Obama reflects on ‘darkest day of my presidency’ nearly 10 years after Sandy Hook

Former President Barack Obama said he still considers the deadly school shooting that killed 20 children and six adults in 2012 to be “the darkest day of my presidency” as the 10th anniversary approaches the shooting.

“I consider December 14, 2012, the darkest day of my presidency,” Obama said Tuesday night at the 10-Year Remembrance event at the Sandy Hook Promise in New York City. “Like many other people, I felt not just sadness, but anger, anger at a world that could allow this.”

Sandy Hook Promise, started by several families who lost loved ones in the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting, is a nonprofit organization that aims to protect children from gun violence while teaching empathy in classrooms.

During his speech at the event, Obama praised the Sandy Hook Promise for preventing possible acts of gun violence.

Barack Obama at the Sandy Hook Promise Benefit held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on December 6, 2022 in New York City.

“You made sense where there was none,” Obama said. “When we were together in 2012, I said Newtown would be remembered for the way you looked after each other, the way you cared for each other and the way you loved each other.”

While gun violence continues to grow in the US, there have been glimmers of positive change over the past 10 years. Sandy Hook families won $73 million in a lawsuit this year against Remington Arms, which made the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used by the gunman in the massacre. It was the first time a gun manufacturer was held accountable for a shooting.

And the National Rifle Association (NRA), which saw its membership surge in early 2013 in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, has seen its leadership and political power crumble under the weight of mismanagement and greed over the past few years years.

Then there’s Alex Jones, the conspiracy host of “Infowars,” who has used his platform to mock the parents of dead children for years, falsely claiming they’re actors and that their loved ones never died. This year, he was finally held accountable for the torrent of abuse he brought to Sandy Hook families when he was ordered to pay more than $1 billion for his dangerous lies.

Earlier this year, 19 students and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas, in a shooting eerily similar to the one in Newtown. The following month, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill that improves background checks, addresses mental health care and places restrictions on gun purchases.

Obama tried a similar push to prevent gun violence in 2016 with a bill that would have improved background checks. He spoke through tears on the day as he implored Congress to act.

“We kind of get numb to it and start thinking, ‘This is normal,’” Obama said.

Instead, the former president was mocked by conservatives for his emotional request. The bill ultimately failed, thanks in part to pressure from the NRA and a small number of Democrats who voted against the bill in response to gun-loving voters in their states.

Obama wipes away tears as he speaks about the needless shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School during a press conference in the East Room of the White House January 5, 2016 in Washington, DC

In his speech on Tuesday, Obama said the work to reduce gun violence is not done.

“In 2022, there hasn’t been a week — not a single one — without a mass shooting somewhere in America,” he said. “We pretend that the best we can do for the families of Sandy Hook, Parkland and Virginia Tech and so many other communities is to knead our edges and then recite our thoughts and prayers when violence erupts again.”

Obama admits he still gets angry when he hears about the latest senseless shooting.

“Whether it’s in a church or a synagogue or a grocery store or a college campus or a house or a city street … I still feel angry,” he said. “And I hope you do too.”

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