On Sandy Hook Anniversary, NRA Head Wayne LaPierre Was At The White House Christmas Party

Dec. 14, 2017 marked the 5-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which left 20 children and 6 school staffers dead.

While lawmakers across the country were honoring the victims and their loved ones, National Rifle Association head Wayne LaPierre was attending the White House's annual Christmas party.

Jane Dougherty, whose sister, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, was killed in the shooting, says she wasn't shocked at LaPierre's presence at the event and the White House's silence on the 5-year mark.

"I found it reprehensible and insensitive," Dougherty, who is a member of the Everytown Survivor Network, told Refinery29 in an interview.

Although it's unclear if Trump and LaPierre even interacted at the event (the White House hosts several events during the holiday season with hundreds of guests in attendance), Trump did not commemorate the anniversary, at least publicly.

The president did however tweet about tax cuts 6 times.

Sherlach was in a meeting when she heard gunfire and ran towards it, trying to stop shooter Adam Lanza.

After the massacre, LaPierre suggested that if teachers were armed, the shooting could have possibly been stopped. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said at the time.

"My sister was not there to be a first responder. She was there to nurture and help children," Dougherty said. "Knowing my sister, knowing how she was dedicated to those children, I know that she thought she could protect those children. It is cowardly to expect our teachers to respond to gun violence when our legislators don't have the courage to do so."

According to Dougherty, the Trump administration is not doing anything to stop gun violence, but instead taking steps to make things worse — like the House's concealed carry reciprocity bill.

Nicole Hockley, who lost her six-year-old son Dylan in the shooting, posted on Facebook about what she called the "appalling lack of humanity and decency" of Pierre's invitation to the event.

"Not only did he [President Donald Trump] ignore the 5-year remembrance completely — not even a single tweet — he slapped us all in the face by having none other than NRA President Wayne LaPierre at his White House Christmas party that night," Hockley wrote.

"I would request an apology," Hockley continued. "But I'm not sure there are any hearts in the White House that would understand why an apology is the least they could do."

"I want people to know what she did, I want the administration to know what she did. I want elected leaders to know what she did and it's time for them to have the courage she did," Dougherty said of her sister.

Despite the sheer horror of the attack, and there being over 1,500 mass shootings since Sandy Hook, Congress has yet to pass any meaningful legislation to curb gun violence.