WASHINGTON, DC – Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the tragic mass-shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut that took the lives of 20 innocent first-graders and six dedicated educators who were gunned down while caring for and protecting students. 

On December 14, 2012, the Sandy Hook shooting became America’s second deadliest mass-shooting ever.  Since then, several other mass-shootings across the country have exceeded its death toll, including incidents in Las Vegas, NV, Orland, FL, and Blacksburg, VA.  And there have also been many other mass-shootings in schools -- including 19 kids killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX and 14 students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, FL.  So far in 2022, there have been 48 school shootings that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to Education Week’s School Shooting Tracker.

Today, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) issued the following statement:

“A decade later the heartbreak hasn’t lessened and Congress hasn’t done enough to prevent mass-shootings at schools and in communities across the country.  Forty-eight school shootings this year shows America is facing an epidemic of gun violence and something needs to change.

“The best way to honor the victims of Sandy Hook is to take meaningful, evidence-based action to prevent gun violence. 

“Congress should come together to pass commonsense gun safety measures like strengthening background checks and reinstating the assault weapons ban, which would have a significant impact on preventing more mass-shootings.  Let me be clear: I am ready to vote for both of these measures, today, tomorrow, and every day after that.

“We can and must do more to keep students safe and prevent senseless mass-shootings in our communities.  It starts with members of Congress siding with students and families instead of the National Rifle Association’s army of lobbyists.  We need members of Congress who will confront partisan, extremist conspiracy theorists and stop them from spreading lies and muddying the waters about gun violence.

“America’s obscene level of gun violence is a manufactured crisis that is abetted by the gun lobby.  Other nations don’t have this many mass-shootings at schools, stores, theaters, churches, night clubs and parades.  But they have become all too common in America.

“We can and must do better.  Half-measures will not cut it.  We cannot become numb to gun violence.  We owe it to the children and families we have lost and we must work together to prevent future tragedies.  It’s past time for Congress to enact meaningful gun violence prevention legislation.”