Leonard Pozner: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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==Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting==

On December 14, 2012, 20 year old Adam Lanza took a Bushmaster XM-15 semi-automatic rifle into Sandy Hook Elementary school and killed 20 grade one children and 6 teachers before committing suicide by shooting himself. One of the children killed was Pozner's six-year-old son Noah.<ref name="courant">{{cite web |last1=Felson |first1=Leonard |title=A Father Combats Conspiracy Theorists' 'Mob Hate,' And Honors The Truth About Sandy Hook |url=https://www.courant.com/hartford-magazine/hc-hm-leonard-pozner-honr-20190224-20190219-4ylgafrxerh5djcqsbhk67ekba-story.html |website=courant.com |date=19 February 2019 |publisher=Hartford Courant |accessdate=20 February 2019}}</ref> Shortly afterwards, [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theorists]] used [[Facebook]], [[YouTube]], [[blogs]] and other social media platforms to claim the massacre was a hoax and a [[false flag]] operation and that the victims were actually [[crisis actors]]. Among them was radio-show host [[Alex Jones]], who repeatedly used the conspiracy theory to tell the audience listening to his [[InfoWars]] radio program to rise up and "find out the truth", insisting that the shooting was staged by the federal government to destroy the [[Second Amendment]] and citizens' right to bear arms.<ref name="courant"/>

While mourning the loss of their children, Pozner and the other victims' families had to endure accusations that their children were not dead, and that the tragedy was a fraud designed to undermine Americans' gun rights.<ref name ="guardian-beckett">{{cite web |last1=Beckett |first1=Lois |title=Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist gets prison time for threatening victim's family |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/09/sandy-hook-conspiracy-theorist-death-threats-prison |website=theguardian.com |date=9 June 2017 |publisher= Guardian News & Media Limited |accessdate=20 February 2019}}</ref> They received death threats and in-person, online and phone call harassment from people who took up the call from Jones and others. In response, Pozner began reporting harassing and defaming content and claims about him and his family, as well as posts and videos using photos (often defaced) of his son.<ref name=Latimes>{{cite web |last1=Demick |first1=Barbara |title=In an age of 'alternative facts,' a massacre of schoolchildren is called a hoax |url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sandy-hook-conspiracy-20170203-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=3 February 2017 |accessdate=7 July 2019}}</ref> "I have to absolutely defend the memory of my son — I have no choice" he said. "I know how some of these theories build up. They don't fade away and the more time they spend online, the more accepted they become. The JFK conspiracy theory in the US is very accepted. Conspiracy theories erase history, they erase our memories, and how will this event (Sandy Hook) be remembered a hundred years from now? So I think it's important, the work that I'm doing now."<ref name="ABC">{{cite web |last1=Millar |first1=Lisa |title=Sandy Hook massacre victims' parents harassed by 'truthers', told children never existed |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-28/sandy-hook-massacre-victims-parents-harassed-by-truthers/7546536 |website=abc.net.au |date=27 June 2016 |publisher=ABC |accessdate=22 February 2019}}</ref>