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Obama marks Newtown shooting anniversary with call for gun control | Obama marks Newtown shooting anniversary with call for gun control |
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A year ago today, 20 children and six staff members were killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. There will be no official ceremonies to mark the occasion on Saturday, and the victims' families have asked for privacy. | |
On Saturday morning, President Barack Obama used his weekly address to call for stricter gun control and improved access to mental health care. "We haven't yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer," Obama said. "We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds." | |
The president did not mention the shooting at a Colorado high school on Friday, in which a student armed with a shotgun wounded at least two classmates before apparently taking his own life. The president's address is recorded in advance. | |
On Saturday, the Obamas also held a moment of silence and lit candles for each of the Newtown victims at the White House. | |
Ahead of the anniversary, families spoke to reporters about their experience. Nicole Hockley's six-year-old son Dylan was a victim. "In all honesty, it's just another day. It's just another day without Dylan," Hockley told NBC News. "There's no need to mark it because every day we miss him." | |
Relatives of those killed in the shooting, which was carried out by Adam Lanza, 20, who then killed himself, have asked people to mark the anniversary by conducting "acts of kindness" or volunteering at charitable organizations. "In this way, we hope that some small measure of good may be returned to the world," the families said in a collective statement on the website mysandyhookfamily.org, which launched on Monday. The website includes tributes to the victims and links to individual memorial websites and charitable funds. | |
Newtown is not holding formal events and has asked the media to give the families privacy. The families said at a news conference on Monday that they will be lighting candles on Saturday. Extra police officers will be on duty in Newtown, according to police chief Michael Kehoe. | |
The families were joined by other family and friends of victims of gun violence for two days earlier this week in Washington, to campaign for gun control legislation. A candlelight vigil was held on Thursday night at the National Cathedral; the group also participated in volunteer activities. | |
While the Newtown families and other activists have been working to transform US gun laws, only a few states have taken up stricter gun control. Colorado passed gun control measures, but gun rights activists used recall elections to oust two state senators who backed tougher laws. | |
In April, the US Senate failed to pass a bipartisan bill on extended background checks. Obama described it as a "pretty shameful day". The White House has proposed spending $130m to help teachers and other people who work with youth recognize the signs of mental illness and help people get treatment, but Congress has not yet allocated those funds. | |
Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona in January 2011, released an ad on Friday featuring Newtown victims and calling for stricter gun control laws. The ad had no narrator and ended with a statement: "30,000 die each year from gun violence. How long do we have to wait for Congress to act." | |
According to analysis by the Washington Post, in addition to the 20 children killed at Sandy Hook elementary in December 2012, 71 children aged 10 and under were the victims of deliberate shootings in the US last year. | |
Since December 2012, 43 gun control laws have passed, compared to the 93 laws that passed to expand gun rights, according to data from PBS Frontline and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Gun control advocates, however, note that eight states passed sweeping gun reform laws in 2013, including Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook elementary shooting occurred. | |
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