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After school massacre, Newtown residents urge stricter gun control
Parents and neighbors of the children killed in last month’s Connecticut school shooting implored state
lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday to ban the powerful rifle and high-capacity magazines used in the
As parents, first responders and town officials spoke at the Newtown high school, many in the audience
of about 600 people gave standing ovations and wept.
“We lost our son Benjamin” to an “unstable, suicidal individual who had access to a weapon that has no
place in a home,” said David Wheeler. “Military-style assault weapons belong in an armory under lock
and key. They do not belong in a weapons safe in a home.”
Legislators in Washington and around the United States are grappling with how to keep Americans safe
from gun violence in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children
Gun control advocates argue that the AR 15-type assault weapon and high-capacity magazines used by
the gunman do not belong in the hands of civilians. Gun rights advocates say that any attempt to ban
assault weapons or high-capacity magazines is a prelude to stripping Americans of their constitutional
right to bear arms.
President Barack Obama has called on Congress to approve an overhaul of the nation’s gun laws,
including an expansion of background checks for gun sales. On Wednesday, former U.S. Representative
Gabby Giffords - who was shot in the head in a mass shooting two years ago in Tucson - urged her former
colleagues to act.
Many of the proposals made by Connecticut lawmakers, including an assault weapons ban and expanding
background checks, are similar to bills under consideration also in Washington.
But while previous hearings held in the state capitol of Hartford have featured strong disagreement,
especially on gun control, most of those testifying in the hearing in Newtown shared the view that assault
weapons do not belong in the hands of civilians.
“I cannot agree that weapons such as the Bushmaster can play a legitimate role in a society that first and
foremost seeks to keep its citizens safe,” said Newtown first selectman Pat Llodra, the town’s top elected
But there were dissenting voices as well.
Wednesday’s hearing was in sharp contrast to a legislative subcommittee hearing held Monday at the
Legislative Office Building in Hartford on gun laws, which lasted hours into the night and attracted
hundreds of gun rights activists statewide. Many in the crowd at the Newtown High School auditorium,
the site where President Barack Obama addressed residents after the shooting, wore stickers urging gun
Many voiced support for more background checks, annual gun permit renewals and increased availability
of mental health services.
Michael Majeski of Newtown called it a “kneejerk reaction” to the shooting by focusing on gun laws.
Rather, he said, they need to address mental illness, pointing out how the state has closed a nearby
psychiatric hospital.
“If there is any commonsense or wisdom among the members of this committee, I would humbly ask you
to focus on the underlying causes of these murders and not these symptoms,” he said.
David Wheeler, whose son was killed at Sandy Hook, said a more comprehensive system of identifying
and monitoring individuals with mental distress needs to be created. “It doesn’t matter to whom these
weapons were registered. It doesn’t matter if they were purchased legally. What matters is that it was far
too easy for another mentally unbalanced, suicidal person who had violent obsessions to have easy access
to unreasonably powerful weapons.”
The public hearing was organized by the General Assembly's task force on gun violence prevention and
children's safety. Lawmakers hope to vote on a package of new measures around the end of February.
