Newtown mom wants voice in gun control discussion

Noah Pozner, 6, one of the mass shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn. / Rex Features via AP Images

NEWTOWN, Conn. The family of a boy shot dead in last month's elementary school massacre said Thursday it has been contacted by the White House regarding its desire to be heard in the discussion over gun control in Washington, D.C.

Alexis Haller, an uncle of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, said a White House official he met during President Barack Obama's visit to Newtown after the Dec. 14 shooting encouraged him to reach out if he had any concerns. He said he asked officials earlier this month if victims' families would be informed of initiatives stemming from the massacre and finally heard back Thursday evening about consultations between the White House and families.

A White House spokesman said Thursday the Newtown families will have the chance to share their views before Obama makes any decisions.

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"There is no perspective more meaningful in this process than that of a parent who has lost a child," spokesman Matt Lehrich said in an emailed statement.

Noah, who loved to read and to figure out how things worked mechanically, was among 20 first-graders killed by the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary. His twin sister, Arielle, was assigned to a different classroom and survived the shooting. Their mother, Veronique Pozner, had said she wondered why she hadn't received more information about legislative proposals regarding guns in the weeks after the shooting.

"As the mother of a six year old victim of a cold-blooded massacre of school children, I am puzzled and disappointed by the fact that I have had no information or opportunity to be heard regarding the upcoming legislative proposal in Washington," she said in a statement released earlier by Haller, her brother.

Haller said the family has ideas it wants to share with the White House and wants to be part of the discussion about the response to the school massacre, in which the gunman also killed six adults before committing suicide.

"I think the families have an important voice, and I think those voices need to be heard by the people who are proposing the reforms," said Haller, who stressed he was speaking for only his family.

The Obama administration is assembling proposals to curb gun violence that would include a ban on sales of combat-style weapons, limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines and universal background checks for gun buyers.

The Sandy Hook gunman used weapons owned by his mother and killed her at their home before going to the school.

[persesthagreek]

No gun law would have stopped this from happening!

"The Sandy Hook gunman used weapons owned by his mother and killed her at their home before going to the school."

The most important take on this article.

[BUDDYofPA]

biforkgirl says - Your comment needs to be repeated and repeated and repeated again and again...and the NRA needs to recite it at the openinof each ad everyone of their EVIL Meetings !!!

bigforkgirl says:First, I can't imagine the pain the families of the Newtown face each and every day, and during the night when they cannot sleep. Please do not read what I am about to say if you have suffered trauma.
I dare each poster who wants our gun laws to continue as they are to imagine this little boy in a casket, with a cloth covering his lower face because one of the 11 bullets that hit him tore off his jaw. Another tore apart one hand.
The crime scene was so awful that several first responders passed out. Some cannot work. Other are wracked with post traumatic symptoms. So posters who want nothing to change, get over it, because we will not rest until NO other child is slaughtered by a lone gunman wielding a weapon only suitable for war. And don't need the baloney that a semi automatic trigger needs to be squeezed for each bullet. It took seconds for the gunman to slaughter these children.

[razster1]

Guess what nothing is going to change either way and so many examples are out there of why! You should feel angry that listening to self serving criminals like Cuomo who is looking to run in 2016 and using this trajedy as a launching point. And the rest like i can have a pistol Feinstein but nobody else can..Explain why it is bad for anyone else but her. Because she thinks she is important and above the law or her view of it. her is why nothing will change the crooks still will have them, get them and use them through the big city avenues that have always existed.

Drugs for instance have been banned and TOTALLY illegal for ever and has that worked? Honestly has it even slowed drugs...NOOO Drug trade is a 400 Billion dollar business per year..That is larger than half the worlds nations GNP..are you with me So already we have failed. Of that over 100 Billion of that flows through the US every year. 100 Billion dollars!!! Keep in mind all illegal totally. Now how do drugs play in lets look at a stat from 2000 I think it is comparing drug deaths and homicides.
Illicit Drugs (2000) 17,0004
Homicide 16,799 very interesting numbers are they not. In fact drugs are a real problem in schools and no doubt do and are linked directly to murders. That said Illegal, I mean true illegal guns, the full autos follow the drug trade right to out big market cities which is exactly where new FBI data points as the epicenter of statistics on gun violence. Those being cities of 250,000 and more. We are so worried about the physical appearance of a weapon or the occasional very tragic mass shooting of the mentally ill variety perp, that the trade and supply continues unabated and has for decades. Wake up, you should feel po'd that these politicians treat your psyche like you are nobodies.. The only laws that would make sense would be on the cities. I cannot on a pistol permit in NYS carry in NYC but if you go down there to buy you can walk out with anything you want..everyone knows that including your law makers. No I do not support our gun laws as lain out now they will not work.

[GuildsfordBrothers]

More than 40,000 new black rifles manufactured in the U.S. since the Newtown shooting:

blackriflecounter.tumblr.com

[razster1]

Now that sounds almost prejudice to me and what effect is that, we have pink ARs we have Green, black, laminates of all colors for all stocks, so black kills right? in broad day light black kills more efficiently than any other color ..is that your point,I am giving you more credit than you deserve probably i just cannot tell if this is a facetious comment of real... So a red colored AR is less likely to kill than a black stocked one? PLEASSSE! I have black synthetic stocked standard rifles we use to hunt with for several reasons. one, wood gets wet and swells when hunting in inclimate weather. when that stock swells you have added pressure points on the barrel, hard points we call them. When a bullet is fired there is dynamic twist if you will of the barrel as the bullet travels up it. The less hard points you have either one solid one like when we glass a stock or one solid point stud placed mid gun usually. This is free floating the barrel for accuracy, much better than many inconsistent points. reason two, many people purchase expensive rifles with beautiful stocks that have tiger maple design etc but when hunting you do not prefer wood or nice wood as it will get dug up, scraped walking through brush, or when put in the trunk for transport. Also the hunting rifle is light weight and for hunting purposes we use black for anti glare and night hunting, but more glare. As athletes place the black sun shield paint under their eys to stop the reflection or face paint so your white skin. No there is no sinister scheme in black synthetic stocks and the shooter is the determining factor on accuracy.

[marionmiranda]

Why these events happen? Rapid fire weapons and the people who have them must suffer from mental illness,like'Paranoia'for one. The only reason someone would want these assault weapons is to kill human beings !

[razster1]

Your take is response enough to call into question your stability

[WomanforPeaceSanity]

I want to see all militarized weapons and the high capacity ammo clips banned from the streets of United States of America, and the ones already out there on our streets bought back by the government. this has worked in Australia. It can work here! Screw the fanatics in the NRA!

[tsigili]

A grieving parent has no ability to be at all objective.

[bew13]

A grieving parent has a unique perspective, which needs to be heard. You cannot come to a reasonable solution by barring those who might disagree with your view.

[myth1958]

This heart-breaking story hits parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles squarely, revealing our worst fears for our kids in a tough world. The cold-blooded responses too many gun rights proponents have been spouting off lately ("I'm going to kill some people" said a prominent former police officer about efforts to control assault rifles). This epic tragedy will not the be last, for too many guns are in too many unreliable hands - with absolutely no way to know who and where they are. THE SECOND NEEDS AMENDMENT. The hard and easy answer: we must reform gun rights to match today's world, not one from the eighteenth century that had no clue what was coming. Nothing drastic would pass Congress and 38 state legislatures. But doing nothing because it's too hard is a disgrace to the memory of those kids in Sandy Hook and the ten thousand others who will die by guns in the next year.

[legalbutunjust]

CLOSETHIPPY1 says:

According to the NRA mindset if I'm robbed then it's my fault for not having a gun to prevent the roberry. Or if I had a gun but couldn't defend myself then it's my fault for not having trained well. It's my fault not being mindful of my surrounding 24/7 so I can sense an assault is about to happen and be ready for it.
May the best shooter win.
In the meantime the country is saturated with guns and it's my fault for not buying one and be ready for when a shootout happens.
The NRA should be declared a pathological mind disorder and treated as such.

-----------------

Thank you.

[legalbutunjust]

And might I add that while I am not sure that your interpretation is much alike with the specific messaging of the NRA, I just love how its members and the gun industry backers cry foul whenever anyone suggests heightening restrictions by requiring insurance or making assault weapons more expensive, or otherwise strongly curtailing their production: 'Oh no, no way, that would adversely effect poor gun owners and those living in impoverished areas, and render them unduly defenseless and without an ample means to be protected in the areas where such guns are perhaps most needed in the home.'

They'll all say this, if you debate them strongly enough on the limits that OUGHT TO be in place concerning a SANE and prudent approach to the Second Amendment. That's is where they will end up, conservatives and right wingers proclaiming to give a crap about the poor and the plight of the urban ghetto and the downtrodden. Total BS.

Since when has the NRA ever given a damn about the poor, be them "criminals" or otherwise? Never.

[bigforkgirl]

First, I can't imagine the pain the families of the Newtown face each and every day, and during the night when they cannot sleep. Please do not read what I am about to say if you have suffered trauma.
I dare each poster who wants our gun laws to continue as they are to imagine this little boy in a casket, with a cloth covering his lower face because one of the 11 bullets that hit him tore off his jaw. Another tore apart one hand.
The crime scene was so awful that several first responders passed out. Some cannot work. Other are wracked with post traumatic symptoms. So posters who want nothing to change, get over it, because we will not rest until NO other child is slaughtered by a lone gunman wielding a weapon only suitable for war. And don't me the baloney that a semi automatic trigger needs to be squeezed for each bullet. It took seconds for the gunman to slaughter these children.

[AngieMR]

AMEN!!!

[razster1]

watch this link for the truth www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa98FHuaU0

[logictoo]

Background check in order to buy alcohol. Three DUI's you start walking. Every time to meet a car on the rod it is like a loaded gun pointed at you, all the driver has to do is pull the trigger--Is he drunk, drugs mentally unstable?

[bew13]

It might be a good idea to be able to identify those with DUI convictions and deny them the ability to purchase alcohol, since they have demonstrated that they cannot handle it and/or make bad decisions while using it.