The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a tragic event that took place on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, USA. The shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, first killed his mother at their home before driving to the school, where he fatally shot 20 children aged between 6 and 7 years old, as well as 6 adult staff members. Lanza then took his own life as first responders arrived at the scene. The incident, one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, prompted widespread shock, grief, and outrage. It reignited debates on gun control, mental health care, and school safety measures. In the wake of the tragedy, several states passed new gun control laws, and the federal government proposed new measures to strengthen background checks and ban certain types of weapons and high-capacity magazines, although these efforts were met with significant resistance and were not uniformly successful. The Sandy Hook shooting also led to an increase in efforts to improve mental health care and awareness, as well as security measures in schools across the United States. Despite the changes made in response to the tragedy, the issue of gun violence in America remains a deeply divisive and complex ongoing problem -- with hundreds of mass shootings occurring every year, mostly in public spaces including schools, churches, malls, and grocery stores.