I think a big part of the reason we find ourselves here, and I know I’m going to be put on a list for saying this, but politicians are not scared enough of their constituents anymore.
Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was the latest target of a mass shooting in the United States. According to the Texas Depertment of Public Safety, the suspect had shot his grandmother in the face before driving to the school with the intent to, “[shoot] every single person that was in front of him.” The grandmother is reportedly at the hospital in critical condition. Two fourth-grade teachers died trying to protect their students, and 19 children aged nine to eleven years old died. About a dozen more people were injured.
The 18-year-old suspect possessed the firearm legally. He had posted on social media beforehand of his intentions to kill his grandmother and attack a school.
Police forces stood outside of the classroom for an hour deliberating on what to do. Many of the children did not die upon being shot, but rather bled out in the time it took for law enforcement to enter the room.
This is the second most deadly school shooting in US history, with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida being third, and the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut being first.
On December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School suffered the most deadly school shooting in United States history, where 20 children and 7 adults were murdered. In the near decade since Sandy Hook took place, school shootings have only managed to grow more common in the Unitied States, with 948 schools being targeted since the 2012 tragedy.
In the United States, gun violence is the most common cause of death among adolescents, with 1 out of every 10 gun-related deaths happening among people under 19. After the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, around 300,000 students have been on-campus during an active school shooting.
It is an utter embarrassment as a country, that no substantial preventative action has been taken to reduce the risk of a firearm ever entering the premises of an educational facility.
Our country is stuck in a perpetual cycle, where we fight over gun control and/or restrictions with no attempt to compromise or brainstorm ideas together that would keep this from happening to our children, then we forget about the issue a week later until another tragedy strikes.
If your egos are really worth more than the safety of our most precious citizens, then you should take a long look in the mirror and ask why. If you do not want to face gun control/restrictions, give alternative solutions to fix the problem, rather than simply block all action on the matter while giving out your empty thoughts and prayers.
Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need real change, now.
Here are some resources if you want to learn more about this issue, or if you wish to help the victims of this tragedy:
“But the reality is, as horrible as what happened, it could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do. They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives. And it is a fact that because of their quick response getting on the scene, being able to respond to the gunman, and eliminate the gunman, they were able to save lives…”
I need to take a moment to gather my thoughts for this.
Really? REALLY? First of all, telling grieving families that things could have been worse has to be the most insensitive fucking thing I can think of. You had children covering themselves in the blood of friends so they could pretend to be dead, so they wouldn’t get shot. You had children calling 911, hopelessly begging for them to send police, to send help. You had teachers die trying to save their students. You had a child get shot after police said to yell for help. You had parents pepper sprayed, tazered, cuffed, begging for the police to go in and save their families. A man had a heart attack after learning his wife was shot dead. These are 21 lives cut short. These are families, students, teachers, friends, a whole community with wounds that will never heal.
Meanwhile police were standing outside for an hour, while parents begged and screamed and cried for them to go inside. They could’ve been shot? They were armed, they had the vests, and if an unarmed, unprotected mother can run in to save her kids then law enforcement can do so much more. They stood outside while children were being slaughtered like animals, while they were smearing friends’ blood on themselves to play dead, while they repeatedly called 911 for help.
This could have been worse? How? How can you know that 21 lives are lost, 19 of them children, and have the helium-filled balls to say it could have been worse? Law enforcement did nothing. They had no courage. They were cowards at best. They didn’t run towards gunfire. They dragged their feet. They didn’t go in there to save lives. They stood idly by while lives were lost.
And for only 2 minutes and 30 seconds of an 11 minute speech to be dedicated to this incident, while the rest is about praising law enforcement for their “amazing courage” and “quick response” to it, and about everything they’ve done and will do, is absolutely insanity.
Nobody should have to go through this. How many now are wondering when they’ll be next? How many children are wondering when a shooter will walk through the doors? How many parents fear that when they send their kids to school, their kids might not make it back? How many teachers have to brace themselves everyday for the possibility that they may die trying to save their students?
Layla Salazar, 11
Nevaeh Bravo, 10
Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10
Xavier Lopez, 10
Tess Marie Mata, 10
Rojelio Torres, 10
Eliahna “Ellie” Amyah Garcia, 9
Eliahna A. Torres, 10
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10
Jackie Cazares, 9
Uziyah Garcia, 10
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10
Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10
Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10
Irma Garcia, 48
Eva Mireles, 44
Maranda Mathis, 11
Makenna Lee Elrod, 10
Amerie Jo Garza, 10
Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, 10
Alithia Ramirez, 10
But it could have been worse, right?
@o-captain-my-captain
Wholeheartedly agree from Britain. At this point, these politicians and the police have blood on their hands.
Meanwhile police were standing outside for an hour, while parents begged and screamed and cried for them to go inside. They could’ve been shot? They were armed, they had the vests, and if an unarmed, unprotected mother can run in to save her kids then law enforcement can do so much more.
And the police are paid for by the taxpayers– a.k.a, the parents– to prevent such crimes from ever happening in the first place. Is anyone planning on suing them for negligence and dereliction of duty? I think such a motion would gain huge support.
This isn’t the first time that the police have failed to save children. Didn’t they also infamously refuse to confront the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High until it was too late? And didn’t they also have information on the killer’s mad and violent behaviour from years ago, which they refused to take seriously?
Don’t let them fool you.. it’s not about infringing on the right to own a gun… it’s about money. It’s always about the money.
Oh and don’t forget this one…
@imagine-all-the-people Indeed. Not to mention all the airport security measures that were put in place after the September 11 terrorist attacks that now make it virtually impossible to hijack a plane.
I’ve just read that the NRA will be going ahead with their convention soon. Talk about tasteless.
Arm teachers with the resources to stock classrooms without picking their own pockets.
With scissors to cut the tape off the shelves of books you’ve banned.
With food to provide meals that nourish the body so that the door to young minds isn’t barred from inside by fears over fundamental need.
Arm teachers with the words to describe the vastness of the human condition and all of the colors that love comes in.
With the support system to provide counseling and to be counseled in return, not consoled or condoled as they hold the hand of a trembling kid beneath a desk, or beneath the vaulting of a church where their student is being laid to rest. When the trembling hand is their hand. Who’ll hold it then?
Arm the teacher, you say? Put fire in that quaking hand? You better think and pray again on what that fire’s gonna light.
Better to arm that teacher with a mallet, a gavel, a hammer, so they can batter down any trembling pundits’ pulpit who’ve abused their school and them alike in the wake of:
Childcare they wouldn’t fund,
Meals they wouldn’t “hand out,”
Healthcare they wouldn’t make affordable,
Defense they couldn’t provide,
a SCAPEGOAT for all the work they couldn’t possibly do. But sure, give the teacher a gun. That’s the tool for the job(s).
Like a hammer for a door knock.
Or a desk for politicians with a righteous teacher at their door.
Not a drill. Hide! Quick! Surely that’s what it was meant for:
Take action to honor the Uvalde elementary school victims.
The death toll continues to climb from a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Last year, over 1500 children and teenagers were killed by guns in the US. Enough is enough. Gun control legislation is needed to end senseless gun violence in America.
