Statement by NDP leader Tom Mulcair on the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School

We are all in shock today at the senseless and tragic school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The images of pain and fear that we see today are difficult to comprehend. Schools are meant to be safe environments where children learn, grow and are nurtured. To see so many children targeted like this is an affront to everything we hold dear.

There will be time to debate what went wrong and how such a tragedy can be prevented. But today, New Democrats join Canadians in expressing our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims—and in hugging our own children a little tighter.