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FRAMINGHAM – A decade after 26 students, teachers, & staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School were killed by a shooter, Mothers Demand Action held a vigil at a Saxonville church in Framingham last night, December 13.
Mothers Demand Action is a “grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.”
“We must never forget the 26 innocent lives,” said organizer Brittany Moscoso, who attended the event with her daughter Charleigh.
Sandy Hook was deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in U.S. history. On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, a 20-year-old gunman shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and the other six were adult staff members. The gunman killed himself before police could get to him.
Samantha McGarry, a Framingham resident with Mothers Demand Action, said when the shooting happened a decade ago, her son and daughter were the ages of those killed in the Connecticut elementary school. Last night, her daughter Tessa, now a sophomore at Framingham High, attended the vigil with her mother.
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“For many of us, this is one of those events where you will always remember that exact moment where we were, what we were doing when the news broke. And I think too many of us worry, will it happen to us? Will it happen to our children, to our families, to our schools, to our community?,” said Moscoso.
‘There have been nearly a thousand incidents of gunfire at schools and colleges since, resulting in over 300 deaths and close to 700 injuries,” said Moscoso. “Gun violence is now leading cause of death in children in the United States. Children and teens die from gun homicide every year in this country. These facts are incredibly hard here and to come to terms with but they’re national reality. So as we come together to the victims, let’s remember that they are 26 of an ever-growing list of senseless violence victims and survivors in the United States.”
“Our deep sadness and thoughts of loss of these beloved precious lives. Children who loved and were loved with so much potential. Teachers who loved and were loved gifts to our world,” said Rev. Debbie Clark of Edwards Church, where the event was held. “We lift up our deep sadness at the brokenness of our lives, our society and our world. May we be healed by the power of love. May we know we are never alone. May we care for one another. Tenderly spirit of justice, we lift up our rage. It is so wrong. This should never have happened.”
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“It should never happen again. And it keeps happening,” said Rev. Clark. “Our anger inspire us to action spirit of hope. We lift up our yearning to make a difference and our exhaustion for we have been trying so hard for so long. May we remember that we do not do this alone. May we learn to take turns working and resting and working again. May we be restored by beauty and community. May we trust that what we do matters. Spirit of life, spirit of justice, spirit of hope, heal us, inspire us, restore us.”
About a dozen people were in attendance in addition to the organizers. Among them were City Councilor George P. King Jr. and District 9 City Councilor Tracey Bryant.
The names of the 26 victims were read at the vigil.
Candles were lit and McGarry asked for not 26 seconds of silence to honor those lost, but 110 seconds of silence to mark those killed by gun violence every day.
“The reality is that 110 people die from firearms every single day. Those are homicides. Those are suicides. Those are accidental deaths and domestic abuse situations,” said McGarry, who said not every death by a firearm gets a headline.
Today, another death by a firearm did get a headline. A dancer and judge on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance and the DJ for the Ellen TV Show killed himself with a gun. But by McGarry’s statistic 109 other deaths may not get a headline.
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Violence in our schools continues since Sandy Hook.
Since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, there have been 27 mass shootings in U.S. schools, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization that collects gun violence reports from media, government, law enforcement and commercial sources.
In the last decade, there have been 19 shootings at elementary schools and eight at colleges or universities. Earlier this year in May, 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County. It is deadliest shooting ever at a Texas public school.
And just last week, someone threatened to attack Framingham High forcing a stay-in-place order for about an hour. The Framingham man was arrested later that day.
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For more photos from the Vigil, click here.
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