Barack Obama has spoken in the wake of the mass shooting at a school in Texas, the deadliest US elementary school shooting since Sandy Hook.
“Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed,” wrote Barack Obama on Twitter. “Reading stories, singing lullabies—and in the back of their minds, they’re worried about what might happen tomorrow after they drop their kids off at school, or take them to a grocery store or any other public space.”
Barack Obama On Preventing Future Tragedies
He reflected on the decade since Sandy Hook and said the gun lobby is responsible for “paralyzing” the country.
“Michelle and I grieve with the families in Uvalde, who are experiencing pain no one should have to bear. We’re also angry for them. Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook—and ten days after Buffalo—our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies.”
Barack Obama echoed the sentiments of President Joe Biden, who spoke on the tragedy from the White House on Tuesday evening (May 24). He also noted the alarming instances of gunfire on school grounds.
“It’s been 3,448 days — 10 years — since I stood up at… a grade school in Connecticut where another gunman massacred 26 people including 20 first graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Since then, there have been over 900 incidents of gunfire reported on school grounds.”
The shooting is the deadliest at an elementary school since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut. 26 people, including 20 children between 6 and 7 years old, lost their lives in the 2012 incident.
CNN reports at least 19 students and two adults were killed during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The gunman, who is dead, has been identified as 18-year-old former Uvalde High School student Salvador Ramos. He reportedly shot his grandmother before heading to the school and is believed to have acted alone.
Barack Obama called for healing for those affected by the devastating events. “It’s long past time for action, any kind of action. And it’s another tragedy—a quieter but no less tragic one—for families to wait another day. May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds,” he concluded.