished the disbelief Barden and his wife feel over Daniel's death.
“Jackie and I still have moments where we just kind of look at each other, still wrapping our heads around the fact that our little 7-year-old boy was shot to death in his first grade classroom,” he said.
“I can’t help but wonder what he’d be like now at 17,” he said, repeating the number 17. "I just think he would be still a more mature version of the beautiful, sweet, compassionate, thoughtful, intelligent little boy that he was at 7. And it breaks my heart to think of the wonderful impact he would have had in these last 10 years and what he would have still yet to come, and it’s all been taken away from him.”
The conversation around gun control on the state and the national level continues. Connecticut Gov. Lamont said in a statement Monday more action needs to be taken to prevent mass shootings. He said plans to introduce new gun measures.
Lamont ordered the flags across the state to be flown at half-staff in commemoration of the lives lost at Sandy Hook.
In June, the House and Senate voted to pass the Safer Communities Act, which addresses gun violence nationwide. This follows two mass shootings this year one of which was also at an elementary school, the Uvalde mass shooting in Texas and a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo.
In November, a memorial was built to honor the victims near the new elementary school, where the old school was torn down after the massacre.
St. Rose of Lima Church, which became a gathering point for the Newtown community since the day of the shooting, will hold a special Mass on Wednesday evening. It held a concert on Monday to give people a space to clear their minds.
“The darkness of evil is not going to conquer good and we as a community have to work together to be sure that happens,” Monsignor Robert Weiss told the AP. “We want to celebrate and remember the children and the families, and how it’s turned this tragedy into so many positive things to assist other people."
Members of the Trinity College and Hartford communities gathered for a vigil Tuesday at the college’s chapel to honor the victims of gun violence in the state on Tuesday.
Attorney General Tong in a statement said 26 Connecticut families have a wound that will never heal. For the past 10 years, the teenagers have lived with pain, trauma and vigilance that will never ease.
"Ten years ago, we lost 26 precious children and dedicated educators to one of the most horrific acts of gun violence any country has ever endured. Today, we honor this painful anniversary with love and kindness, but also with a fierce commitment to stopping the uniquely American horror of gun violence in our communities,” said Attorney General Tong in a statement. “In the ten years since that horrific tragedy, Connecticut has united in action behind some of the strongest, lifesaving gun safety laws in the nation. We cannot relent, and we will not go back.”
Sen. Chris Murphy said he will spend his day sending every good thought he has to the family members who lost loved ones that day.
"Those parents, and the community of Newtown, have chosen to rise from that tragedy and build dozens of efforts that have changed lives for the better all over our nation. And many in Newtown have helped build the modern anti-gun violence movement, that finally, this summer achieved the first federal gun safety bill in almost thirty years," he said.
The Southern Connecticut State University Alumni Choir and the Spring Glen Church Choir released a virtual choir recording of “Prayer of the Children," in observance of the 10-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting.
FOX61 will air 'Sandy Hook Strong - 10 Years Later at 7 p.m. Wednesday, honoring the victims and looking into what has happened since their deaths.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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