Sandy Hook Dad Clings To Hope for a Safer World 4 Years After Shooting

SANDY HOOK, CT — The following letter was written by Mark Barden, father of Daniel Barden, one of the 20 students killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

"Hope can be both the kindest and the cruelest emotion. When Jackie and I first learned there'd been a shooting at a nearby school, we had hope it wasn't our school. When we found out the shooting was at Sandy Hook Elementary, we had hope that no one was hurt. When they gathered us at the firehouse, we began to understand the horror unfolding – but we still had hope our kids were all okay.

Even when we learned 20 children had been killed, we saw the list of people who were missing someone and counted 24 names – so we still had hope our sweet little Daniel was safe. We held out hope until the governor finally told us, "If you're missing someone, they didn't survive."

Hope broke our hearts that terrible day. But now, hope is the only thing that keeps me going: Hope that we can turn our tragedy into transformation for our country. Hope that we can empower parents, students and educators to spot the warning signs of gun violence and intervene before a tragedy happens. Hope that no other parent has to go through what Jackie and I went through on December 14, 2012 – hearing the devastating news that a shooter has murdered your child.

Almost four years ago, my world was shaken to its core, my life forever changed. I often reflect on the man, the dad, I was then: a musician, father of three beautiful children – including my sweet little Daniel, the freckle-faced, gap-toothed old soul who infused the world around him with so much light and love.

I also reflect on the man and the father I've become: a father who, instead of taking his son to soccer practice, now takes Daniel's picture to congressional offices to advocate for reform. A father who, instead of bragging about his son's grades or talent on the drums, talks about Daniel's short, sweet life in the hope that I can honor him by making meaningful change.

Sandy Hook Promise's Know the Signs programs already have helped avert tragedies and save lives, but we have so much more to do: We want to bring our gun violence prevention programs to thousands more schools in 2017 at no cost. We want to continue advocating for commonsense gun safety reforms. And if we miss this crucial fundraising goal, I'm afraid we'll have to cut back rather than scale up. Please, contribute $10 or whatever you can now to protect more children from gun violence.

Please click here to rush $10 or more to Sandy Hook Promise now. Help us stay on track to reach our year-end goal so we can protect more children from gun violence.

We've been confronted by despair, by disappointment, by discouragement so many times over the last four years. But our spirits, our hope, will never be broken. That's because of you. Thank you for supporting Sandy Hook Promise, and holding hope alongside us for a safer world for all our children.

Sincerely,
Mark Barden (Daniel's father)"