A national moment of silence was observed today for the victims of the unspeakable tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary school. Last Friday, 20-year old Adam Lanza entered the elementary school and opened fire, taking the lives of twenty children and six adults before killing himself. This senseless tragedy has the whole of the nation on edge for the safety of our children collectively and has inspired dialogue surrounding gun laws.
To show respect for those innocent lives lost, many websites went dark for a moment at 9:30 a.m. Many sites, including Huffington Post, AOL and CNN participated in the national moment of silence movement today. Upward of 100,000 people chose to honor the victims by participating on the Causes.com page for the Web Goes Silent campaign. The website, causes.com, is a new site that uses social media to raise awareness and raise money for various charities and causes. The founder, Ron Conway, was joined by celebrities Ryan Seacrest and Britney Spears to help launch the national moment of silence campaign.
While President Obama didn’t participate in the moment of silence web movement, he did observe a moment of silence at the White House at 9:30 a.m.
Many took to social networks, like Twitter, to inform their followers of their intent to observe a moment of silence for the victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting. The hastag #momentforSandyHook was a trending phrase, signaling the movement to use silence to honor those slain.
Calls for more stringent gun laws have increased in the wake of the school shooting tragedy. The creator of causes.com, celebrities and everyday citizens have began to demand government officials consider enacting tougher gun control laws. The New York Times ran an ad that featured several celebrities and other activists calling attention to the need for gun law reforms. The ad was constructed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a lobbying group with more than 700 U.S. mayors. The group formed after the Aurora, Colorado shooting earlier this year and their first campaign was the Demand A Plan campaign.
Naturally, after this national tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group has seen a surge in support and participation from those looking to stop another tragedy of this magnitude before it happens again.
