U.S. News
Sandy Hook survivor calls on Congress to ban assault weapons [Video]
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Nicole Melchionno, a survivor of the Sandy Hook shooting, called on Congress to ban assault weapons.
- Melchionno detailed her experience as a second grader 10 years ago, noting that the gunman’s AR-15-style rifle fired 154 bullets in less than five minutes.
- Melchionno urged lawmakers to enact stricter measures to prevent more mass killings.
A survivor of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School called on Congress to enact stricter gun laws to prevent more mass killings a day after the massacre’s 10th anniversary.
Nicole Melchionno testified on Thursday at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on gun violence.
Melchionno, who was a second grader at Sandy Hook Elementary during the time of the shooting, detailed her experience on Dec. 14, 2012.
She recalled hearing “what sounded like large metal pans being smashed together.” She said their teacher pulled over a desk and “grabbed a book to try and read to us so we could calm down” while gunshots echoed through the hallways.
Melchionno recounted, “She began to heavily shake and I knew we were in danger. At this point I felt a strong sense of nausea come over me as I thought I would be the first to die if the gunman got into our classroom.”
Police evacuated the class to the firehouse, where they were to be reunited with their parents. Melchionno said that it was “chaotic” as “everyone was running around yelling.”
Melchionno noted that the gunman’s AR-15-style rifle fired 154 bullets in less than five minutes.
The Newtown massacre, known as one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, killed 26 people, including 20 children.
Congress failed to pass gun legislation in the aftermath amid successful lobbying from the National Rifle Association and other groups.
Mass shootings swept the country once more this year. In May, a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killed 21 people, including 19 children, 10 days after a shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store killed 10 people.
Melchionno asked lawmakers, “How do we continue to allow this? I have grown up in a world where the unimaginable happens over and over again.” She noted that the “cold grip of gun violence has touched far too many lives and has no boundaries.”
In June, Congress passed bipartisan legislation bolstering mental health programs and closing some loopholes. However, the package did not include several measures that survivors and gun control activists have been calling for.
Melchionno said that lawmakers have stopped short of taking “bold, lifesaving, crucial action to protect what the majority of Americans believe in, which is common-sense gun safety measures.”
She called on Congress to ban assault weapons, which were used in Newtown, Buffalo, and Uvalde. She also called for universal background checks, red-flag laws, and a federal safe storage law for all gun owners.
“I am here today to beg you to please do everything in your power to enact measures that prevent everything you care about being lost within seconds,” Melchionno stated. “It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of who is next. We need to act now.”
Source: Aol.com
Roy
December 18, 2022 at 6:57 am
I feel sorry for this child or any person that suffers something like that. Stricter gun laws, banning weapons that LOOK like weapons of war( what the heck are those) banning magazines that hold a lot of ammo, etc is NOT THE WAY TO GO.
That being said, NONE of the laws presently on the books or being made up as of now, can prevent more shootings from occurring. Mass shootings appear to sync with things the DNC is trying to get past the “people”. Maybe it’s just me but that’s the way I see it.
We need to get rid of ALL current laws and go with just one. If you use a gun in the commission of a crime where someone dies, either by being shot or through trauma brought about ( even though they were not shot) the penalty for this is DEATH. One appeal and one appeal only. NO life sentences, no plea bargains, nothing. If you lose the appeal your sentence is carried out on live TV shortly after the verdict is given. By shortly I mean allowing the media to get set up so it can be viewed.
Sadly nothing like this will ever go because there are TOO MANY bleeding heart karens and kevins out there that think the killers life is worth saving.
Wayman
December 18, 2022 at 8:35 am
Agree 100%. Incidently, the deadliest school shooting in the US was carried out with a 9mm and 22 caliber pistol.
CharlieSeattle
December 18, 2022 at 6:34 pm
And yet the bleeding hearts never took necessary $$$$ steps $$$$ to protect the $$$$ schools and kids $$$$. They dropped the kids off and went to work, yoga class or Starbucks for an $8 double mocha grandie coffee.
They reserve the right to bytch and whine after the fact to mask their naïveté.
Buck
December 18, 2022 at 9:03 am
It’s not the gun that kills, it’s the person wielding the weapon. I don’t hear these people clamoring for doctors to stop prescribing of the psychological drugs given to most of these killers. They know the side effects cause this type of behavior, yet they continue to dole them out like candy. Consider the games these kids play where they kill, beat, and torture. When you die in the game you just push reset and begin again. In real life there is no reset button. Instead of banning guns, why don’t we teach gun safety in school? How about stopping legalizing drugs, giving out needles, or having safe places to shoot up your heroin? This may sound cruel but stop handing out narcan like it’s candy. Everyone makes a mistake so adopt a three strike rule and be done with it. First shot is free, you pay for the second, third strike like baseball and you’re out.
John Matthew Dedon
December 18, 2022 at 9:40 am
First no one has ever understood what an assault weapon is? Lib media is worthless. And with all the worthless gun laws in the country not very effective. A person that wants to get a gun, can always find someone willing to sell! Need to go after the cause the person and sorry to say government at all levels have failed the citizens. If you really wanted to stop this problem and not hire 87,000 worthless IRS agents one guard in each school will provide great protection! Our judicial system needs fixing too soft on crimes, seems be easy commit a felony 10 years automatic prison. One of the best preventions I read about are armed citizens, libs keep pushing worthless fixes and lib cities are paying for it. I would never bother visiting cites like LA, Chicago, Philly, ST Lois etc!
Uncle Art
December 18, 2022 at 11:40 am
Yes it was a tragedy
Yes it was done by someone with mental problems
Yes it might have been averted if family and law enforcement that knew about him intervened !
Yes the government handled it poorly
Yes Actors with film crews staged segments to use while standing on the dead to push anti gun laws. Just as they have many times before and many times after.
Yes there are hundreds of laws on the books that say it’s illegal to kill people and not one of them have ever stoped criminals or killers from getting gun/guns and stoped the shooter/shooters.
Yes it’s funny how certain shooters without any form of income, access to fire arms somehow all of a sudden have $9,000+ dollars to legally go out and buy top shelf firearms and gear.
Yes it’s funny that most get killed instead of being captured alive to question.
Yes it’s funny how the FBI in a matter of minutes has all kinds of information on the subject and the reason why. But never find any information on where the money comes from.
Yes it’s funny how survivors pushing for gun bans/anti gun laws are covered by the leftist news outlets , But never are anyone of the survivors that offer real solutions and are pro Second Amendment are heard from.
So if you really want to do something, stop playing the Victim, get educated on the constitution,get into a field that combats criminals and killers,stop voting for leftist politicians,become a lawyer that defends the true victims and have criminals kept in prison or any number of other things.
And leave Lawful American Citizens alone as we are not the problem.
Just my thoughts and opinion on the matter 😁
Fred
December 18, 2022 at 11:54 am
The anti-American liberals, socialists, globalists and politicians who can’t define an assault weapon don’t care about mass shootings or “gun violence”. These America-haters want to disarm America and kill off our inalienable 2nd Amendment God-given rights. It’s criminals that commit these crimes, not the weapon they use, and ALL politicians know that. These bozos want to take guns away from law abiding citizens. If they wanted to reduce violent crime, then we as a society would punish the criminals who commit the crimes, and dish out the punishment swiftly so that the punishment actually goes along with the crime. The idea of waiting years for the consequence of committing a crime, while the criminal is out free to commit more crimes, dilutes the punishment so much as to render it pointless. These same politicians support things like releasing arrested violent criminals without bail (when it should be no bail). It’s like training your dog not to pee in the house – you don’t wait 2 weeks to apply the teaching so your dog knows to pee outside… And yeah, criminals are that dumb, so the crime-punishment time frame is important.
Not one of the politicians who want to take away ALL guns (they’re just starting with the ones that look scary to them) can tell you how they would keep guns out of criminals hands, only the millions of Americans that we don’t worry about and actually want to own guns (recall that in 2021, 55 of the 112 active shooter incidents were STOPPED by an ARMED CITIZEN). They use reverse logic terms like “common-sense” and “gun reform” and “gun violence” (it’s the criminal, dummy) to get as many people into thinking emotionally instead of logically (the basic strategy of propaganda). Case in point: in 2019, only 2.6% of homicides used so-called “assault rifles”, 45.7% used handguns, and -get this- 26.3% of homicides didn’t even use a gun! So think about it – why are the America-haters REALLY going after the undefinable assault weapons? We all know the answer.
I had a dear friend killed by a criminal at close range with a shotgun, and the criminal who did it was caught and punished as he should have been. But that doesn’t justify taking all shotguns away from everyone else and I would never want that. I want the criminals punished. If criminals knew they faced swift and certain justice, no matter what the crime, we would have less crime.
CharlieSeattle
December 18, 2022 at 6:18 pm
…SHALL NOT INFRINGE