She first heard about the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a decade ago when she was just a girl who survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Nicole.
She expressed, “I was unable to cope with it.” “It shatters you when you learn about other incidents of gun violence. However, the fact that it was the exact same incident completely reignited my anxiety and triggered me once again.”
In an interview that was broadcasted on Sunday, Martha Raddatz, the co-anchor and Chief Global Affairs Correspondent of “This Week,” discussed their encounter and the lasting impact it continues to have on them. Alongside Nicole, a second-grade student at the time, there were three other student survivors and a school staff member present on the day when a shooter tragically took the lives of 26 individuals at their school in Newtown, Connecticut, during December 2012.
Out of consideration for their privacy, ABC News is refraining from using the survivors’ surnames.
Maggie, another student, expressed to Raddatz, “It deeply shattered me to realize that despite receiving thoughts and prayers from everyone for 10 years, despite everyone declaring, ‘We’ve had enough,’ and, ‘Never again after Sandy Hook’ – it happened once more. I couldn’t help but contemplate the pain of all the families currently at home, breaking the news to their children that their siblings, friends, and classmates are no longer with us.”
All of them are speaking publicly for the first time. Andrew, Jackie, and Nicole – the remaining three survivors – are now juniors at Newtown High. Maggie, who was in third grade during the shooting, will graduate from Newtown High School next week.
Jackie recalled, “It shouldn’t be anyone’s responsibility to lead the way. I shouldn’t have to hide at the back of the classroom, thinking that I don’t fit in because I’m an 8-year-old kid. I remember the shock on my teacher’s face when she looked at me. I was in second grade in that classroom.”
All former friends, classmates, and neighbors who have been lost.
Daniel Barden, Maggie’s best friend, would feel alive and secure if he were able to hear the most vivid memories of the tragic massacre.
She recalled the events following the incident a decade ago, “We continuously uttered, ‘That was Daniel, Daniel was approaching,'” indicating that there were still individuals present at the fire station, and that a group had been discovered in a storage space – nearby residents were providing us with all the latest information.
She expressed, “It was extremely distressing for me, because there was no solace at all. No one could console one another due to the sheer devastation and grief. We all adored this young man deeply.”
“I had no idea that the sounds I was hearing were my friend being killed,” a horrifying realization for Maggie amidst the sorrow.
Anxiety implies that for Nicole, experiencing a mass shooting altered all four of the students. Difficulty with loud sounds implies that for Jackie and Maggie. Furthermore, it was the case for Andrew to have nightmares during the immediate months afterwards.
He informed ABC News, “I was unable to eradicate the noises from my mind throughout the night. I was unable to shut my eyes without experiencing it again.”
As the children left their school, they were instructed to walk with their eyes closed and their hands placed on the shoulders of the student ahead of them. Among the second graders, Jackie vividly remembers a specific and unsettling moment that cannot be adequately described.
Jackie opened her own.
She exclaimed, “I saw my eyes wide open, I really did. I didn’t want to step on anything and there was clearly blood and broken glass.”
“That’s an idea that likely lingers,” Raddatz informed her.
“No,” Jackie replied, shutting her eyes.
Jacob was locked in the closet with 19 students at the time in the library to keep them safe. ABC News also detailed her experience, a clerk at Sandy Hook Elementary library, Jacob Ann Mary.
At a neighboring fire station, where guardians were seeking to locate their kids, Jacob expressed that she eventually understood the seriousness of the circumstance – and the enormity of the tragedy – afterwards.
Jacob mentioned, “Kids were being organized by class at the fire station in order to begin the process of releasing them to their parents.” He further added, “It soon became apparent that nearly two complete classes were absent.”
In the previous month, a total of 21 individuals lost their lives at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after a shooter comprehended the terrifying experience that was common among the remaining five individuals who managed to survive.
Everyone shares the dismay and frustration they experience while witnessing an increasing number of school shootings.
Jacob expressed, “Following that incident, there was a lack of subsequent response.” Jacob conveyed, “The global community witnessed the events at Sandy Hook, and it deeply saddens and angers me that such occurrences persist.” I am profoundly affected by this.
Like other survivors, Andrew argues that Republicans in Congress are reluctant to take up legislation that restricts the Second Amendment, an intensely polarizing issue where gun reform remains called for.
Andrew, ABC News informed the government that in order to prevent mass violence, there are proposals to restrict the age for purchasing assault-style weapons and to impose limitations on ammunition magazines.
“I believe that what we are aware of simply needs to be realized.”
Connecticut enacted comprehensive state legislation on gun control four months after the Sandy Hook shooting, which encompassed mandatory background checks, a prohibition on the sale of high-capacity magazines, and the banning of over 150 firearm models. Additionally, this law established the country’s initial registry for dangerous weapons and expanded the definition of an assault weapon.
Following the shooting, the former President Barack Obama appealed to Congress to implement national firearm regulation.
At a memorial service for the Sandy Hook victims in 2012, Obama expressed, “undoubtedly we hold a responsibility to make an effort” – preceding the instances in Columbine and Blacksburg, and subsequently in Newtown, Oak Creek, Aurora, and Tucson, that have experienced the sorrow that comes when another town, a parent, or a child is affected. However, we must take a single action, no matter how small, to prevent the same heartbreak from happening again to another child, parent, or community.
The Senate did not pass those failed efforts. Led by Sens. Pat Toomey and Joe Manchin, the vote on background checks focused on new gun laws, but it was largely unsuccessful in recent decades. However, the Senate did not pass the vote on background checks led by Joe Manchin, despite those failed efforts.
Since then, there has been no significant federal gun reform that has been enacted.