On Sandy Hook shooting anniversary, gun control advocates lambast US congress

Despite ‘significant progress’ at the state level, federal authorities have yet to take meaningful action, Sandy Hook gun control activist says

The 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary left 26 dead, including 20 children. (Dave Collins/Associated Press)

A gun control advocacy group launched in the aftermath of the deadly Sandy Hook shooting exactly three years ago Monday lambasted US lawmakers for the recent surge in gun violence.

In the three years since the shooting, “there has been significant progress [on gun control] at the state level. Unfortunately, congress has not acted and is complicit in the rate of gun violence deaths that continue to plague our nation,” the legal counsel for Newtown Action Network, Monte Frank, told The Independent.

On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed 26 people — including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown Connecticut. Mr Frank spoke to The Independent ahead of an interfaith service with Muslim, Jewish and Christian faith leaders to commemorate the anniversary of the killings.

“It’s a time for our community to come together and reflect,” Mr Frank said.

Since news of the children's shooting deaths rocked the nation, Frank’s Newtown Action Network has engaged in multiple campaigns to advocate for gun control. State governments across the country have imposed stricter background checks on firearm sales and bans on the sale of high-capacity magazines and military-style rifles.

Connecticut’s Dannel Malloy last week became the first state governor to say he would sign an executive order banning people on federal terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns, following similar calls by US President Barack Obama. It remains unclear whether the majority Republican congress would oppose President Obama’s move, which came in response to an Isis-inspired shooting earlier this month in San Bernardino, California that killed 14 people.

The US averaged more than one mass shooting per day in 2015, The Independent reported in August.

In April, Mr Frank plans to join 26 fellow gun control advocates for a demonstration in which they will ride bikes from Newtown, Connecticut to Washington, DC, where they will rally for greater federal action on gun violence.