It’s been five years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting happened in Newtown, Conn. On December 14, 2012, 20 first-graders and six adults were gunned down inside of the school.
For the second year in a row, Sandy Hook Promise has released a powerful PSA about gun violence in schools and knowing the warning signs. The PSA is called “Tomorrow’s News” and is a fake news clip where a reporter interviews students, teachers and others about what they would say about the “shooting” that will happen tomorrow.
At the end, the mother holding her young daughter says she won’t be able to explain what happened to her daughter because her daughter won’t survive the shooting.
The PSA has gotten a powerful response, including from one former Newtown, Conn.,resident Jan Neuberger. She lived in Newtown for 18 years and remembers that terrible day.
“It’s one of those events that opens a hole in your perception of reality. Nothing is the same. There is a before and an after,” Neuberger said. “I went to the Celebration of Life for one of the first graders who died, Benjamin Andrew Wheeler. It was one of such a horrifying series of celebrations of young lives.”
Neuberger thinks the new Sandy Hook Promise PSA is incredibly effective and spot-on accurate.
“People need to speak up and act. The smallest action can save so many lives,” Neuberger said.
And while no major gun legislation has passed since Sandy Hook, she still feels progress is being made.
"Within last week or 10 days, the concealed carry reciprocity bill just passed. But the margin approving the bill shrank from over 100 to 33 people. We are making progress, slowly but surely," Neuberger said.
When it comes to gun laws, not much has changed since Sandy Hook. No national gun control laws have passed to prevent something like this shooting from happening again. But it’s not because lawmakers haven’t tried. More than 100 bills have been introduced, but they’ve all failed.
While Republicans control Congress, there is little chance any new national gun laws will pass. However, that’s despite strong support for change: a Quinnipiac University poll from June says 94 percent of Americans support background checks for all gun sales. And 57 percent say it’s too easy to buy a gun.
