To the Editor:

May 7, 1999: “Last month’s tragedy in Littleton, Colo. and the fear that it could happen again brought parents to the high school Wednesday night for a meeting on school violence.” [Way We Were, May 3, 2024]. How striking that 25 years ago, after the tragedy at Columbine High School, Newtowners “gathered to ensure that Newtown’s young people can go to school in a safe environment.”

And then gun violence devastated our town 13 years later. It’s tempting to feel nothing can or has changed, as there were 346 school shootings in 2023 per US News & World Report.

And yet! Recent years have brought increased willingness by medical practitioners to speak on safe storage, checks against the proliferation of ghost guns, passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (including mental health provisions), overwhelming support for background checks, greater willingness to hold politicians accountable for their votes around gun safety, a deeper understanding of the need to support survivors and many more gun sense initiatives.

The anger and fear felt in the Newtown High School auditorium in May 1999, and again in December 2012 when President Obama visited NHS, has been poured into organizations that fought for those accomplishments, all while respecting the Second Amendment. Some of the organizations you can support here in Connecticut are Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Connecticut Against Gun Violence, Mothers United Against Violence, Sandy Hook Promise, COMPASS Youth Collaborative, Sisters at the Shore, YANA, Street Safe Bridgeport, and Project Longevity.

Our common goal? Fewer auditoriums full of grieving citizens.

Cindy Carlson

Sandy Hook