- Title: 'Honoring Daniel' – Sandy Hook father speaks on turning tragedy into activism
- Date: 9th December 2022
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK BARDEN, FOUNDING MEMBER AND CEO OF SANDY HOOK PROMISE ACTION FUND AND FATHER OF SANDY HOOK SHOOTING VICTIM, DANIEL BARDEN, SAYING: "And so we did a lot of research and a lot of interviews of stakeholders and thought-leaders across the country and sort of we learned that the true essence of prevention hadn't really been addressed in a meaningful w
- Embargoed: 23rd December 2022 11:13
- Keywords: Mark Barden Newtown Sandy Hook Sandy Hook Promise gun control
- Location: NEWTOWN CONNECTICUT, UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN
- City: NEWTOWN CONNECTICUT, UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN
- Country: US
- Topics: Human-Led Feature,Human-Led Stories,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA00A004716112022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: *EDITORS NOTE*
PLEASE ALSO SEE ADDITIONAL SANDY HOOK STORIES, INCLUDING:
7124-USA-GUNS/SANDY HOOK-MOTHER
0797-USA-GUNS/SANDY HOOK-SURVIVOR
4595-USA-GUNS/SANDY HOOK-FILE
When Mark Barden speaks of his son, he still recalls little acts of kindness from a compassionate child.
"He would literally stop and pick up the worms off the sidewalk and put them in the grass so they wouldn't burn in the sun. Or he would carry the big carpenter ants out of our kitchen because he thought, he thought they should be outside with their families," said Barden, whose son, Daniel, was killed ten years ago at Sandy Hook.
Barden and other parents of Sandy Hook victims dove into advocacy after their children were murdered, trying to find ways to prevent school shootings through a nonprofit organization they founded, Sandy Hook Promise.
The group aims to educate students, teachers, and others about the warning signs that could help identify would-be mass shooters and to ensure authorities are alerted when such signs are seen. Over 18 million students and others have participated in one of the group's programs. At least 11 school shooting plots have been foiled in recent years because of the training Sandy Hook Promise provided, the group says.
Barden, 58, has said he has dedicated his life to the group's work as a means of honoring Daniel, whom he felt was destined to do great things in the world because of his "naturally developed sense of compassion and awareness of others."
"It was taken from him. And I feel a very real sense of responsibility to try to fill those enormous shoes in whatever way I can," Barden said.
In the decade since 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza, shot and killed his mother, and then killed six adults along with the 20 children at Sandy Hook, that and more violence has ignited debates in the United States over mental health, access to guns and how best to secure schools.
According to a 2014 report by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate, Lanza was "completely untreated in the years before the shooting" for psychiatric and physical ailments such as anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Even as the national dialogue rages on, there have been other school shootings since Sandy Hook. At Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, last May, 19 children and two teachers were killed, and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in Feb. 2018, 17 people were killed and 17 more injured.
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