Sandy Hook 3rd Anniversary

This will also be the first time school is in session on the anniversary of the shooting.

The 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which a mentally troubled young man killed 26 children and educators, served as a rallying cry for gun-control advocates across the nation.

On Sunday, people in Rochester came together for a vigil honoring the lives lost in that tragedy along with other victims of gun violence. “They need to listen to the people and not the gun lobby”, said Wendy Szymanski of Moms Demand Action.

“For me, I come back to the survivors of gun violence and how they can’t turn it off the way you can turn off news, and that trauma is always there”, said Braden.

“In a country with 330 million people and 310 million guns”, he said, “the suggestion that the problem is we don’t have enough guns available just doesn’t seem to hold much weight”.

Prompted by the Sandy Hook shooting, the national debate over gun ownership eventually led to President Barack Obama’s gun control bill in March 2013.

Three years ago Monday, a quiet December morning transformed into one of the darkest days in CT history.

“This is not ‘I’m a hunter and I want my guns, ‘ this is an issue of public safety”, said Clai Lasher-Sommers of Westmorland, N.H., who was shot by her step-father when she was 13 years old. “That’s why we’re going to get this done”, von Lossberg said. “Criminals don’t care about gun laws that’s why they’re criminals”.

“Businesses can personally (create their own policy) as a corporation”, Michele Mueller, Ohio chapter leader of Moms Demand Action, said. But the local group Gun Free UT – born to fight the oncoming campus carry law – brought dozens of supporters out of the woodwork.

We’ve pressured major retailers and restaurant chains such as Target, Starbucks, Chipotle, Sonic, Chili’s and Jack in the Box to establish gun sense policies and prohibit the open carry of guns in their locations. “This is what a tipping point looks like, and Nevada is in the forefront for 2016”, she said, referring to a 2016 ballot measure that would require an unlicensed person who wishes to sell or transfer a firearm to someone to conduct the transfer through a licensed gun dealer who runs a background check.

Efforts to arm teachers and install metal detectors often draw the most attention, but the much more nuanced work to ensure students feel safe, supported, and connected to trusted adults is equally important to prevent the worst case scenario, experts say.