Truthers Be Damned: Today Marks 4th Anniversary of Sandy Hook Shooting

Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (CT-5), representative for Newtown, Connecticut, today released a video statement recognizing the fourth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary and calling for bipartisan action to prevent gun violence.

Contrary to the claims of so-called “truthers” from Alex Jones (whose “amazing” reputation Trump has praised) on down, who say it never happened, the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary pm December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza entered the school and fatally shot 20 children, all of them only 6 to 7 years old, as well as six adult staff members.

Watch Rep. Esty’s video statement:

Newtown Congresswoman Esty Marks Fourth Anniversary of Sandy Hook Tragedy
 
Today we mark the fourth anniversary of when 20 schoolchildren and six brave educators were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. And in that time, millions of you have joined with me and my colleagues in Congress and with folks all across America to say that we need to do better. We can and we must work to end the scourge of gun violence in this country.
 
Now, it’s been a tough election. People have been worried – I’ve gotten lots of calls in my office – and I’ve found it tough, too. We haven’t had a vote in the House of Representatives in the last four years. During that time, 130,000 – let me repeat that – 130,000 Americans have lost their lives to gun violence.
 
But here’s what you need to know: The American people stand with us. Millions of you have joined your voices, you’ve written, you’ve called, you’ve sent emails, you’ve voted, you’ve talked to your neighbors, and insisted that we do better, that we make America safer for all of us.
 
And so to my new colleagues in Congress, to the newly elected President, I ask you: Join us, work with us, because I know – and I know you know – it’s not OK that 33,000 Americans a year are dying from guns. We can do better than that, and with your help, if we all work together, if we commit to work with each other, we can save lives.
 
That’s what the American people are asking us to do – to do better, to work together, to work for the betterment of all Americans. Because we should be able to go to Church, to pray in a temple or a synagogue or a mosque or a church, to go to school, to play in a park, to go to a movie theater, to relax with friends on a front porch and not worry about being gunned down.
 
And I commit to you, and I ask you to commit to me and to each other. And to the new President and to my new colleagues, let’s resolve that 2017 is the year in which we can and we will do better for gun safety in this country. So enjoy your holidays and rest up, because we have a lot of work ahead.

Gun violence is at epidemic levels in our country, and many of the victims are our children, whom we send to school each morning without any guarantee they will return home safely – or alive. As Esty says, it is not okay that tens of thousands of Americans are dying from gun violence every year.

It is even worse when gun advocates claim that those taken away from victims’ families were never killed at all, but, despite the very real holes in the hearts of those Americans, are somehow still alive. It is an obsenity. And it must end. For the children.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.