School shootings have a huge impact on a child’s upbringing and can shatter their perception of reality. December fourteenth marks the tenth year since the tragedy of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, killing twenty first graders and six adults.  

At the age of seven, Cyrena Arokium’s childhood was detrimentally affected after  witnessing her favorite teacher and classmates being shot and murdered in Sandy Hook Elementary school. She has been advocating against gun violence and for more gun restrictions with officials of America for the past ten years. She remarks, “it felt like I failed,” commenting specifically on the recent Texas Uvalde elementary school shooting.  

Many gun laws have passed since the Sandy Hook school shooting, but not enough to protect the victims of the 600 mass murders in 2022. Sen. Dianne Feinstein proposed a bill for the ban of assault weapons and Sen. Joe Manchin proposed a bill for a mandated criminal background check for firearms; however, both bills were rejected.  

The National Rifle Association promoted the idea of introducing more police or armed security guards to schools. Twenty percentof schools did so. However, did that really accomplish what they thought it would? 

With increased school shootings, victims, relatives of victims, friends of victims, and advocates for victims were expectedly not satisfied with the gun legislations and restrictions in America. After all, other countries with increased gun control have significantly fewer mass shootings overall.  

Sandy Hook Promise, an organization led by families of the Sandy Hook victims, hopes to end gun violence and educate on the signs of gun violence to everyone. Mark Barden, CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, believes that “Gun violence is preventable when we take action to save lives, including legislative action to pass gun safety measures.”