WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) - It's been 12 years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, shocked the country. A gunman killed twenty first graders and six educators. "My mom was a second grade teacher at Sandy Hook school and by chance, she and her students were able to walk out of that building," Cali Taylor, Newtown Action Alliance Co-Chair said. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and other lawmakers, advocates, and survivors look back at the losses from gun violence.  "You're being here is a powerful reminder of that obligation to stop gun violence in the United States of America," Blumenthal said. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) says no words can ever heal the wounds. "Our hearts ache for the parents, the grandparents, the sisters, the brothers, the friends, the moms, the dads, relatives whose lives really will never be the same," DeLauro said. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) says the progress made against gun violence is because of these advocates, survivors, and families of victims. "Having lost a child, to turn that into something good, turn it into advocacy, to turn that into the demands that someone else's child might not suffer the same, same fate. But you did," Himes said. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) helped pass a bipartisan gun bill two years ago and promises to do more. "Not a single one of us is going to rest until there is not a single shooting in a city anywhere across this country that our kids are safe wherever they go, from a church to a shopping mall to a school," Murphy said.