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Today marks the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and President Obama honored the victims by holding a moment of silence and calling for stricter gun control.

In his weekly address, the commander in chief said “we haven’t yet done enough to make our communities and our country safer.”

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“Newtown is a town like so many of our hometowns,” he said. “The victims were educators and kids that could have been any of our own, and our hearts were broken for the families that lost a piece of their heart, for the communities changed forever; for the survivors, so young, whose innocence was torn away far too soon.”

“We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds. We have to do everything we can to protect our children from harm and make them feel loved, and valued, and cared for,” he added. “As a nation, we can’t stop every act of violence. We can’t heal every troubled mind. But if we want to live in a country where we can go to work, send our kids to school, and walk our streets free from fear, we have to keep trying. We have to keep caring. We have to treat every child like they’re our child. Like those in Sandy Hook, we must choose love. And together, we must make a change.”

The President and First Lady Michelle also participated in a candle lighting ceremony in White House Map Room. They lit 26 candles to remember each of the victims, followed but the moment of silence.

The shooter Adam Lanza, who also killed his mother before the massacre, fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members on December 14, 2012.

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Newtown officials requested for media outlets not to come to their city during this time of grief. Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra asked reporters to allow residents “the time to be alone and quiet, with time for personal and communal reflection.”

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