On Thursday President Biden released a statement marking 11 years since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The worst school shooting in U.S. history, 20 first graders and six adults were murdered on December 14, 2012 by a 24-year-old gunman who had earlier in the day fatally shot his own mother and only ended the massacre when he shot himself in the head.
“Today, those first grade students should be seniors in high school, dreaming big and about to embark on their adult lives,” President Biden noted in his statement.
He added, “We should not have to live like this. It is a national tragedy that over a decade later our nation’s gun violence epidemic is still not solved.”
Less than two months ago, the Biden Administration announced the creation of a new Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
The first federal office dedicated to focus solely on gun violence followed last year’s first major federal gun safety legislation in decades—the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Biden signed into law in June 2022.
In February of this year, the Department of Justice announced it was disbursing some $231 million to help states and DC administer “red-flag laws” and other programs as part of that legislation.
Despite these efforts, earlier this month the United States surpassed its own record for the most mass killings from guns in a single year.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines the crime as four or more victims killed or wounded, as of Wednesday their have been 117 gun deaths and 163 gun injuries so far this year. Nine of the shooting victims were children younger than 12 years old.
In his statement remembering the Sandy Hook shooting, Biden said, “Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to the courageous survivors, families, first responders, and Connecticut officials who turned their deep grief into action.”
“Today, Jill and I are praying for the families and survivors in the Newtown community, and every single community that has been ripped apart by this senseless violence. May God bless them,” the President said.
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