This little boy was shot dead in the Sandy Hook massacre. So why are US gun-control opponents tormenting his parents?

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The parents of Noah Pozner, six, say they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from people who believe them to be part of a "gun confiscation plot". Some doubt their son was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, while others doubt that he even existed at all. Photo: AP

Published: 9:00am, 14 Jan 2016Updated: 12:45pm, 13 Jun 2016

In December, the parents of six-year-old Noah Pozner, who was killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, wrote a letter to Florida’s Sun-Sentinel newspaper accusing a professor at Florida Atlantic University of harassing them for proof that the murders really happened.

The professor, James Tracy, was fired by the university earlier this month.

Since then, the boy’s father, Lenny Pozner, has gotten several death threats, and he believes that the harassment is being conducted by people who believe him to be part of a “gun confiscation plot”.

Tracy's alleged harassment was hardly the first, Pozner said. There's a whole network of people who believe the media reported a mass shooting that never happened, he said, that the tragedy was an elaborate hoax designed to increase support for gun control. Pozner said he gets ugly comments often on social media, such as, “Eventually you'll be tried for your crimes of treason against the people,” “. . . I won't be satisfied until the caksets are opened. . .” and “How much money did you get for faking all of this?”

In this December 14, 2012 file photo, Carlee Soto uses a phone to ask about her sister, Victoria Soto, a teacher at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Victoria Soto, 27, was among those killed. Photo: AP

A few days after Tracy's firing was announced, Pozner got several death threats. A woman left messages on his phone that sounded like, “You're gonna die you [expletives and slurs deleted] ... And what are you going to do about it? You can do absolutely nothing ... this is coming to you real soon [expletive deleted]. You going to die,” and “You [expletive deleted] look behind you, justice is coming to you real soon.”