Newtown back in spotlight amid Dem gun control clash
NEWTOWN, Conn. — The school where the second-deadliest mass shooting in American history took place has been razed. The house where the killer lived with his mother has been torn down and left for open space.
Newtown seems intent on moving past the tragedy a disturbed young man left behind in 2012 when he killed 20 first-graders, six school employees and his mother before taking his own life.
What the town can’t escape is being politicized in the debate over control in this country.
Gun violence — notably the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School — has become a defining issue in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination. Of the handful of policy differences between front-runner Hillary Clinton and rival Bernie Sanders, gun control is the rare split that has allowed Clinton to position herself as more liberal than Sanders.
The debate has been highlighted in the days leading up to the Connecticut primary Tuesday.
Sanders voted for a 2005 law giving gun manufacturers wide legal immunity and has stood by his support of the bill despite the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Newtown families against the manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15 that was used at Sandy Hook. The families argue that the company is liable for marketing a military-grade killing machine that’s unfit for use by the general public.
Clinton voted against the immunity law and has castigated Sanders as siding with the National Rifle Association in his support of the bill. Clinton’s broader criticism of Sanders is that he’s weak overall on gun control, a high-priority issue for Democrats. Clinton also notes that Sanders repeatedly voted against the Brady Bill, which called for mandatory background checks and waiting periods to purchase firearms.
Sanders has called the Sandy Hook shootings “murder, assault, slaughter, unspeakable act” and has said guns must be kept out of the hands of those who should not have access to them. But the Vermont senator has reiterated his support for the 2005 immunity law.
“If a gun shop owner sells a weapon legally to somebody and that person then goes out and kills somebody, I don’t believe it is appropriate that that gun shop owner who just sold a legal weapon ... be held accountable and be sued,” he said during a CNN debate earlier this month in a scathing exchange with Clinton.
A family member of a Sandy Hook victim said Sanders owed an apology; he repeatedly declined. The New York Daily News responded by declaring on its front page: “Bernie’s Sandy Hook shame.” Sanders’ wife, Jane, countered that Clinton had politicized the tragedy and had flipflopped on gun control.
Newtown is used to the attention, as unwanted as it may be.
“Newtown’s been politicized since the beginning,” said Curtiss Clark, editor of the weekly Newtown Bee. “We learned long ago that … Newtown’s fate, its legacy … is shared by a larger audience.”
Many of the town’s residents do not want the tragedy to forever define them.
“We’ve moved forward,” said Nick Heron, 21. “We’ve moved on.”