NEWTOWN, Conn. — Last evening, a shooter on the Michigan State University campus in Lansing, Mich., gunned down eight people, wounding five and killing three, before ultimately taking his own life. The Washington Post reports that “[b]y nearly every meaningful measure, 2022 was the worst year of school shootings in history.” In fact, one Michigan State University student has been retraumatized after a year of mourning the loss of her friends in the Oxford High School shooting. According to the Gun Violence Archive, 2023 is likely to be the deadliest year of gun violence on record.
In response to the latest tragedy, Nicole Hockley, co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise and mother of Dylan, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy issued the following statement:
“On a day when our hearts are already heavy with the remembrance of mass shootings at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and Northern Illinois University, we once again are filled with grief and anger because of another mass shooting on school grounds. Our hearts are with the Michigan State University community, and the families and friends of the victims and with the survivors. Another community forever changed within minutes.
“But right beside our sympathy is our outrage. We know how to prevent gun violence but our country fails to take the actions necessary to save lives. Our nation, traumatized by year after year of mounting gun deaths, must reject the notion that gun violence is inevitable because we know that the opposite is true; gun violence is, absolutely, preventable.
“Undisputed research proves that gun violence prevention programs and policies can save lives. All schools should include training on recognizing warning signs. All legislators should pass sensible policies like background checks for all gun sales, magazine limits for firearms and extreme risk protection orders.
“The greatest way we can honor all victims of American gun violence is to take action to save lives — so that no other families suffer that horrific pain. We must demand that public officials take immediate action to help end gun violence now.”
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Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) envisions a future where all children are free from school shootings and other acts of violence. As a national nonprofit organization, SHP’s mission is to educate and empower youth and adults to prevent violence in schools, homes, and communities. Creators of the life-saving, evidence-informed “Know the Signs” prevention programs, SHP teaches the warning signs of someone who may be in crisis, socially isolated, or at-risk of hurting themselves or others and how to get help. SHP also advances school safety, youth mental health, and responsible gun ownership at the state and federal levels through nonpartisan policy and partnerships. SHP is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.
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Aimee Thunberg | [email protected] | 646-761-5579