‘Please Help’

Newtown Mother Gives Obama’s Weekly Address

Pleads for gun-control measures to pass Congress.

On Saturday, the mother of a young victim of the Newtown massacre filled in for President Obama on his weekly radio and Internet broadcast. Francine Wheeler said the presence of her son Ben, who was 6 years old when he was killed along with 19 other first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gave her the courage to speak out. “Thousands of other families across the United States are also drowning in our grief,” she said in a push to get a gun-control bill through Congress. “Please help us do something before our tragedy becomes your tragedy.” Wheeler and Vice President Joe Biden are the only two people other than President Obama to deliver his weekly address.