NEW YORK – Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown, today released the following statements in remembrance of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook School on December 14, 2012, in which twenty first-graders and six educators were shot and killed.
More than 90 Americans are killed with guns every day, and hundreds more are injured. More information about gun violence in the United States is available here. An Everytown analysis of mass shootings in the U.S., released earlier this year, is available here.
STATEMENT FROM ERICA LAFFERTY, WHOSE MOTHER, DAWN LAFFERTY HOCHSPRUNG, THE PRINCIPAL AT SANDY HOOK SCHOOL, DIED WHILE PROTECTING HER STUDENTS. ERICA IS A PROGRAMS MANAGER AT EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY AND MEMBER OF THE EVERYTOWN SURVIVOR NETWORK:
“While I reflect on five years since my mom was shot and killed while protecting her students and colleagues, I choose to remember my mom’s infectious smile and how not just that day, but every day, she was my hero. Like so many other Americans, my life was forever changed by gun violence. In honor of my mom, I’ve dedicated my life towards fighting for safer gun laws. I’m working to make my mom proud and won’t sit idly by while other families are forced to have an empty seat at their dinner table.”
STATEMENT FROM JOHN FEINBLATT, PRESIDENT OF EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY:
“Sandy Hook families endured the unthinkable. Out of the searing pain of having children and parents and brothers and sisters taken far too soon, they continue to turn grief – and an entire country’s anguish – into a force for good. Honoring their loved ones with action is brave, essential, life-saving work, and all of us with Everytown and Moms Demand Action share in that work alongside them, today and every day.”
STATEMENT FROM SHANNON WATTS, FOUNDER OF MOMS DEMAND ACTION FOR GUN SENSE IN AMERICA:
“Five years ago, the mass shooting at Sandy Hook School devastated the nation and awakened so many Americans to the gun violence crisis that kills more than 90 Americans and injures hundreds more every single day. I am thinking of families for whom December 14 marks five years without their loved one. There is so much more that can and must be done to prevent senseless gun violence. But it’s also important to reflect on all of the progress the gun safety movement has made in the last five years, thanks to those within and beyond the Sandy Hook community who’ve dedicated their lives to preventing others from experiencing the trauma of gun violence. Together, we can and will end gun violence.”