Sandy Hook school shooting: what happened in Connecticut in 2012 - and who were shooter Adam Lanza’s victims?

The families of those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have called for action on gun controls after what has unfolded in Texas.

The attack which took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas has left 19 children and two adults dead.

Lone gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos opened fire on children and students with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle, which he legally purchased after his 18th birthday.

The Texas shooting has been the 27th attack on a school in 2022.

Relatives of those killed in the Sandy Hook shooting have taken to social media to ask why, a decade on, nothing has changed and children are still unsafe in their classrooms.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Sandy Hook shooting and what families have said.

What happened in Sandy Hook Elementary School?

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place in December 2012.

America is no stranger to such attacks, but this was the first incident where the people targeted were young children.

Lone gunman Adam Lanza, murdered his mother before travelling to the elementary school and killing six adults and 20 children.

Lanza eventually turned the gun on himself before the police could apprehend him.

He had used three guns in the attack, including: a semi automatic .223-calibre rifle made by Bushmaster, and two handguns.

The weapons had legally been purchased by Lanza’s mother.

Sandy Hook is the worst school shooting in America’s history, with the new shooting in Texas coming in second.

In 2014 families of nine of the children killed and one teacher who survived filed a wrongful death suit against the gun manufacturer Remington who made Bushmaster.

In 2022, Remington settled for an estimated $73 million.

Who were the victims at Sandy Hook?

Six adults and 20 children were killed during the Sandy Hook massacre.

The children were aged between just six and seven-years-old.

Adults killed included the school principal, teachers and therapist.

Here is a complete list of the victims:

Allison Wyatt

Ana Marquez-Greene

Anne Marie Murphy (Teacher)

Avielle Richman

Benjamin Wheeler

Caroline Previdi

Catherine Hubbard

Charlotte Bacon

Chase Kowalski

Daniel Barden

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung (Principal)

Dylan Hockley

Emilie Parker

Grace McDonnell

Jack Pinto

James Mattioli

Jesse Lewis

Jessica Rekos

Josephine Gay

Lauren Rousseau (Teacher)

Madeleine Hsu

Mary Sherlach (Psychologist)

Noah Pozner

Olivia Engel

Rachel D’Avino (Therapist)

Victoria Soto (Teacher)

What have the families said about the Texas school shooting?

Families of those killed at Sandy Hook have pleaded for gun controls to be brought in to protect school children.

Erica Leslie Lafferty, whose mother was killed in the shooting, took to Twitter.

Lafferty tweeted: “Thoughts and prayers didn’t bring my mother back after she was gunned down in a hallway at Sandy Hook.

“It is beyond time to take action.”

Speaking later on CNN she added: “These families in that community are walking into hell and there is definitely a network of people out there who have lived it, who are stepping up to support them.

“But it’s not going to just go away. Not for the families, not for the community. It’s life-changing. It’s devastating. It’s traumatising, and every single time it happens, it brings it back like it was yesterday.”

Parents who also lost their children in the 2018 Parkland shooting expressed their anger that things had not changed.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was killed in the massacre appeared on MSNBC to plead for action.

He said: “People failed. I’m done. They f**king failed our kids again, OK? I’m done. I’ve had it. How many more times?”

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr gave an emotive speech during a press conference after the Texas shooting.

The coach looked visibly distressed as he said: “When are we going to do something?”

Adding: “I’m tired, I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there… I’m so tired of the moments of silence, enough.”

Why haven’t gun laws in America changed?

Changing gun laws in America is incredibly difficult due to the second amendment in the US constitution, which allows citizens the right to bear arms.

There are powerful gun groups, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) that lobby against gun controls.

After the Sandy Hook massacre, former President Barack Obama tried to introduce a bi-partisan bill that would introduce stricter background checks for purchasing a gun.

The bill failed in the Republican controlled senate by only five votes.

At the time Obama stated that it was a “pretty shameful day.”