Norton Commemorates Sandy Hook Anniversary and Calls on Members to Cease Attacks on D.C.’s Gun Safety Laws in 115th Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) spoke at a press conference at the Capitol today with Members of Congress and survivors of gun violence around the country to commemorate the 26 children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School four years ago in Newtown, CT and to call on Congress to pass common sense gun violence prevention legislation. They spoke of the coming fight in the next Congress against gun violence. Norton highlighted the “natural bond” between Sandy Hook and the District of Columbia based on their shared struggle to prevent gun violence through national gun safety reforms and respect for local gun safety laws.

Below are Norton’s remarks, as prepared for delivery.

“There is an old cliché often said after moments of great loss: ‘we will never forget.’ The Sandy Hook community and survivors of gun violence from throughout the United States who have come today have shown they mean it. We in the District of Columbia have developed a special relationship with Sandy Hook through the 26 cyclists who have weathered winter weather each year to ride from Sandy Hook to the nation’s capital to commemorate the children and teachers lost at Sandy Hook. The Sandy Hook cyclists not only come to the Capitol for a press conference, they stop for an event with local D.C. residents to recognize all those lost in the District of Columbia to gun violence. The cyclists have formed a natural bond with the people of the District of Columbia out of an understanding that not a session of Congress goes by without Members introducing bills to wipe out all of the District of Columbia’s local guns safety laws. The next session of Congress is likely to renew these attempts to interfere with entirely local gun safety laws here in the District.

“Today on December 15, we renew the bond between our two jurisdictions—one a small town accustomed to tranquility, and the other a big city no stranger to the menace of guns. Together, we seek peace, and ask that Congress do its job and act to put an end to the scourge of senseless gun violence in America through reasonable reforms. The public and the lives lost demand it.”