Gun Safety Speech

In the days and weeks following the shooting, the nation’s attention was attracted to Newtown, Connecticut. Media from all over the country stormed the town looking and digging for details about the events and the victims. The town received more than eight million dollars that came to the town in form of donations. (Aviv 24-29). There was also 50,000 stuffed animals were sent to the town for the memorials of the fallen: “In the weeks after the shooting, fifty thousand stuffed animals were sent to Newtown, a community of twenty-seven thousand” (Aviv 24-29). Four days after the attack, Obama visited Newtown and delivered a very heartfelt speech discussing the topic of gun safety in the country to the crowd. He addressed the community at a prayer vigil on December 16, 2012 in the Sandy Hook High School. Obama hit on the key point that the nation should be doing all that they can to protect the children when he asked, “Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?” (Obama 34). He also addressed that a single law or set of laws could not completely rid of the country of this problem when he stated, “No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act in our society, but that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this” (Obama 35). Obama urged the crowd that these tragedies need to end when he said, “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change”

(Obama 35).

As Obama recognized the each of the lives lost from the shooting with tears in his eyes, he vowed to aim to prevent other tragedies like the Sandy Hook from happening in the future with the use of his

presidential power.