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As desperation over America's gun-violence crisis continues to escalate in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, some have attempted to resort to shock value to inspire change by showing graphic autopsy photos of mass-shooting victims.
One family member of a victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre is speaking out on the issue, begging people to stop asking for such disturbing and private content.
Erin Lafferty is the daughter of Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, site of the deadliest school shooting in American history.
In the wake of Uvalde, Lafferty says she has been bombarded with media requests for autopsy photos of her mother by gun-control activists—and she's had enough.
She took to Twitter recently with a pointed message for those showing what she considers a shocking lack of respect for victims' families' grief and privacy.
See her tweet below.
STOP ASKING ME FOR AUTOPSY PHOTOS.
The audacity of those who are asking and demanding Sandy Hook crime scene photos to be released is unfathomable. I envy those who don’t and can’t understand the weight of this ask.
— Erica Leslie Lafferty (@ericalaff) May 31, 2022
Lafferty wrote:
"STOP ASKING ME FOR AUTOPSY PHOTOS."
"The audacity of those who are asking and demanding Sandy Hook crime scene photos to be released is unfathomable."
"I envy those who don’t and can’t understand the weight of this ask."
Lafferty went on to rail against the media, legislators and activists demanding families of the dead do more than they have.
“Release the photos.” That’s what families like mine are being asked to do. To what end? Because our decimated loved ones will persuade lawmakers who have shown no willingness to be persuaded?
— Erica Leslie Lafferty (@ericalaff) May 31, 2022
Lafferty wrote:
"It is not my job to step up and do more..."
"...It is the job of our elected leaders to protect us and time and time again, they fail us."
"'Release the photos'..."
"...To what end?"
"Because our decimated loved ones will persuade lawmakers who have shown no willingness to be persuaded?"
Lafferty added she believes releasing such photos will have no impact other than traumatizing families of the dead and the public because, she says, "gun lobby-backed lawmakers have seen plenty of grief and horror and have not been moved."
Speaking to HuffPost, Lafferty said her Twitter thread was a desperate attempt to get people, especially the media, to respect the grief and anger of shooting victims' families.
She told HuffPost:
"I needed an outlet for my anger. And I needed journalists specifically to pay attention to what the hell I had to say."
"...[W]e have trusted you and given you our tears and our stories, and our family members and their stories."
"And now, [reporters] have the audacity to ask for more from us, not from people who actually make a difference, but from people who are still grieving something that happened 10 years ago."
On Twitter, many shared Lafferty's outrage.
Thread. Find some decency & empathy without the trauma porn you ghouls https://t.co/g074lEMwmf
— Michelle_BYoung (@michelle_byoung) June 1, 2022
Thread. Please stop. https://t.co/lAErJJITcN
— Rabbi Ruti Regan 🏳️🌈🇺🇸 (@RutiRegan) June 1, 2022
If simply knowing children and their teachers’ bodies were ravaged by bullets isn’t enough to change a mind about the need for immediate action, nothing will.
I beg us to please, please stop asking folks who had everything stolen for more. It’s not righteous or good. It’s evil. https://t.co/SeJdks3sEw
— Chanea (sha-nay) or The Madwoman in the Classroom (@heymrsbond) June 1, 2022
Listen to survivors. Stop asking more than they've already given us. https://t.co/ZydRWLQ9gl
— Taylor Maxwell (@TaylorMaxw) May 31, 2022
Read every word of it. Erica has done so much upon the pain of loss of her mother. If we cannot act in the memory of her pain alone, but ask for more more more... shame unto us. https://t.co/2toIn594rG
— Brian Wasik (@BrianRWasik) June 1, 2022
Please, out of basic human decency, make demands of elected leaders, not grieving families. https://t.co/IzWBujmU3V
— Melissa Jones Pelczynski says text ACT to 644-33 (@MejoMelissa) May 31, 2022
The audacity to ask a parent for autopsy pics. It won't change minds like you thing it will. https://t.co/BqhtzDyU6s
— LBlakely (@lrblakely) May 31, 2022
THREAD.
I seriously cannot believe the number of op-Ed’s I have read this week that suggest sharing crime scene photos and other stunts in the hopes of persuading lawmakers who haven’t given a shit to this point. SICK. https://t.co/auRZvWrf8A
— ILiveJustUp28 (@ILiveJustUp28) June 1, 2022
This thread is outrageous. The audacity of some people. Certain records are best left sealed. I can’t imagine how traumatic it was for people who had to see the aftermath of any of these unspeakable tragedies. https://t.co/41Bdmid434
— Allen Glines (@AllenBGlines) May 31, 2022
The bereaved can choose the path they want in regards to how the image of their loved one is shared.
Stop making demands and calling for parents to 'be brave' with releasing photos and having open casket funerals. Demand more of our leaders.
Read every word. ⬇️ https://t.co/JLqd73ZCtQ
— Amanda Makulec MPH (@abmakulec) June 1, 2022
Lafferty has been a tireless activist for gun safety since her mother's murder, working as a program manager for the gun violence prevention nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, founded in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.
She credits survivors from other mass shootings for getting her through the first two years following Sandy Hook, and says her focus now is doing the same for those in Uvalde.
"Now it’s Sandy Hook’s turn, it is my turn to fight for these families. So that they don’t have to."
Twenty children and six adults were murdered at Sandy Hook, the deadliest school shooting in American history.