NOVATO, CA (12-14) – On the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, activist groups around the country honored the memory of the 20 first graders ages six and seven and six adult staff members who were murdered. Since then, 89 other students across the country have been killed in twenty-two school shootings.
Those who were hopeful that in the aftermath of Sandy Hook gun tragedies and school shootings would be a thing of the past were once again let down by the strong gun lobby that prevailed on thwarting any meaningful reforms. Any civilized nation after enduring such an egregious act of senseless terror and violence should have reflected on and immediately begun a course of implementing sensible gun control laws.
But alas it wasn’t until June of this year with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act signed into law by President Biden that long overdue steps of sensible gun laws have finally been enacted. Even with the act’s passage we have seen a continuing number of mass shootings across the country. By the end of November, Forbes magazine reported there have been 611 mass shootings across the country in which 637 people were killed and 2,500 were injured. This does not even include the number of suicides by gun or the killings of individuals in shootings. It is predicted, based on this trend, that 2022 may go down as one of America’s deadliest due to gun violence since 2021.
On average more than 110 Americans die in gun related deaths each day. If this statistic was superimposed onto any other preventable cause of death, there would be outrage. If that number of people died each day due to a faulty design or part in an automobile, a massive recall effort would be underway soon afterward.
Honoring the memory of the Sandy Hook victims PeaceNovato activists held a candlelight vigil at the small town’s City Hall calling for sensible gun laws to #EndGunViolence. The activists also honored all gun violence victims likening the ongoing carnage to a “…seemingly incurable disease of gun violence in America.”
While school shootings are horrific events that traumatize students, faculty, parents and communities, some victims have utilized their first-hand experiences in galvanizing and empowering their desire for change by rallying for meaningful gun control laws. One such student, now twenty-five years-old, is Maxwell Alejandro Frost who in the aftermath of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Florida was inspired to work for a change to end gun violence. Frost began by working as the national organizing director of the student-led March For Our Lives gun control organization that ultimately led to the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Because of his personal experience at the high school and his activism, he was inspired to run for Congress in 2022. With his recent election, Representative-Elect Frost (D) Florida becomes the first-Generation Z youth and one of the youngest members ever to be elected to Congress.
Report and photos by Phil Pasquini
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