Police chief says Connecticut is a "model" for gun laws after Sandy Hook shooting prompted reform

The chief of police in a Connecticut city near Sandy Hook Elementary School said residents and legislators worked together to strengthen gun laws following the 2012 shooting at the school that killed 20 first graders and six educators. Now, "Connecticut is a model for the nation to look at," Fernando Spagnolo, chief of police of the Waterbury Police Department, said in an interview with CBSN on Wednesday.

After a yearlong lull in mass shootings during the coronavirus pandemic, the nation is now mourning 18 people who were killed in two mass shootings in less than a week. Eight people died in a string of spa shootings in Georgia last week, and 10 were killed in a grocery store shooting in Colorado on Monday.  During a Senate hearing on gun violence Tuesday, lawmakers argued about the best way to reduce firearm deaths. Spagnolo, who testified at the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Connecticut's reforms have worked.