Relatives of those killed in past mass shootings reacted with outrage to Friday’s news of another massacre at an elementary school in Connecticut. The tragedy also reignited calls from gun control activists for laws restricting access to weapons.
A crowd of about 200 people gathered outside the White House on Friday evening for a candlelight vigil, many of them drawn together through social media sites. Speakers urged President Barack Obama to push for gun control and said the Connecticut shootings were just the latest in a US epidemic of gun violence.
Reflecting the difficult politics of gun control, Obama has not pushed for stricter gun laws, calling instead for better enforcement of existing laws. But Friday’s shooting once again stoked the never-ending debate.
Emotions were running high in Colorado, which was rocked by the 1999 Columbine High School and — less than six months ago — the movie theatre shooting in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
“Until we get our acts together and stop making these ... weapons available, this is going to keep happening,” said an angry Tom Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the theatre shooting last July.
Teves was choked up as he answered a reporter’s call Friday. A work associate of his lives in Newtown, Connecticut, where 28 people were killed, including 20 children, at the elementary school. The connection chilled and angered him.