Sandy Hook Elementary School Library Clerk 'Horrified' By Oregon College Shooting
NEWTOWN, CONN. (CBSNewYork) -- Connecticut's two U.S. senators publicly asked gun sellers to tighten up loopholes in their background check procedures on Friday.
A glitch in the existing law allows some sales to go through before criminal histories can be completed.
As CBS2's Lou Young reported, Thursday's mass shooting at a college campus in Oregon was just another stop on a continuum of horror for someone who was at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 first-graders and six staff members were gunned down three years ago.
"It's like the regular routine. I'm having the same conversation again; I'm horrified again," said Newtown resident Mary Ann Jacobs.
Jacobs is a library clerk at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where many people thought the mass shooting would have been the turning point in a fight for national gun control legislation. But it hasn't worked out that way.
"I come from a family who believes in Second Amendment rights. My husband is a sportsman, he's disgusted," said Jacobs.
People all over seem almost numb from the repetitive nature of the unfolding gun violence, Young reported.
"I go to college, so I feel unsafe on campus," said Port Chester resident Sara Summa.
"I do feel vulnerable to a certain extent because of access people have to it," said White Plains resident Robert Harris.
"It's pretty upsetting. There's so much of it going on. It seems like a weekly basis," said Rye Brook resident Josh Rogull.
There have been at least 142 school shootings in America since the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, according to Everytown.org.
That is an average of nearly one per week.
The people in Newtown still fight to keep the memory of their tragedy alive.
In Fairfield for instance, there's a beach playground named for one of the youngest victims.
Jessica Rekos would be 9 years old if she had lived. The playground -- the ninth of 26 such memorials -- is a reminder of just what was lost and how little has changed, Young reported.
"More and more people are disgusted and are standing up and are saying 'enough is enough, it has to stop,'" said Jacobs. "None of us are helpless, we have to have the courage to act."
Jacobs said she had imagined though, that the tipping point would have been reached by now.
The National Rifle Association has consistently resisted any modification of current gun background check laws, despite what critics claim are numerous loopholes.
