Gun sales and the futility of "thoughts and prayers"

Thoughts and prayers. It began as a cliché. It became a joke. It has putrefied into a national shame.

Echo essay published in The Atlantic by David Frum:

If tonight, Americans do turn heavenward in pain and grief for the lost children of Uvalde, Texas, they may hear the answer delivered in the Bible through the words of Isaiah:

“And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” (They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them).

Prays need action!

We will learn more about the 18-year-old killer of elementary-school children: his personality, his ideology, whatever confection of hate and cruelty drove him to his horrible crime. But we already know the answer to one question: Who put the weapon of mass murder into his hand? The answer to that question is that the public policy of this country armed him.

Every other democracy makes some considerable effort to keep guns away from dangerous people, and dangerous people away from guns. For many years—and especially since the massacre at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School almost a decade ago—the United States has put more and more guns into more and more hands: 120 guns per 100 people in this country. The years of the pandemic have been the years of the greatest gun sales in U.S. history: almost 20 million guns sold in 2020; another 18.5 million sold in 2021. No surprise, those two years also witnessed a surge in gun violence: the spectacular human butchery of our recurring mass slaughters; the surge of one-on-one lethal criminality; the unceasing tragic toll of carelessness as American gun owners hurt and kill their loved ones and themselves.

https://www.uvaldeleadernews.com/articles/robb-shooting-claims-19-children-2-teachers/

Most of us are appalled. But not enough of us are sufficiently appalled to cast our votes to halt it. And those to whom Americans entrust political power, at the state and federal levels, seem determined to make things worse and bloodier. In the next few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court will deliver its opinion in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, a decision that could strike down concealed-carry bans even in the few states that still have them. More guns, more places, fewer checks, fewer protections: Since Sandy Hook, this country has plunged backward and downward toward barbarism.

In his memoir of his career in the gun trade, the former gun-industry executive Ryan Busse writes of the effect of mass shootings on gun sales. They are, to put it bluntly, good for business. People think that perhaps the authorities might do something, and race to the gun stores to buy weapons before the “something” happens. The gun in the gunman’s hand multiplies to more guns in more hands. Most of those hands do not mean to inflict harm. But the harm follows, even so.

In this magazine five years ago, I wrote a parable: 

A village has been built in the deepest gully of a floodplain.

At regular intervals, flash floods wipe away houses, killing all inside. Less dramatic—but more lethal—is the steady toll as individual villagers slip and drown in the marshes around them.

After especially deadly events, the villagers solemnly discuss what they might do to protect themselves. Perhaps they might raise their homes on stilts? But a powerful faction among the villagers is always at hand to explain why these ideas won’t work. “No law can keep our village safe! The answer is that our people must learn to be better swimmers—and oh by the way, you said ‘stilts’ when the proper term is ‘piles,’ so why should anybody listen to you?”

So the argument rages, without result, year after year, decade after decade, fatalities mounting all the while. Nearby villages, built in the hills, marvel that the gully-dwellers persist in their seemingly reckless way of life. But the gully-dwellers counter that they are following the wishes of their Founders, whose decisions two centuries ago must always be upheld by their descendants.

Since then, of course, things have only gotten worse. Can it be different this time? Whether any particular killer proves to be a racist, a jihadist, a sexually frustrated incel, or a randomly malignant carrier of sorrow and grief, can Americans ever break the pattern of empty thoughts, meaningless prayers, and more and worse bloodshed to follow?

The lobbying groups and politicians who enable these killers will dominate the federal courts and state governments, as they do today, until the mighty forces of decency and kindness in American life say to the enablers:

“That’s enough! This must stop—and we will stop you.”

P.S. Maine Writer:  Thank you David Frum

Survivor speaks- Las Vegas mass shooting

"But there's still in the back of my mind: Did he really work alone, did he carry all that stuff up to his (hotel) room by himself?"~ Melissa Barham on NPR Weekend Edition

Thank you Scott Simon Weekend Edition Saturday on National Public Radio!

She escaped the Las Vegas shooter's bullets, but her mental scars remain: On the night of October 1, 2017, an evil infected gunman named Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of concert goers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, leaving 58 people dead and 546 injured. Between 10:05 and 10:15 p.m. There were 23 firearms, a large quantity of ammunition, and numerous high-capacity magazines capable of holding up to 100 rounds apiece found in the murderer's hotel suite.

Melissa Barham is a survivor.

Melissa Barham, April Treadway, Jake Barham, Emily Barham~ photo by Melissa Barham

The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history claimed the lives of 58 people, injured 546, and profoundly affected thousands more.

Melissa Barham was at the Jason Aldean concert on Oct. 1 when the shooter began his fusillade. She was sitting with her son and his girlfriend. Barham's daughter sat not far away, near the stage.

She told NPR's Scott Simon on December 16, 2017, Weekend Edition, it was only after she spotted a bloody woman being lifted to safety that it became clear the audience was under fire. In the scramble for the exits, Barham sought desperately to be reunited with her daughter; she counts herself lucky to have found her just before leaving the concert area. And more lucky that she and her loved ones escaped physical injury.

Barham says she can't shake that day. Being part of a national nightmare makes her feel other stories of national despair all the more keenly. And she has struggled with the lack of a clear explanation why the shooter did what he did, leaving her to be tempted by what she characterizes as conspiracy theories.

Since the attack on October 1, 2017, she said, "I'm sad. I'm depressed. I feel like I've aged. I'll look at my reflection in the mirror when I get out the of the shower — or you know how you catch a glimpse of yourself when you're out and about — and it's like, I'm startled at what I look like."

"And then I feel like, two days after that there's something else big that broke — like whether it's the fires, or the Weinstein sexual scandals, or the shooting in Texas — it's just like it's a continual thing of these events that are just rocking people's lives. And I used to just be a viewer, and I used to just go from one event to another."

"And now I'm stuck in one of those events because I could list all the things that we've done as a family — like soccer practices, and I haven't missed a day of work, and booster meetings, and we've gone to our dentist appointments and our doctor's appointments — but I still feel like it's Day One."

"What bothers me more than the motive, or lack of motive, is lack of information. Whenever we get a little tidbit of something we just jump on because we just have a desire to know."

"Like, the first week after it happened I was obsessed with like my escape route. I was just looking at Google images, pictures of the event — like, where did I go?"

"And then my next thing was: I want to know where the shooter went, where he came from. I want to see him walking into the hotel, walking out of the hotel."

"And they haven't released any of that."

"I just want to know that he worked alone, that it was all him."

"Because there's a lack of official information coming out, that area has just been filled up with conspiracy theories. And with time I've come to say, 'OK, it's just one person who was fully loaded with ammunition'."

"But there's still in the back of my mind: Did he really work alone, did he carry all that stuff up to his room by himself?"

Five years after Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting:

Barham said, "Yesterday (the anniversary) was so hard on me, thinking about those beautiful, beautiful children. And I'm a teacher, and thinking about the educators that were killed. It is such a sad day in our history."

"And then seeing that it happened at our (Las Vegas) concert. And then seeing what happened in Texas a couple weeks later. It's just not stopping and it just affects so many people."

"And what did we really change? Did we help anyone with mental illness? Did we change anything about gun control or school safety?"

"It's just a really sad brotherhood or sisterhood, but you feel connected because you understand what they went through. And some of them just have such a long road to go."

One way she copes:  "I wake up every morning and I journal. I pick one of the victims and I write down their name and their age and where they're from and then just details about them. And I just think about them. And this time of year, the holidays, make it really hard." ~ Melissa Barham

Addendum by MaineWriter- Yet, nothing has been done to prevent gun violence in spite of numerous mass shooting incidents.

President Obama and gun violence funerals

Listen up right wingers in America! President Obama attends plenty of funerals,many of them are memorials for the victims of gun violence. There is no justice in criticism of President Obama not attending the funeral of former first lady Nancy Reagan. 

In fact, President Ronald Reagan was the victim of gun violence.

Surely, Mrs. Reagan understood the significance of President Obama's anti-gun violence funeral speeches.

President Obama gives Tuscon Memorial speech- victims of Gabby Giffords gun violence, including the massacre at Sandy Hook and in Charleston, SC.

Charleston Massacre

Charleston massacre: President Barack Obama spoke of guns, race and grace at pastor's funeral  27 Jun 2015

In warm words for the man the crowd was there to remember, Mr Obama — at one point breaking into a stirring rendition of Amazing Grace, a hymn often associated with African-American struggles — praised the Reverend Pinckney's "love, faith and purity".  "We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith," the president said.

President Obama speaks at plenty of funerals

People who dare criticize the number of funerals President Obama has attended during his time in office have conveniently short memories. Indeed, they are quieted like frogs in a pond when a pebble is thrown, when they're reminded about gun violence funerals.

Transcript of President Obama's speech at the interfaith vigil in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 16, in honor of the victims of the shootings at Sandy Hill Elementary. Source: White House

Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, Governor. To all the families, first responders, to the community of Newtown, clergy, guests — Scripture tells us: "...do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away...inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."

President Obama at Newtown, Conn., Memorial Service

We gather here in memory of twenty beautiful children and six remarkable adults. They lost their lives in a school that could have been any school; in a quiet town full of good and decent people that could be any town in America.

Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation. I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts. I can only hope it helps for you to know that you're not alone in your grief; that our world too has been torn apart; that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you, we've pulled our children tight. And you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide; whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it. Newtown — you are not alone.

As these difficult days have unfolded, you've also inspired us with stories of strength and resolve and sacrifice. We know that when danger arrived in the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary, the school's staff did not flinch, they did not hesitate. Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach, Vicki Soto, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel Davino and Anne Marie Murphy — they responded as we all hope we might respond in such terrifying circumstances — with courage and with love, giving their lives to protect the children in their care.

We know that there were other teachers who barricaded themselves inside classrooms, and kept steady through it all, and reassured their students by saying "wait for the good guys, they're coming"; "show me your smile."

And we know that good guys came. The first responders who raced to the scene, helping to guide those in harm's way to safety, and comfort those in need, holding at bay their own shock and trauma because they had a job to do, and others needed them more.

And then there were the scenes of the schoolchildren, helping one another, holding each other, dutifully following instructions in the way that young children sometimes do; one child even trying to encourage a grown-up by saying, "I know karate. So it's okay. I'll lead the way out." (Laughter.)

As a community, you've inspired us, Newtown. In the face of indescribable violence, in the face of unconscionable evil, you've looked out for each other, and you've cared for one another, and you've loved one another. This is how Newtown will be remembered. And with time, and God's grace, that love will see you through.

But we, as a nation, we are left with some hard questions. Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside of your body all the time, walking around. With their very first cry, this most precious, vital part of ourselves — our child — is suddenly exposed to the world, to possible mishap or malice. And every parent knows there is nothing we will not do to shield our children from harm. And yet, we also know that with that child's very first step, and each step after that, they are separating from us; that we won't — that we can't always be there for them. They'll suffer sickness and setbacks and broken hearts and disappointments. And we learn that our most important job is to give them what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear.

And we know we can't do this by ourselves. It comes as a shock at a certain point where you realize, no matter how much you love these kids, you can't do it by yourself. That this job of keeping our children safe, and teaching them well, is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community, and the help of a nation. And in that way, we come to realize that we bear a responsibility for every child because we're counting on everybody else to help look after ours; that we're all parents; that they're all our children.

This is our first task — caring for our children. It's our first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything right. That's how, as a society, we will be judged.

And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we're doing enough to keep our children — all of them — safe from harm? Can we claim, as a nation, that we're all together there, letting them know that they are loved, and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we're truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?

I've been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we're honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We're not doing enough. And we will have to change.

Since I've been President, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by a mass shooting. The fourth time we've hugged survivors. The fourth time we've consoled the families of victims. And in between, there have been an endless series of deadly shootings across the country, almost daily reports of victims, many of them children, in small towns and big cities all across America — victims whose — much of the time, their only fault was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law — no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society.

But that can't be an excuse for inaction. Surely, we can do better than this. If there is even one step we can take to save another child, or another parent, or another town, from the grief that has visited Tucson, and Aurora, and Oak Creek, and Newtown, and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that — then surely we have an obligation to try.

In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens — from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators — in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have? We can't accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?

All the world's religions — so many of them represented here today — start with a simple question: Why are we here? What gives our life meaning? What gives our acts purpose? We know our time on this Earth is fleeting. We know that we will each have our share of pleasure and pain; that even after we chase after some earthly goal, whether it's wealth or power or fame, or just simple comfort, we will, in some fashion, fall short of what we had hoped. We know that no matter how good our intentions, we will all stumble sometimes, in some way. We will make mistakes, we will experience hardships. And even when we're trying to do the right thing, we know that much of our time will be spent groping through the darkness, so often unable to discern God's heavenly plans.

There's only one thing we can be sure of, and that is the love that we have — for our children, for our families, for each other. The warmth of a small child's embrace — that is true. The memories we have of them, the joy that they bring, the wonder we see through their eyes, that fierce and boundless love we feel for them, a love that takes us out of ourselves, and binds us to something larger — we know that's what matters. We know we're always doing right when we're taking care of them, when we're teaching them well, when we're showing acts of kindness. We don't go wrong when we do that.

That's what we can be sure of. And that's what you, the people of Newtown, have reminded us. That's how you've inspired us. You remind us what matters. And that's what should drive us forward in everything we do, for as long as God sees fit to keep us on this Earth.

"Let the little children come to me," Jesus said, "and do not hinder them — for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven."

Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Josephine. Ana. Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase. Jesse. James. Grace. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline. Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Allison.

God has called them all home. For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on, and make our country worthy of their memory.

May God bless and keep those we've lost in His heavenly place. May He grace those we still have with His holy comfort. And may He bless and watch over this community, and the United States of America.

Preventable school gun violence in Washington state USA

Americans are justifiably concerned about the potential for the infectious Ebola virus to spread. Yet, the same people who are harboring fear about this disease appear unscathed about preventing the growing epidemic of gun violence, as it's infecting our nation at a much higher rate and with at least as much mortality as Ebola.

Now, even more preventable gun violence has occured in still another school shooting. This time, the preventable tragedy occurred in Washington State, at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, where a young gunman killed himself and one other person, while terrorizing the entire campus.  

CNN reports:  The shooter who opened fire Friday morning at Washington state's Marysville-Pilchuck High School played football and was recently named to the homecoming court.

Additionally, CNN provided data about the number of school shootings since the Newtown innocents massacre in Connecticut. 
In the horrifying report, the headline asks if school shootings are becoming the norm?

There have been 74 school shootings in the past 18 months, during
the time period since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot to death. The statistic came from a group called Everytown for Gun Safety, an umbrella group started by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a passionate and public advocate of gun control.

It's certainly incongruous for Americans to be obsessed with a few incidents of infectious Ebola while gun violence is unchecked. There's been a national call out for infectious diseases resources to be diverted to preventive efforts, including travel bans from Ebola infected areas of Africa. All the while, our nation's children are dying from the most preventable epidemic of all time. Gun violence is preventable if people insisted on regulating the use of personal weapons made for the purpose of murdering human beings and tax ammunition at a rate higher than legalized marijuana.

Obviously, the world wants to find a cure or effective preventative vaccine to end the Ebola epidemic in Africa. This deadly virus is obviously spreading at a exponentially fast rate, with high associated mortality.  

Gun violence is also spreading.  

Of course, we know the causes of gun violence are uncontrolled access to weapons and ammunition.  We also know the effect of gun violence - it's premature deaths, as well as emotional and physical disabilities related to the wounds of the survivors. Likewise, we also know how to cure the epidemic of gun violence.    
Nevertheless, Americans are obsessed with preventing Ebola from spreading after three Americans, two nurses and a physician, have become infected in recent weeks.  

It's simply unexplained. How is it Americans can ignore a cure for gun violence but demand for extraordinary resources to be showered on the prevention of a few incidents of Ebola? 

Hopefully, our nation will eventually come up with a cure for both.

Cluster and Copycat Shootings - Cruel Christmas Headlines

Typically, this is the time of year when lead stories are about how Christmas consumes the retail news.

Not so during this particular pre Holiday week.  

As the nation is reminded about the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy, the memorializing is sadly trumped by more stories of innocent people who are victims of even more heinous gun violence.

CNN Reports on another Colorado Colorado shootings in a school. This follows the horror of the Columbine school shootings and the movie theater massacre.

Centennial, Colorado (CNN) -- The condition of a 15-year-old girl who was shot Friday at Arapahoe High School was downgraded after surgery to critical, Sheriff Grayson Robinson told reporters.

In addition to two students who suffered gunshot wounds, three students suffered anxiety attacks, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told reporters Friday.

Two of the students were released to their families immediately; one was taken to a hospital for additional treatment and later released, he said.

Two Molotov cocktails were found inside Arapahoe High School, Sheriff Garyson Robinson told reporters during a news conference on Friday.

Additionally, the Portland Press Herald website reports another shooting in the small town of Hollis Maine.

Approaching the one year December anniversary of the Newtown massacre, the NBC news correspondent Jeff Rossen ran a drill on several schools to determine if security measures were in place to prevent another massacre. Unescorted, Rossen went looking for the main office, per school policy. As he looked, he walked past several classrooms with kids, stopping at one to ask a teacher for directions. No one asked who he was, or what he was doing there. For two minutes, he walked through the halls, and was only stopped once he arrived at the office. Although some schools in the test passed the security test, several others came up short, putting students in a potentially vulnerable situation.

This seasonal time of year is supposed to be consumed with joy and good will. Instead, the negativity of more gun violence compounds the one year memorial of the Sandy Hook preventable murders.

Peace and good will are lovely seasonal themes, but these greetings are lost on the victims of preventable gun violence. This Christmas and every subsequent Holiday will cause the victims to relive the Sandy Hook massacre. Indeed, the entire Sandy Hook community is harmed by association with the traumatic killings.

A one year Sandy Hook memorial will be a quiet observance, but the growing incidence of gun violence screeches through the headlines. A cacophony of anguish about relentless gun violence incidents continues, with no hope in sight for prevention.

These cluster and copycat shootings are cruel Christmas headlines,

All these deadly incidents are preventable, if guns and ammunition were to be regulated.  

My sympathy to the families who are mourning the one year memorial of the preventable death of children and teachers at Sandy Hook. Their sadness is deep and everlasting.

Even worse, the Sandy Hook deaths haven't changed anything in our nation about preventing future tragedies. There's no justice in these continual cruel headlines.

Sandy Hook A Nation Sends Sincere Condolences to Victims Familes

There's a productive way to honor the innocents murdered on December 13, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a seriously mentally ill perpetrator.  It's called prevention.

An upcoming anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre of elementary school children and their teachers is fast approaching. This entirely preventable human tragedy is now focused on a release of the 9-11 emergency tape recordings containing transmissions between victims and dispatchers. But this exercises won't prevent future school shootings.  

On the anniversary of the school shooting in Connecticut that left 20 first-graders and six adults murdered, one way to grasp the full tragedy of this all-American town is by tracing the ordinary day that led up to it.  So, that's what some are doing.  They're recreating the events of the day. But, instead of retracing what happened, an exercise that won't change anything, the real debriefing should be on prevention.  

While our nation mourns the one year anniversary of this preventable tragedy, the community erased the symbol of the entire event by destroying the building where the murders occurred.  Although this is understandable, given the scope of the heinous tragedy, it's also a way to keep the event out of future memories. "Out of sight out of mind," so to speak. 

There's one honest way to  honor, remember and tribute those who were innocently murdered on December 13, 2012.  Preventing all future preventable firearms homicides is the best way to extend to those victims families our sincere condolences. 

Americans will, no doubt, do due diligence on December 13, 2013, in remembering the one year anniversary.  No doubt, there will be a moment of silence in many Connecticut communities.  

Nevertheless, nothing else will have changed to improve gun safety in America. Guns continue to perpetrate needless mayhem while politicians are terrified to stand up against the dangers caused by the preventable public heath hazard caused by firearms.  

Now that the Sandy Hook school building doesn't exist, the memory of the killing event will quickly become part of the town's silent history. It's typical for people to avoid any reference to the murders, because it's just too sacred a memory to mention, without doing more harm.  It makes sense to take down the school building because it's more of an unusual attraction than a memory.  Yet, memories fade quickly in the absence of symbols.

Taking down the building will prevent ghouls frome visiting the scene. But, the lack of prevention will, sadly, eventually cause harm. Some other unsuspecting community will relive the Sandy Hook experience, because nothing has been done to prevent a repeat or copy-cat incident by another deranged person who has access to guns. 

While our condolences go out to the Sandy Hook victims families, we must also extend our apologies to these sad people. Their extraordinary loss hasn't produced a change in America's infatuation with the deadly impact of guns. I'm so sorry.

Americans should listen to the brave Sandy Hook families who lost innocent children and loved family members- Scott Pelley Discusses Common Sense Gun Control Legislation

Although it was certainly a difficult 60-Minute segment to watch, (we can hold the Sandy Hook families in our prayers) just imagine how much courage it took for them to speak to Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes.

At the Newtown CT town hall, Pelley met seven families from a group called Sandy Hook Promise, which works for change and remembrance.

I wonder how many of our nation's legislators watched this segment.  

Shame on legislators who may have deliberately avoided hearing what the Sandy Hook parents said to Pelley. Lawmakers who are asked to give an "up or down" vote on proposed national gun regulation must take responsibility for hearing what the victims of a mass murder have to say about this public policy.
Families of Newtown Connecticut, site of the Sandy Hook Elementary, want the tragic memory of 12/14 - the date of the Connecticut massacre -- to spur new gun control legislation in the U.S. They expressed support for universal background checks and limiting the size of large, human killing, ammunition clips, during the April 7, Pelley interview.

Nearly four months later, just last week, Connecticut passed a gun control law that expands background checks and limits ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. Tomorrow, these families will push for the same in Washington. They believe that their only chance is to keep the resonance of that date ringing. Something else we noticed about "12/14," add them together, and you get 26, the number of lives lost at Sandy Hook.

Here are the parents in their own words:

Jimmy Greene said: Our daughter, Ana was six years old. And in those six years, can look back and say it was an honor to know her. She taught me about how to love, how to give. She was beautiful and every day I cry. 
Francine Wheeler said: This is (a picture of) Benjamin Andrew Wheeler. Ben was six years old. He has a brother named Nate. And Nate was hiding when he heard Ben and his classmates and educators get shot. 

Mark Barden said: And we lost our sweet little Daniel Barden. He was known as the kid that would talk to somebody sitting alone. He was genuinely an old soul.

Nicole Hockley said: This is (a picture of) Dylan. I think the picture kind of sums him up perfectly. He was always smiling and always laughing. And he was very pure. Possibly because of his age. He was six. And possibly because he was autistic.
Neil Heslin said: I'm Neil Heslin, Jesse Lewis's dad. Jesse was six years old. He was my best friend and my buddy. He'd introduce himself as Jesse and Daddy. He was my whole life. 
Bill Sherlach said: Mary was the school psychologist at Sandy Hook Elementary School for 18 years and truly believed that that was the place that she was meant to be, doing what she could call "God's work." 

Terri Rousseau said: Lauren grew up with this idea that she wanted to be a teacher and work with other children. She had a sort of innocence about her, a kind of denial of all the ugly things in the world. We had no idea that some ugly thing would come and take her from us.
Those are memories Terri Rousseau, Mark and Jackie Barden, Nicole Hockley and others wanted state legislators to remember in Hartford, Connecticut. 
Mark Barden said: The lawmakers are going into their caucuses to discuss the legislation at hand. And the rope is there, I think, just to separate the various lobbyists who want to approach them as they go in there, as a last ditch effort to appeal to their cause. That's where we were. 
Mark Barden said: And we (gave them) a letter that we wanted them to read. And we had pictures of our children to give them a personal connection to why we're asking them to go in there and legislate. 

Scott Pelley asked: Why the photographs?
Nicole Hockley responded: They need to not just look us in the eyes, but look our children and the lost ones and see those faces, see what's gone and remember this isn't just about political parties. This isn't just about careers. This is about people. And this is about making change to save people. And it's important to remember the people you are doing this for. 

Mark Barden said: The universal background check is very important. And to that point, I think (the Connecticut legislation) has done a wonderful job. They've worked very hard and they have passed almost everything that we were hoping they would. And they have done it in a bipartisan way, which I think is a great message to send out to the other states and to the federal government as they begin this process.

Scott Pelley asked: Mark singles out the universal background check. Does anyone else find another part of the law important?
Bill Sherlach said: I think the idea of limiting the size of the magazines is critical.

(Bill Sherlach's wife, Mary, tried to stop the gunman.)
Bill Sherlach said: You can have a million bullets, but if you have to put them in one at a time, the ability to do any kind of real damage is significantly reduced. 
Scott Pelley said: The legislature has decided to limit the size of magazines in Connecticut to 10 rounds. The gunman at Sandy Hook was using 30-round magazines. I've heard the argument made, "You can change these magazine clips in these rifles in a matter of two seconds. So what difference does it make?" 
Bill Sherlach: Well, I mean, there was one instance where it wasn't two seconds. And it allowed 11 kids to get out of the classroom. 
Bill Sherlach: It's simple arithmetic. If you have to change magazines 15 times instead of five times, you have three times as many incidents as where something could jam. Something could be bobbled. You just increase the time for intervention. You increase the time where kids can get out. And there's 11 kids out there today that are still running around on the playground pretty much now at lunchtime. 

David Wheeler said: The more bullets you can get out the end of that gun in the least amount time, that is the single area that I believe affects lethality. And the size of the magazine placed in that weapon is a direct contributor to that--a direct contributor to that factor. There is a place for 30-round magazines, in the military, on the battlefield, at a range. If they stay at the range, they stay at the range.

(Wheeler's statement above is the issue that zealots with  the National Rifle Association won't accept. They continue to spread the mythical venom of "people kill people", rather than guns. For for some bizarre reason, these obsessed NRA supporters leap to the conclusion that owning assault weapons will protect them from other evil intended people. They won't accept the fact that it only takes one bullet to kill a person. Firing hundreds of bullets can only mean a killer is intending to commit mass murder.)

In my opinion, if those brave families who suffered such terrible loss can stand up to prevent further mass murders by supporting gun control, then we have a responsibility to listen to what they are saying.