Today 18 children, as of seven p.m., were killed while in school in Uvalde, Texas – 18 children who woke up this morning either took the bus or drove with their parents, and they don’t get to go home today.
Eighteen elementary students; 18 families; 18 sets of parents who have to bury their children; 18 funerals. The parents who said goodbye to their children this morning as they ventured off to school could never have imagined it was the last time they would see their children alive.
This is now the second largest mass school shooting in America passing the Stoneman Douglas High School Valentine’s Day shooting and sitting below Sandy Hook in 2012. How did we get here?
And yet I am called silly for fearing for my life as I sit in college classrooms and walk across my university’s campus. I am silly for that fear.
The land of the free, home of the brave.
Yes, we’re brave for facing tragedy after tragedy and yet still send our kids to school. Brave because we fight for those whose voices were silenced while they sat in a classroom not knowing those moments would be their last.
Where is the change?
America is one of the only, if not the only, that continues to face mass shootings.
Where is the change?
Land of the free.
Where is the change?
Thoughts and prayers will never be enough; how do our lawmakers not know this?
Where is the change?
How many mass school shootings have to take place before enough is enough?
How many kids have to die?
Where is the change?
In the almost 10 years since the Sandy Hook shooting, not one federal law has passed for gun control.
Semi-automatic rifles popular in shootings like these continue to be legal and continue to fall into the hands of citizens who do not need them.
As of this past September in Texas, you don’t need a permit to carry a handgun if you’re over the age of 21. So instead of making it harder to gain access to life-ending weapons, Texas makes it easier for almost anyone to carry a handgun without the proper training
We, as a society, as those who can still breathe, can still live life and go to school, need to recognize that gun control is an issue we need to be fighting.
Taking semiautomatic weapons off the street, requiring permits to carry handguns, making gun safety training necessary, challenging the background check system, and adding mental health screenings should be important to us all.
There is so much that can be done to protect our children, the future of this country. Gun control does not mean banning guns, throw away that idea. We just want to make sure those who purchase them are safe and correct in doing so.
Without some semblance of gun control more kids will die, the list of mass shootings in America will continue to grow, there will never be an end. The largest school shooting will continue to be topped as it has been twice in the last 10 years.
See this America. Make the change. Turn your thoughts and prayers into action. Use your words. Vote. Vote for life and vote for change.
This cannot be our future, this cannot be another thought, this cannot be another prayer, it must be changed.
