Sandy Hook survivors graduate, griefing and advocating for harsher gun rights regulations

The first graders who survived Sandy Hook 2012 massacre are now graduating. However, they feel pain and grief because 20 other students and 6 teachers couldn't have share this moment with them hence they died in the deadliest school massacre in American history.

"I mean, you wait for this day for your whole life, since you're in kindergarten. You just can't wait to graduate. And it felt so far away for such a long time. But like now it's here, and you're ready, but I think we can't forget about that there is a whole chunk of our class missing," said one of the graduates, survivor Lilly Wasiniak. The private graduation ceremony of the Sandy Hook students took place on Wednesday evening at Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Grace Fischer, another survivor, commented on the milestone, saying, "It's just going to be heartbreaking. I can't imagine that 20 kids are not graduating with us and that they're not having the opportunity to walk across the stage."

A moment like this is unimaginable for anyone who hasn't been in the survivors' shoes. Emma Ehrens, in an interview for CNN, said that her life had been full of "what ifs," stating, "Thinking about all the what ifs: what if they were sitting next to me at graduation, what if we were still friends, where would we be? It will just be a lot of what-ifs in my head." She also recalled how she had thought several times about what would have happened if she hadn't managed to run away with some of her classmates when the perpetrator reloaded the gun. In the interview, she claimed, "I had to watch all my friends and teachers get killed, and I had to run for my life at 6 years old." She added, "This lives with us. For the people that think that it just disappears, it doesn't. It's going to be with us until we die," emphasizing how the massacre impacted the trauma survivor response. Emma said the survivors would still walk on the stage with other graduates.

Grace Fischer mentioned how she found out that one of her friends died despite not knowing what death is. She said that because of it, her childhood was taken away, saying the massacre is her primary memory from her childhood, being one of her first memories from her whole life. "I think that took away a lot of the joy that we could have experienced when we were 6 years old. And I can't really remember many times before the shooting, so, in that sense, it really did take over those really innocent times, and it really forced us to grow up so fast when we didn't need to," she said.

With the prominent milestone in their lives, the graduates now have to face the decisions of what to do next. Most of them emphasize how the massacre impacted them and their choices about being a vocal anti-gun advocate. Fischer mentioned how she felt obliged to engage in activism to remember her friends. She noted, "I really want to make sure that they know I'm doing something. Even though they're not here anymore, there are people who survived and are really trying to push for them. Because their lives were lost so early, and I went through that at such an early age, I feel like it's my purpose to continue my life in honor of them."

Other graduates have engaged in anti-gun advocacy as a part of the Junior Newtown Action Alliance. Last week, some of the members met Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. Matt Holden, a student who plans to become a politician advocating for anti-gun regulations, commented on the meeting: "It really felt like she listened to us and what we had to say, and she wanted to help us. I think that really gives me some hope that maybe that conversation and others can lead to some real change."

However, implementing the anti-gun regulations, despite the occurrences, is not the most straightforward thing to do in the US. After the massacre, President Barack Obama aimed to implement new laws to regulate gun violence. Nevertheless, two of them did not meet the approval of Congress due to the majority of the votes from Republican senators and some Democrat senators. Moreover, after the shooting, NRA's Vice President - Wayne LaPierre - stated famous words: "Only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," sparking debate and division in American society.

The massacre in Sandy Hook Elementary School occurred December 14th, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old shooter Adam Lanza started a rampage from legally obtained by his mother riffle. The shooting rampage began at his home, where he killed her, then approached the school, and finally shot himself upon the police's arrival. In the end, he killed 20 students, 6 teachers, and wounded 2 people. The majority of the kids were 6, the rest 7.

After the massacre, over 4,200 mass shootings occurred, with several mass school shootings - the deadliest in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 and Uvalde, Texas, in 2022.

Sources: CNN, BBC, ABC, NBC