Our heart aches for the families of Newtown, Connecticut.
We need to reach out to the loved ones of those who were murdered and to the community that has been shattered. We need to let them know that they are in our thoughts and our prayers, and that we are ready to do what it takes to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again. We NEED viable programs and treatment …America we also NEED to wake up.
On Friday, Dec. 14, a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and opened fire on students and teachers, killing at least 26 and wounding others.
Though the victims were younger — some of the 20 children killed on Friday were in kindergarten — the massacre drew comparisons to the 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech that left 32 dead and 17 others wounded in the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history. Hundreds more have died in shootings during the five years that have passed since that devastating marker.
There is no official definition of a “mass shooting,” but FBI classifications describe the term as any incident in which a perpetrator kills four or more people, not including him or herself. Under that definition, 19 mass shootings have taken place since April 16, 2007, the date of the Virginia Tech massacre. That’s a rate of more than one every four months — only considering these most brutal examples. Other devastating shootings go largely unnoticed on the national stage.
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- Thoughts and prayers for the innocent lives lost in Newtown, CT (americanturban.com)
- On social media: Local reaction to Conn. school shooting (kansascity.com)
- A Timeline Of Mass Shootings In The US Since Columbine (thinkprogress.org)
CHILD TRAUMA RESOURCES page for the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School.
http://www.childrenshopeandvoice.org/CHILD-TRAUMA-Orgs—Resources.html