Relatives of victims of the Newtown school massacre joined with community leaders from across the United States on Friday to mark the sixth month anniversary of the tragedy with a fresh plea for gun control legislation.
A moment of silence marked the beginning of the ceremony, held in front of the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, where 20 children and six adults were killed during a rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14.
Relatives of those killed gathered with members of the nationwide coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), a grouping which brings together more than 950 community leaders from 45 states.
Several relatives gave emotional speeches before participants read out a grim roll call of the names of 5,000 victims of gun violence in the United States since the Newtown killings.
“No father deserves to see his child fall victim to gun violence,” said Gilles Rousseau, whose daughter was one of the teachers who died in the school, in a statement released by MAIG.
“There are sensible steps we can take to keep our communities and our children safer, and it’s about time we took those measures.
“I urge Congress to lead on this issue and make sure we do everything in our power to keep guns out of the wrong hands.”
Friday’s event marked the beginning of a national bus tour that will see mayors travel across the United States for 100 days in a bid to build pressure on Congress to to strengthen gun control in the country.
Although some states have introduced their own additional controls since Newtown, efforts by President Barack Obama’s administration to introduce modest new regulations ended in failure in April, meaning that federal gun laws remain unchanged.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said MAIG was campaigning to “honor the memory” of the Newtown victims.
“It’s imperative that we keep the pressure on Washington to take action against gun violence,” he said.
Newtown relatives, leaders in fresh gun plea six months on
