Mother of Newtown Shooting Survivors Urges Congress To Pass Stricter Gun Laws After Sandy Hook
A Newtown, Conn., woman who had two children survive the Sandy Hook massacre has written a letter revealing the nightmares her daughters have had each night. She says her daughters can't move on from that tragic Dec. 14 day.
Carrie Battaglia’s note, which she posted on the Newtown Action Alliance website, burns with a mother’s fury, the New York Daily Mail wrote.
She wrote that her 6-year-old daughter huddled along with 14 of her peers as Lanza unleashed carnage in the room next to hers.
“She heard everything. Shooting. Screaming. Pleading. She was sure she was going to die that day and did not want to die for Christmas,” Battaglia, 40, wrote.
“Imagine what this must have been like.”
Her 6-year-old daughter suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, the Daily News reported. The girl is easily alarmed by noises and has difficulty sleeping.
“Almost every night she’s awake with nightmares -- sometimes two a night. That’s probably the worst part now, she’s afraid to go to sleep,” Battaglia told the website.
“Many times the dream is in the school ... someone, something is getting killed.”
But daytime isn’t much easier for the young survivor.
“During indoor recess my daughter would hear a loud noise and just put her hands over her ears and become withdrawn,” she said.
Battaglia’s oldest child, an 8-year-old third-grader, often relives how helpless she felt when she and other students took asylum in a nearby firehouse.
She still gets upset when she talks about losing her principal and the siblings of her friends,” said Battaglia. “It still affects her. Even the fact she could have lost her sister -- she gets upset about that as well.”
Both girls are seeing a therapist at their new school and making progress, Battaglia said.
Their mental health is what fuels Battaglia to persistently bombard politicians with letters, emails and phone calls that urge them to pass stricter gun control measures.
“It’s time to stop catering to the gun owners and lobbyists and start caring about our children, our families, our teachers, our friends and our neighbors,” Battaglia said in her letter posted on the website.
“The NRA does not care about people, they care about money.”
Battaglia isn’t alone in the fight. She said many of the families who were devastated by Dec. 14 will continue to pursue more meaningful gun control.
“We’re not going to give up,” she said. “We’ll keep sending letters, calling (politicians) and we’re going to vote, make our voices heard.
“And if our lawmakers don’t make a change, we’ll elect people who will.”
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