NEWTOWN, Conn. — Wednesday marks 10 years since 20 students and six educators were shot and killed by a gunman inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
Since then, parents, lawmakers, and advocacy groups have dedicated their lives to fighting for stricter gun laws across the country. They said their goal is for no family to experience the loss of a child to a mass shooting again.
The mass shooting at Sandy Hook is the deadliest mass shooting to have taken place at an elementary school in American history and the fourth-deadliest mass shooting overall in the country behind Las Vegas, Orlando, and Virginia Tech.
Since then, loved ones of the Sandy Hook victims have turned pain into action by starting a gun law movement, advocating for Connecticut to have some of the strictest gun laws in the country.
Connecticut Against Gun Violence (CAGV) Executive Director Jeremey Stein said they are proud of the work.
“Some of the things we’ve done here include assault weapons ban, high capacity magazine ban, permit to purchase laws, and red flag laws, those of which we invented here in Connecticut,” Stein said.
Their work comes at a time when more than 700 school shootings have happened across the country in the decade since Sandy Hook, many impacting elementary schools as well like the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas.
That number doesn't include the other shootings that have also taken place in various public spaces in the last decade as well.
Stein said vigils are essential for people to heal together. He said one he recently attended in Washington, D.C. showed the massive impact shootings have had on the country.
“There were hundreds of people from every mass shooting you can possibly imagine from Columbine and Sandy Hook to Parkland, Uvalde...” Stein said. “There is something seriously wrong in this country when you can fill a whole cathedral with survivors of homicide.”
He said they are also working on the community level to prevent gun violence in youth, even meeting with a community gun violence commission at the capitol today to keep fighting for that cause.
Tune in tonight at 7 p.m. for the FOX61 special "Sandy Hook Strong," taking a look back at the past ten years following the tragedy. A live steam of a memorial mass held at Newtown's St. Rosa of Lima will also be available to watch on FOX61+ beginning at 7 p.m.
Brooke Griffin is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at bgriffin@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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