Mark and Jackie Barden, with their children Natalie and James, stand together as President Barack Obama speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 17, 2013 (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Two Newtown residents participating in a White House forum on gun violence Thursday morning were given the rapt attention of the panel.
“Before 12/14/2012, before we lost our sweet little Daniel, before he was killed, I was not engaged on this issue,” Mark Barden said.
Barden, one of the organizers of Sandy Hook Promise, was honored as a “Champion of Change” at the conference.
Sandy Hook Promise brings the issue to grass roots, Barden said. Conversations at the community level can influence state and national policy,” he said.
Read more about Sandy Hook Promise here.
Sarah Clements, a Newtown High senior and a junior co-founder of the Newtown Action Alliance, told the panel that gun violence “is killing our generation.
“A month after the shooting I went to a march in Washington .. I saw it was bigger than my family, than my town,” Clements said.
Young people need to be brought to the table, to bridge the gap, between policy and the public it affects, she said. Gang violence in Hartford and a mass shooting in a mostly-white suburb are afected by the same issue.
“When President Obama came to Newtown all of the clergy from every denomination in town literally held hands and said prayers together, and that hasn’t changed,” Clements said.
Earlier, Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barrack Obama, said that the administration has not given up on enacting tough gun control legislation, but “We’ll take it city by city, state by state”
Hearst Washington bureau chief David McCumber is covering the conference.
Check back for updates.