By: Tye Richmond
Yesterday was one of the yet another ugly day in American history. As a gunman kills at least 18 children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade-school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.
An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 18 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said, in the latest gruesome moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres. The attacker was killed by law enforcement.
The death toll also included three adults, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police. But it was not immediately clear whether that number included the attacker, or how many people were wounded. A Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.
The attack also came just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket.
With news of the shooting, the reactions came all across the country.
President Biden condemned the shooting in an address Tuesday night.
“I had hoped when I became president, I would not have to do this — again,” the president said. “Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent second, third and fourth graders. And how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened — see their friends die, as if they’re in a battlefield, for God’s sake. They’ll live with it the rest of their lives.”
“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent, announcing that all school activities were canceled until further notice. “We’re a small community and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
Fred Guttenberg’s daughter Jaime was one of 17 people killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
“I can’t stop thinking about these families today who need to figure out how they’re going to bury their children, who need to figure out how they are going to console their other children,” he said. “And I can’t stop thinking about this community that needs to figure out how they’re all going to rally, how they’re all going to take care of one another in this aftermath.”
This shooting is yet another example of why I believe that the United States needs more gun control laws. There are too many innocent people dying at the hands of guns because anybody can walk into a store and just buy a gun. So, what more needs to happen, and what more people need to die in order for change to happen.
