NEWTOWN, Conn. (WCBS 880) — Flags in Connecticut are flying at half-staff Tuesday in remembrance of the 20 first graders and six educators killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre nine years ago.
On Dec. 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman fatally shot his mother in their Newtown home before carrying out the attack on the school, later turning the gun on himself.
“The tragedy that occurred that day nine years ago is one of the worst in Connecticut history, but in its aftermath, we witnessed an outpouring of love, humanity, and kindness from over the entire world, spreading a message of hope that we must proactively work to protect," Lamont said in a statement as he ordered flags to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset. "We will never forget the 20 innocent children and six devoted educators whose lives were taken all too soon that terrible morning.”
Students in Newtown are also learning remotely to "relieve some of the anxiety and stress that often accompanies this day," said Newtown Superintendent of Schools Lorrie Rodrigue.
In the years since the tragedy, those who survived the attack have been on a mission to make sure their classmates are not forgotten and to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.
Maggie LaBanca was a third grader at Sandy Hook school and has been haunted by the tragedy for the last nine years.
"I've had to grow up with a trauma that I didn't fully understand because at 8 years old, you can't fully understand the effect of a gun and its bullets," LaBanca said last Thursday as she traveled to Washington, D.C. to demand federal action to address gun violence, just days ahead of the anniversary of the massacre.
Her best friend was just 7 years old when he was murdered in school and LaBanca said she can't shake the trauma.
“Nine years later, at 17 years old, I'm starting to understand that we have yet to make substantial progress at a national level,” LaBanca said. “Nine years later, at 17 years old, all I want is to feel safe.”
She, along with classmate Camille Paradis, have become advocates and are pushing for stricter federal gun laws.
"I had the premonition that it was going to be a good day because of the lightness of my backpack. Because I was a child. I left that day with unimaginable trauma and people I would never see again. And I didn't understand that," Paradis said. "And for months, and years after, every year, I am told: 'Never again.' I am told, 'We will never forget you.' And yet it seems as if the government has because I have watched it happen. Again! And again and again."
Advocates and lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, also gathered Monday in Hartford to call for gun control legislation, which has stalled in Congress.
Murphy's bill looking to expand background checks failed to come up for a vote in Congress after the measure was reintroduced following last month's deadly school shooting in Michigan.
“[W]e know this is a question of when—not if—we pass federal legislation that will require universal background checks and get these dangerous assault weapons off the streets. But we know that for now, we need to make sure that this country doesn't lose its sense of outrage about what's going on in states," Murphy said Monday. "This happens in the United States and nowhere else… We choose to have the world's weakest gun laws. We choose to allow for these dangerous weapons of mass destruction to get into the hands of would-be killers. This is all a choice, and we can make a different choice.”
Blumenthal also called on Congress to act saying, "We're going back to Washington to say to Congress: do your job, that's what the American people want."
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign up and follow Audacy
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram