Newtown quietly marks 3rd anniversary of school shooting

“States have prohibited authorities from seizing guns during emergencies, moved to ban the use of taxpayer funding for government gun buyback programs and banned the destruction of firearms seized by law enforcement”, according to the AP.

When the numbers became names, and the names became faces, suddenly, they were America’s children. What if Congress did something – anything – to save one American, or a classroom of Americans, or a stadium’s worth of Americans from losing their lives to gun violence in the years to come?

Nicole Hockley’s youngest son Dylan was shot three years ago while in the arms of a special education assistant during the horrific Sandy Hook shooting, one of many kids who lost their lives that day.

For Nicole, something had to change.

“It’s shooting everywhere and we don’t want that to happen”, she said.

Despite being mentioned on other cable news networks, the three year anniversary of the shooting has not yet been mentioned on Fox News in its programming through 2 P.M. EST, according to a Media Matters analysis of internal video archives. She has two sons, 9 and 12 years old, and her memory of being mugged at gunpoint in 1993 shapes her view on the matter.

Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley.

Few of the tragedies are connected to mass shootings. “There are opportunities to intervene”.

“Democrats have tried and won’t stop trying to keep Americans safe, while Republicans continue to put their head in the sand and cling to anything but common sense”, she said.

Together, they travel the country teaching others how to respond to those signs. They said it was not the result of any direct threats to the town or schools. That training worked recently in Cincinnati when a student reported someone plotting an attack.

Not far from Newtown, another school is marking the anniversary and honoring those who died, with 26 Days of Kindness.

“I burst into tears”.

“We have to have consistent laws across the United States”, he said.

Sadly, for too many families, this time of year returns them to unbearable depths of anguish. And last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case that would challenge Chicago’s ban on assault weapons.

But Thompson is co-sponsoring a House bill that would require nationwide background checks at gun shows and for those who buy guns from individuals online. He says that people of faith can play an important part in the solution by unifying to oppose not only religious extremists, but all shooters.

“It is happening”, said Barden.

A major barrier to these sensible steps are groups like the National Rifle Association and the Connecticut Citizens Defense League.