ABSTRACT
Painful recollections of the Newtown school shootings persist, even as searing memories of the massacre at the Connecticut elementary school recede into the past. When the nation learned what happened-20 first-graders and six adults killed at point-blank range in a school in a rustic New England town just 10 days before Christmas Eve in 2012-there was shock, anger, and tears. At hastily arranged funeral services, grieving family members reminisced about the young children who loved to sing, learn about whales, gobble down hamburgers with ketchup, and wear shorts in even the coldest weather. Because of the young age and innocence of the victims, the all-too-common school shooting took on different proportions. Large swaths of citizens expressed both sadness and outrage in media forums, from online social media sites to radio talk shows. The media swarmed into the bucolic community, where residents eerily said it was the last place something like this could have happened. President Obama, tearful and visibly moved after meeting with grieving parents, addressed a nationally televised memorial service promising to “use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this.”
