Parents of Sandy Hook Victims File Amicus Brief Defending Assault Weapon Ban

I may not always show it, but I do understand where those left behind after a mass shooting stand on guns and why. I have a very good reason to understand, unfortunately. That doesn't mean I give them a pass on being anti-gun. I understand why they are, but that doesn't change the fact that our rights are still our rights, and it was never the fault of the tool but the tool using it.

I also can't say I'm surprised that parents of Sandy Hook victims have been among the many groups that have filed amicus briefs as the Supreme Court considers the question of whether so-called assault weapon bans are constitutional or not.

The brief from the Sandy Hook relatives is unusually personal, describing the agonizing wait some had for news of their children after the 2012 shooting and the devastating wounds some of the victims suffered.

The shooting claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six staff members at the school. It remains one of the worst school shootings in the nation’s history. The shooter used an AR-15 with a large-capacity magazine to carry out the attack.

Sandy Hook Promise was founded by the parents of Dylan Hockley, 6, who was killed in the shooting, and the husband of Mary Sherlach, a school psychologist, who also was slain. The group works to prevent school shootings.

Nicole Hockley, Dylan’s mother and the CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, said the group supports the right to bear arms, but that the lethality of the AR-15 makes it a particularly dangerous weapon.

During the Sandy Hook shooting, the gunman fired 154 rounds in five minutes. The group says assault rifles have been used in six mass shootings at schools since Sandy Hook.

“We made a promise to protect our surviving children and honor the legacy of those who died, but also do whatever we can to prevent future tragedies,” Hockley said. “We believe very strongly after Sandy Hook that the people of Connecticut came together and did what free people in a free state are supposed to do. Through their elected representatives, they decided how to best protect their citizens and kids. That right belongs to every state.”

In short, they don't have an answer, only their very strong and somewhat understandable, even if completely irrelevant, feelings on the issue. 

This is far from the only group of parents that has filed an amicus brief. Groups from Parkland and the Annunciation Catholic School shooting, for example, have also filed briefs.

Let's not forget that the Sandy Hook killer murdered his own mother to get her gun, which he then used on innocent school children. Ask yourself how in the world do you stop that kind of evil? The truth is that there was no armed resistance at Sandy Hook, so he could have taken his sweet time with any other firearm and killed just as many people.

That's because the problem isn't what kind of guns are or aren't available, but what we do in the face of such horrific evil.

But that's not something the Supreme Court will answer, and the feelings of these parents might be understandable to some degree, but they're still irrelevant when it comes down to the constitutionality of gun rights. Especially since incorporation of our rights via the 14th Amendment makes it remarkably clear that the Second Amendment restricts what states can and can't do on matters of civil liberties.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun-grabbing schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.