Princeton Candlelight Vigil for School Shooting Victims (Photos)

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Photos by Seth Callen

About 50 people gathered at Palmer Square last night to remember the victims of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. The event was organized by Moveon.org and CeasefireNJ, a project of the Coalition for Peace Action. The organizers called for stricter gun laws in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Statement from CeasefireNJ:

“We mourn the loss of so many precious young children, and to call for urgently reinstating the national Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004—ten years after it was signed into law.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, as they try to cope with their unimaginable losses.  But let us do more than think and pray for them; let us take action so no other mother or father must be told that their child’s life was senselessly taken by gun violence.  Let us remind our neighbors, friends, and families that gun violence in this nation is an epidemic and we must fight to end it so that our children don’t have to.

We may not be able to take away the pain of those who have suffered from yesterday’s events, but we are not helpless.  We can work to prevent others from suffering such pain in the future.

It has been reported that one of the weapons used in the shooting this morning was a .223 Bushmaster assault rifle.  These assault-style weapons, along with high-capacity magazines, are frequently used in mass shootings because of their unique ability to kill as many people as possible in a short amount of time.  Assault weapons, used in the shootings in Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora, Oak Creek, and Old Bridge, among others, belong on the battlefields, not on our streets.

As after all such tragedies, many people will ask how we can stop such massacres from occurring in the future, and the answer is clear:  We must reinstate the Federal Assault Weapons Ban and ban high-capacity magazines.  Ceasefire NJ is calling on Congress and President Obama to take meaningful action to end the senseless gun violence in America.”

2 Comments

  1. Meaningful action would be much appreciated. What would be wrong with a little research as to the cause, as these weapons have been available since their invention, yet mass shootings are a phenomena of the last few decades? Perhaps a look at when, why and how mental health services are applied, and the change they have undergone in those same decades?

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