“Ten years ago, a lone gunman killed 20 first-graders and 6 educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut," Biden said in a proclamation. "Today, those first-graders should be sitting in eleventh-grade classrooms, planning for their high school graduation and all the possibilities ahead. Those educators should be preparing lessons for new groups of students and enjoying full lives surrounded by their loved ones. Instead, their desks are forever empty, their families are left with holes in their hearts, and our Nation is missing a piece of its soul.”
Biden said that day changed the lives of every survivor and many of them still feel physical and emotional wounds from the shooting.
The US president underscored the importance of protecting children in the United States.
“This summer, I signed into law the first major bipartisan gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, which helps to keep firearms away from people who are a danger to themselves and others. And I have taken more executive action to reduce gun violence than any other President by this point in their Administration,” he said.
Biden also noted that it is important to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“I am optimistic because I have seen the courage and resolve of the Sandy Hook families. They have suffered unimaginable loss but have turned their pain into purpose,” he said.