School Shooting in Colorado, One Year After Newtown

By Fusion Staff | December 13, 2013 | 7:15pm

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Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. And twelve months later, we are talking about another school shooting.

On Friday, there was a shooting at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo.

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The suspect, a current student at Arapahoe High School, walked into the school building with a shotgun looking for an individual teacher, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told reporters on Friday. He made no effort to hide or conceal the weapon.

After discovering he was the target, the teacher left the school. Robinson said that was a “very wise tactical decision” to try and lure the shooter out of the school.

During the situation, another student was shot and wounded. That student has been transported to a local hospital in serious condition. Another student suffered minor injuries, potentially from a gunshot.

The suspected shooter was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound about 20 minutes after the shooting was called into police. Law enforcement knows the identity of the suspected shooter, but is not releasing it to the public. Investigators are currently with the suspect’s family.

An active shooter protocol was put into place, and Arapahoe High School was evacuated and secured. Local law enforcement, the FBI and ATF responded to the situation, according to ABC News.

Sheriff Robinson said there is no apparent connection between this shooting and last year’s in Connecticut.

“Absolutely no indication at all that this was tied to Sandy Hook,” he said.

The school is just over eight miles from Columbine High School, where 15 people were killed in a mass shooting in 1999. And an Aurora, Colo. movie theater where 12 people were shot and killed last year during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises is just 16 miles away.

Cameron Azzam, a senior at Arapahoe High School, said that his generation is accustomed to the potential threat of mass shootings.

“I’d rather have it where we’d be prepared for it, if it happens,” he told Fusion. “But I think we need to work on how we prevent it, not be prepared for it.”

Almost one year ago, the Newtown shooting took the lives of 26 people inside the school, including 20 children. It was so shocking that many predicted it would spark Congress to pass tougher gun laws.

But one year later, lawmakers haven’t approved any significant gun-law changes. Gun control activists are keeping up their fight, but they face a powerful opponent in the gun rights lobby, specifically the National Rifle Association.

“I know it’s not a matter of if it happens. It’s a matter of when. This absolutely keeps me going,” Nicole Hockley, a Newtown parent, told the Associated Press this week. “No matter how much tragedy affects you, you have to find a way forward. You have to invest in life.”

Jordan Fabian is Fusion’s politics editor, writing about campaigns, Congress, immigration, and more. When he’s not working, you can find him at the ice rink or at home with his wife, Melissa.