Activists, those grieving hold a vigil at the White House

WASHINGTON – On Friday evening, activists and those wanting to offer support to the families and victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting gathered outside of the White House for a vigil.

Some held candles, while others held signs that called for stricter gun legislation.

“I thought it was another terrible tragedy, and that if we had sensible gun control it could have been prevented,” says Paula Durbin, who participated in the small vigil.

Eduardo Freas echoed Durbin’s sentiment.

“The press secretary said that we shouldn’t politicize this event, but it seems to me that we say that every time there is one of these gun massacres, and that maybe we should be politicizing them so that something can be done about gun violence,” says Freas.

The demonstration and vigil was organized after the second worst school shooting in U.S. history. Twenty elementary school children and six adults were shot at killed in Newtown, Conn.

“Thinking about these children and their families – I can’t even imagine,” says Alice Chen, another participant at Friday evening’s vigil. “I just had to come here and show some sign of solidarity with them.”

WTOP’s Kyle Cooper contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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