Three Questions About…Gun Safety

Thirteen years after the Sandy Hook tragedy, survivor Abbey Clements reflects on creating a gun safety organization “for teachers by teachers.” 

By Ann Vettikkal

For more than a decade after elementary school teacher Abbey Clements survived the Sandy Hook mass shooting—during which she protected and distracted her students from the gunshots thundering through the school—she worked overtime. During the weekdays, she continued to teach second grade in Newtown, Connecticut. And in her off hours, she was a fierce advocate in the movement to end gun violence. Clements trained volunteers, planned vigils, and found creative ways to engage people on the issue. “I was waiting for an educator-focused group to emerge,” Clements said, “and it just wasn’t happening.” 

The last straw was November 30, 2021, when a school shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan, took the lives of four students. Clements remembers expressing frustration in a group chat with Sarah Lerner, a teacher who survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting in Florida, and Sari Beth Rosenberg, an educator and activist in New York City. The three went on to found Teachers Unify, an organization “for teachers by teachers” that aims to involve educators in the demand for national gun safety. We talked to Clements about what she’s doing—and what needs to change.

The 13th anniversary of Sandy Hook is this weekend. How has the movement to end gun violence changed since the Sandy Hook tragedy?

What’s changed the most is that many factions of our society have come together to raise their voice on this issue. You see people coming up from the medical field. You see clergy bonding together, speaking out about this. [You see] organizing by students….What hasn’t changed, or what perhaps has gotten worse, is we’ve identified that guns are the leading cause of death for children in America. So, although we’ve seen lots of different factions of our society stepping up, we haven’t seen [the] legislation, and culture change, that we need. Data clearly shows that states with common sense legislation have fewer gun tragedies, [but we also] know that legislation alone won’t end this public health crisis. An estimated 4.6 million children live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm, and we also know that about three-fourths of school shooters get their gun from home or from a family member or relative. A culture shift could save so many lives.

What work is Teachers Unify focusing on right now?

Teachers are among the most trusted voices, according to a 2025 Gallup poll, just under nurses. But in terms of policy and what’s best for kids, our voices just haven’t been included in the conversation…The second graders who endured the tragedy with me are now college students, and they’re watching these shootings happen over and over again, and I refuse to give up on them. Teachers have so much to offer on this issue. We just haven’t been intentionally brought into the movement until now. And so the mission of Teachers Unify is to empower educators to demand that communities are safe from gun violence, and that first step is for us to see ourselves as the experts we are.

We know what’s best for kids. We were trained. [That’s why we need to get] a seat at the table for these vital conversations. That looks like presenting at conferences and panels across the country, and we just launched an unprecedented crisis intervention and support team.  [This is a team of] school shooting survivors and clinicians who have lived experience responding to communities after gun violence. [They] can come into school communities, and really work with the staff to help them move forward. 

What are some things people can do to support these efforts?

People can encourage their school leaders, their kids, school officials, administrators, superintendents, town officials to send secure firearm storage information home with kids from school. There are a few states doing this, but this is, unfortunately, not common practice, because this issue is seen as partisan when it is a public health crisis. So parents and allies can help start that conversation through their PTAs. The National PTA is a big supporter of secure firearms storage, and I feel like this is our biggest chance for widespread change, if we could normalize education around this and get the schools to send out periodic reminders, especially during the holidays. 

This interview has been condensed and edited.