Washington, DC – Today marks 10 years since the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which took the lives of 20 first graders and six adults. Below is a statement by Kansas City (MO) Mayor Quinton Lucas, Chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ (USCM) Criminal and Social Justice Committee, and Tom Cochran, USCM CEO and Executive Director:
“Today, America’s mayors mark the anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, one of the most tragic events in our nation’s history. We continue to mourn the loss of the 26 innocent people who were killed, and we stand with their families and their community, whose lives were irreparably changed on that awful day.
“Then and now and too many times in between, we’ve vowed, ‘never again.’ But gun violence continues to increase, and its darkness never fully recedes—reminding us that there is still more to do if we are ever to meet that right and moral promise. So, let us match these moments of remembrance with moments of unwavering resolve.
“This summer, we celebrated the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act for the progress and achievement it represented. However, we knew then, as we know now, that much more must be done to reduce the horrific gun violence plaguing our nation. Bipartisan gun safety legislation that could mitigate such tragedies has passed the House and remains stalled in the Senate. The U.S. Conference of Mayors once again calls on the Senate to take up this commonsense legislation and pass it this year. Let us not allow those killed at Sandy Hook, and in the thousands of mass shootings since, to have died in vain.”