A Connecticut lawmaker made an emotional plea on the Senate floor Tuesday in the aftermath of amass shooting earlier that dayat an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 21 people — 19 students, a teacher and one other adult — were killed.
“What are we doing? What are we doing?“Sen. Chris Murphyaskedduring his remarksin Washington, D.C. “Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store togun down African-American patronswe have anotherSandy Hookon our hands.”
After mentioning that “there have been more mass shootings than days in the year,” Murphy went on to again ask his peers, “What are we doing?! Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority, if your answer is that as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing? What are we doing? Why are you here… if not to solve a problem as existential as this?”
“This only happens in this country, and nowhere else,” he later added. “Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.”
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“And it is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue,” Murphy concluded.
Earlier Tuesday, a shooter opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde at about 11:30 a.m. local time after abandoning his vehicle.
According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the shooter — identified as Uvalde resident Salvador Ramos — is dead. It is believed police killed him.
Police said at a Tuesday press conference they believe the shooter, who according to Abbott had a handgun and possibly a rifle, acted alone. The children killed were in the second, third and fourth grades, police said.
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University Health San Antoniotweeted there are two patients— a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl — who are in critical condition.
Gov. Abbott said two responding officers were injured and expected to survive, according toABC News.
Uvalde is a small city of about 16,000 residents, approximately 85 miles west of San Antonio.
Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents the area, said in a statement, “I am heartbroken for our South Texas community. It is devastating when our innocent children become the victims of senseless violence. We are devastated.”
The Newtown Action Alliance, a gun violence prevention organization launched after the 2012Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shootingin Newtown, Connecticut, in which 26 innocent people were killed,issued a statement on Twitter saying, “We are devastated. Our hearts are breaking for Robb Elementary & Uvalde families & community. We are angry. These shootings are preventable but those whose stood with the NRA after Sandy Hook nearly 10 years ago did absolutely nothing to prevent these tragedies. We need change.”
President Joe Bidenalso spoke out following the shooting.
“I had hoped when I became president I would not have to do this again, another massacre in Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent second, third, and fourth graders. 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,” he said, in part, in his nearly eight-minute address.
“I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage. I spent my career as a senator and vice president working to pass common sense gun laws,” he added.
Vice PresidentKamala Harrisissued a statement hours after the shooting while speaking at a pre-planned event Tuesday,saying in part, “While we don’t know all the details yet, we do know there are parents who lost children.”
“Every time a tragedy like this happens our hearts break. And our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of those families, and yet it keeps happening,” she continued, later adding, “Enough is enough.”
source: people.com
