Sandy Hook @ 10: Most Republicans Prefer Dead Children Over Gun Control

Ten years ago today, 26 people were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 

Of the 26 people who were killed that day, 20 of them were children between the ages of 6 and 7. 

Had they lived a normal life these kids would be finishing high school and preparing for college. Instead their lives were extinguished in an instant in a deliberate and wanton fashion. 

The suffering of their parents was exacerbated by those who subscribed to conspiracy theories claiming their children weren't killed.

In the 10 years which have passed, the scenes at Sandy Hook played out over and over again at grocery stores and shopping malls, clubs and concert venues, Fourth of July parades and houses of worship, colleges, high schools and other elementary schools. 

It was only after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas this past May which killed 21 people including 19 students did Congress pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Alas most Republicans opposed the measure thus demonstrated yet again they would rather have dead children than even the most modest of limitations on gun ownership. 

Now it's true gun control legislation won't prevent all such occurrences and it might not have prevented what happened at Sandy Hook given the guns in question were legally owned by the perpetrator's mother. But that is not reason enough to do nothing about it. The reality is that this kind of violence simply does not happen with the same frequency in other developed nations such as in the G-7 (Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Italy) as it does in the United States. It is within our power to reduce gun violence and too many among us simply do not want to do so.