Ten years after the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School （新镇）, 康涅狄格州, 在哪里 20 children and six adults were fatally shot, 前总统 巴拉克奥巴马 叫它 “a visceral blow,” remembering the tragedy in a statement shared to social media.

“I consider December 14th, 2012 the single darkest day of my presidency,” the former president wrote in the statement. “The news from Sandy Hook Elementary was devastating, a visceral blow, and like so many others, I felt not just sorrow but anger at a world that could allow such things to happen.”

Elsewhere in his statement, Obama said the families impacted by the shooting have “borne that weight with strength and grace,” adding that they’ve “drawn purpose from tragedy — doing everything in their power to make sure other children and families never have to experience what they and their loved ones did.”

But that work is “far from over,” the former president added, 注意到, 在 2022, not a single week has gone by without a mass shooting somewhere in America.

“But of late, I’ve sensed that slowly, steadily, the tide is turning; that real change is possible,” Obama added. “And I feel that way in no small part because of the families of Sandy Hook Elementary.”

不久之后 2021 射击, 奥巴马向全国发表讲话 从白宫.

“在过去的几年里，我们经历了太多这样的悲剧,” 他当时说. “每次我得知新闻, 我的反应不是总统，而是其他人的反应, 作为父母. 今天尤其如此. 我知道在美国，没有一个父母不会像我一样感受到压倒性的悲痛。”

“今天死去的大多数是孩子——年龄在 10 岁左右的漂亮小孩。 5 和 10 岁,” 他继续, becoming emotional as tears filled his eyes.

Since that day, gun violence has proliferated in the U.S., though lawmakers have made some recent gains when it comes to regulation, such as passing the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” which enacts commonsense gun laws and provides funding for mental health support and anti-violence programs.

The measure, which was signed into law by President 乔拜登 在六月, “enhances certain restrictions and penalties on firearms purchases; promotes evidence-based best practices for school safety; authorizes grants to expand access to mental health services; and appropriates emergency funding for mental health resources and school safety measures,” according to a White House briefing.

Biden who was serving as vice president when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred, said in his own statement on the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy that the nation “should have societal guilt for taking too long to deal with this problem.”

Noting the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Biden added that more “must” be done, specifically saying he was “determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like those used at Sandy Hook and countless other mass shootings in America.”

“We have a moral obligation to pass and enforce laws that can prevent these things from happening again,” Biden said in his statement. “We owe it to the courageous, young survivors and to the families who lost part of their soul ten years ago to turn their pain into purpose.”