HARTFORD, Conn. — Among the many that gathered at the University of Hartford for the National Safer Communities Summit last week were dozens of activists whose work to bring about federal gun reform legislation is rooted right here in Connecticut.
The summit, featuring speeches by President Joe Biden and other lawmakers championing gun reform, was held to mark one year since the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the most significant gun legislation passed by Congress in three decades.
For many, the celebration felt full circle.
“It feels a little poetic that where this part of the movement started is where we’re now celebrating some significant movement over the past 10 years and then paving the way for the future,” said Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan Hockley was one of 20 first graders who were killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School more than 10 years ago.
The tragedy thrust Connecticut into the forefront of the gun reform movement.
Among the activists fighting for stricter gun laws is a strong contingency of parents, neighbors and educators who were called to action on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman tore through Sandy Hook.
“Unfortunately Sandy Hook is ground zero for the modern-day gun control movement,” said Po Murray, co-founder and chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance, and whose neighbor was the gunman who killed 20 children and six educators in the small Connecticut town whose name has become synonymous with mass shootings.
Jeremy Stein, a local activist who leads CT Against Gun Violence, said the reason Connecticut has become the epicenter of the movement for reform is simple. It is because tragedy struck here, he said, and propelled Connecticut residents into the fight.
“We are at the forefront because we had to be,” said Stein. “Because the unthinkable happened.”
Connecticut lawmakers Sen. Chris Murphy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who have both championed stricter gun laws in Washington, also spoke to the Sandy Hook shooting’s impact on reforms in Connecticut and across the nation.
Murray said she felt that having so many survivors and loved ones of victims gathered in one room demonstrated that people who bravely share their stories and use their pain to create change are making an impact, she said.
“Having survivors be at front and center lobbying for these efforts has made a tremendous difference,” said Murray. “They have a moral authority to demand transformative change.”
Nelba Márquez-Greene, whose daughter Ana Grace was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, was the first to speak at the summit. She held a moment of silence for those, like her 6-year-old daughter, who have been killed in shootings.
Márquez-Greene, standing on the same stage where she earned her degree, reflected on the 10 years since her daughter’s death and how, in that decade, she feels her identity has been reduced to three words: “Sandy Hook mom.”
While celebrating the passage of BSCA and the steps that have been taken forward, she said she hopes gun reform involves taking care of grieving people with tangible resources.
“Survivors deserve more than exploitation and superhero capes,” she said.
And she applauded each and every survivor for their courage to fight after their own loss, survival and suffering.
“After every loss, you still showed up,” she said.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who welcomed attendees to the summit in the Lincoln Theater at the University of Hartford, told parents who have lost children to gun violence that they have made progress possible and pledged not to give up.
“We’re going to keep that progress going,” said Bronin.
Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, shared a similar message. Moms Demand Action is a grassroots movement against gun violence that was founded in the wake of Sandy Hook and has since expanded across the nation.
“The people in this room epitomize the saying when the going gets tough the tough get going,” she said.
Sen. Blumenthal took the stage in the afternoon to introduce former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in an assassination attempt in 2011.
Blumenthal said he shared a conversation with Giffords’ husband, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, on the eve of the summit in which Kelly told the senator that his wife’s life changed profoundly on two days: The day she was shot and the day of the Sandy Hook shooting.
Her own significant injuries from the shooting, he said, were not her sole motivation for fighting against gun violence.
“That did not compel her to do this. It was 20 kids in a classroom in Connecticut. And then meeting parents in a living room in Newtown.
“She is in Connecticut because of a journey that started on Dec. 14, 2012,” Blumenthal recalled Kelly saying.
Giffords gave a brief but empowering speech at the summit, saying that she has been fighting for her own physical recovery since being shot and has been a part of a larger fight.
“The fight to stop gun violence,” said Giffords, a founder of the Giffords’ organization that is dedicated to saving lives from gun violence. “It’s also a fight foraged by tragedy and pain, a fight that can change lives. We are at a crossroads, we can let the shooting continue or we can act.”
Peter Ambler, executive director at Giffords organization, said he was motivated to become an activist after living through the mass shooting that injured Giffords and more than a dozen people, including his colleagues.
“Sadly it’s too often those who have been touched by gun violence, like Gabby, who take it upon themselves to lead the way forward,” said Ambler.
“That’s one of the reasons this movement is becoming more powerful and more successful because more and more Americans have a direct connection to the crisis of gun violence in their families and their communities and their schools,” he said.
Sitting in the auditorium at the University of Hartford on Friday, Hockley, a co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise, noted that many people in the room were there because their own lives had been changed by gun violence.
“There are a lot of people in this movement who have been touched by gun violence. And I have so much compassion and love for all of them, whether I know them or not,” said Hockley. But she also holds a special place for people who haven’t been directly impacted by gun violence and are still fighting for change.
“And I have a special admiration for people who have made the choice to be involved in this movement and not waited for something to happen to them before they got involved, because if you’re waiting for that moment then it’s too late,” she said.
Erin Barthel, a volunteer with the Connecticut chapter of Moms Demand Action from Avon, came to Friday’s summit just a year into her own advocacy. She was motivated to become an activist after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers.
The local chapter of Moms Demand Action does grassroots advocacy work such as handing out brochures to advertise safe storage precautions, lobbying at the state Capitol for laws like the newly passed House Bill 6667, An Act Addressing Gun Violence and hosting educational events at local libraries about extreme risk protection orders, which are in place in Connecticut.
Barthel, a mom of three children ages 9, 7 and 4 years old, said she chose to join Moms Demand Action because “the more work we do outside of the school is helping the children inside of the school.”
She said she wishes she started advocating sooner, but said “Everyone has that moment that pulls them in.” The shooting in Uvalde was hers.
“Every time I send my children to school I’m worried that this is going to happen to them,” said Barthel, an oncology physician at Connecticut Children’s in Hartford.
Mark Barden, the other co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise, said that being at the UHart to celebrate one year since the legislation was passed felt like a significant marker of the success they’ve seen in the decade since his son Daniel Barden was killed at Sandy Hook.
Barden, who remembers being in Hartford at the start of his advocacy journey shortly after his son was killed, said he was grateful “to be at this inflection point 10 years later and celebrating the success.”
He said he hopes celebrating the passage of BSCA motivates activists and sends the message “that we can come together in a bipartisan way to achieve something very meaningful that should be the beginning of more to follow: More solutions that we can make, more commitments that we can make in a bipartisan way that benefits everyone, especially those in our communities that are ravaged by gun violence.”
At Sandy Hook Promise, Barden and Hockley focus on preventing future school shootings and other acts of gun violence by giving people across the map the tools to recognize the signs of potential gun violence and intervene before a tragedy.
During a panel at the summit, Hockley said their work focuses on prevention, not preparedness. Instead of programming that teaches active shooter drills, their programs give young people and educators the tools to speak up to prevent tragedies like the one at Sandy Hook from happening again.
“Why practice for something that you don’t want to happen? We should focus on prevention,” said Hockley.
According to their data, Sandy Hook Promise has helped stop at least 400 suicides and avert 15 credible school shooting threats.
“That’s 15 Sandy Hook’s that you have not heard of,” she said.
Hockley hopes the summit left activists from Connecticut and beyond feeling energized for the next steps in their mission.
She also recognized that their advocacy started right where their success was being celebrated. She remembered being in Hartford 10 years ago, introducing then-President Barack Obama ahead of some of her first lobbying trips to Washington.
The summit, she said, felt a little like déjà vu.
“There is kind of an interesting parallel in listening to the speakers over the course of the day and how everything goes back to Sandy Hook at the moment,” she said. Though a decade of work in the gun reform arena is exhausting, she said, it’s also inspiring.
“It is hard doing this work, so you need to celebrate the successes and remember that each day you are making progress,” said Hockley.
“Incremental change can be frustrating but it’s still change and it’s still positive. And you have to step back and say, lives are being saved, policies are changing. More people are getting involved and focus on that,” she said. “Because success breeds success, the more we can celebrate and show the wins, the more people will want to be part of that and create more ways to save lives.”
