Eleven years ago today, the soul of Newtown, Connecticut, and the nation were permanently pierced when twenty-six souls were stolen at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Within minutes, a shooter equipped with a weapon of war killed twenty first-grade youngsters with their entire lives ahead of them, as well as six educators who valiantly sacrificed their own safety to protect their students. Today, those first-graders should be high school seniors, dreaming big and preparing to embark on their adult life.
This is not how we should be living. It is a national tragedy that our country’s gun violence epidemic has not been resolved after more than a decade. My administration is fully executing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we have taken hundreds of executive steps, and this fall I established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to take every action available to save lives. However, this is insufficient. We will not be able to protect Americans from the threat of gun violence until Congress takes commonsense and proven steps such as universal background checks, the prohibition of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and other measures.
Our country is grateful to the brave survivors, families, first responders, and Connecticut leaders who channeled their grief into action. Their years of effort were instrumental in the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. We must continue to follow their example and honor the innocent souls lost on that terrible day by channeling our anguish into purpose, our loss into determination, and our collective and legitimate rage into a strong commitment to change.
Today, Jill and I are praying for the families and survivors of the Newtown community, as well as every other community shattered by this senseless violence. May God continue to bless them.