(Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic depictions of gun violence, which may be disturbing for some readers.
In 2012, a man walked into an elementary school and massacred 20 first-graders and six teachers in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
Investigators found the bodies of 15 children and two teachers huddled in the corner of a classroom. The teachers had used their bodies to protect the children as 80 rounds were fired on them.
One of the children was Noah Pozner. He was only six years old and had gone to school that morning excited for another day of fun-filled learning. Noah’s little body was destroyed by three bullets. One bullet mangled his left hand. A second bullet struck Noah’s back and crossed through the center of his chest, filling it with blood. A third bullet hit Noah’s face and caused “complete destruction” of the lower lip and jaw.
As intended, the bullets blew apart skulls, demolished vital organs, pulverized bones, shredded lung tissue, severed nerves and vessels, and caused massive bleeding. The medical examiner later reported that “the injuries were devastating,” and the parents identified their children from photographs to spare them the sight. Some remains were so unrecognizable that they could only be identified through DNA samples.
Following the massacre, there was a possibility of passing a 2013 bill to expand background checks for purchasers of firearms. Over 90% of Americans supported the bill to protect other Americans, especially our children.
Kelly Ayotte was a senator from NH then and voted against the bill. Instead of representing the well-being of Americans with her outsized opportunity and responsibility, Ayotte allied with the gun lobby and was rewarded with campaign funds and an A score from the NRA.
Ayotte justified her vote, saying that it would burden gun store owners. But in her decision, Ayotte failed to consider the burden of the pain and suffering of the victims, survivors, families, first responders, crime scene investigators, the community, and the nation.
After the senate vote, a survivor articulated the position of senators like Ayotte, “They are an embarrassment to this country that they don’t have any compassion or care for people who have been taken brutally from their families.”
My daughter is the same age as the children who were massacred in Sandy Hook. Along with millions of American children, she grew up participating in Active Shooter Drills, a training that is unique to the United States. My daughter learned to lock classroom doors, pull down shades, pile up kid-sized tables and chairs against the door, hug an object to try to protect her vital organs, hide quietly in a corner or a closet, lift her legs in toilet stalls, and jump out of the window of her first-floor classroom.
Despite attempts by politicians to normalize school shootings, these tragedies should not be “a fact of life” for our children. Since the massacre at Sandy Hook, 169 Americans have been killed in school shootings, and nearly 550 Americans have been injured. If Ayotte and other elected officials truly cared for the sanctity of life, these Americans would be alive today.
The Sandy Hook teachers used their bodies to protect the children, but Ayotte lacked the courage to protect Americans from the gun lobby. It doesn’t matter what Ayotte is promising now; protecting children should be the lowest bar for an elected official.
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