5 Years After Sandy Hook Tragedy, How 2 Dads Turned Grief Into Action

By Anthony Brooks

Published December 19, 2017 at 6:41 AM PST

Mark Barden lost his 6-year-old son, Daniel, at Sandy Hook. Greg Gibson lost his son, Galen, precisely 20 years before Sandy Hook at a school shooting in western Massachusetts. When the two dads met, they discovered not only that their sons died on the same calendar day, in the same horrible way, but that their boys also shared the same birthday.

Anthony Brooks

Anthony Brooks has more than twenty five years of experience in public radio, working as a producer, editor, reporter, and most recently, as a fill-in host for NPR. For years, Brooks has worked as a Boston-based reporter for NPR, covering regional issues across New England, including politics, criminal justice, and urban affairs. He has also covered higher education for NPR, and during the 2000 presidential election he was one of NPR's lead political reporters, covering the campaign from the early primaries through the Supreme Court's Bush V. Gore ruling. His reports have been heard for many years on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.