What Events Took Place at the Texas School Shooting?

Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old gunman, killed 19 children and two adults in the deadliest school shooting in almost a decade. The school shooting has called for gun law reform in the US. The massacre occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24th 2022. The gunman reportedly shot his grandmother, who survived, before driving to the school to carry out the attack. The gun massacre in East Buffalo occurred just three days prior, where ten people were killed.

This marked the 30th school shooting at a K-12 school in the US. Since 1999, nearly 200 children and others have been killed in shootings on K-12 campuses in the US. Furthermore, the Washington Post held that 311,000 children have witnessed gun violence in places meant to be considered safe. However, these statistics do not begin to capture the true scope of this epidemic in the US.

The teenager had legally purchased two rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition days before the shooting. He killed 19 fourth-graders aged eight to 10 and two teachers with a semi-automatic rifle. Additionally, he injured seven others. The Texas Department of Public Safety held that the gunman was killed 78 minutes after entering the school. As a result of this, the Texas Police Department face criticism, and a full investigation is underway to revise the events that day.

Texas School Shooting Raises Debates Over Gun Law Reform

In 2020, guns became the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers, overriding car accidents. Despite this, Congress allows teenagers easy access to guns without proper vetting. The Texas school shooting is another tragedy to add to the significant mass shootings in the last ten years. After so many mass shootings in the US, why are people still asking the same questions?

In December 2012, 20 children and six staff members died at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This was the worst school shooting at an elementary school in US history. After this shooting, anti-gun activists proposed widening and reinforcing background checks for gun law reform. Consequently, with overwhelming support from the American public, these proposals for background checks passed in March 2021. However, the proposals have drained in the Senate, where they would need 10 Republican votes to overcome the filibuster. A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation to delay or entirely prevent decisions.

National Rifle Association

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a US gun rights advocacy group. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the NRA has become a prominent gun-rights lobbying organization. The Texas school shooting has put significant financial pressure on the NRA and created internal turmoil. The NRA still has significant cash reserves for lobbying and influencing the US gun policy debate.

The NRA still went ahead with its annual pro-gun lobby Convention in Heuston, Texas, on May 27th 2022. Despite the Texas school shooting occurring 280 miles away from where the gunman shot 21 people three days prior, the Convention went ahead. Former President Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz were some of the high-profile Republicans participating in the event. The Republicans call for more significant investments in school security instead of focusing on gun reform. Gun reform activists criticized the Convention for going ahead with the event, calling for its cancellation out of respect for the victims and their families.

In addition to this, the NRA has donated an estimated $442,000 to Senator Ted Cruz’s political campaigns. The gun group has spent more than $2 million lobbying Texas state legislators as they have significantly loosened gun restrictions in Texas in the last five years. This has had considerable consequences for Texas, making it the epicentre of gun violence in the US. The US pro-gun advocates claim their rights under the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which states, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.

US President Biden is Powerless in Demanding Gun Reform

US President Biden asked some agonizing questions in the hours following the Texas school shooting.

“Why are we willing to live with this carnage?

Why do we keep letting this happen?

Where in God’s name is our backbone?”.

As a nation we must ask: When in God’s name will we stand up to the gun lobby?

When in God’s name will we do what needs to be done?

I’m sick and tired of it. We have to act.

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 25, 2022

These comments by Biden underscore just how powerless the US President is in contributing to significant lobbying for gun law reform. Republicans have been stonewalling for years on any significant federal gun safety legislation. Some US states are demanding gun reform following the recent large-scale shootings in New York and Texas. Democrats in some blue states are making new efforts to reinvigorate proposals toward what gun control advocates call “evidence-based policy interventions”.

Gun Violence Have A Long-term Negative Impact on Children For the Rest of Their Lives

Children who witness gun violence and see their classmates die are profoundly traumatized. Research by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health shows how children directly or indirectly involved in school shootings are still profoundly affected by them and often experience anxiety and depression. One 11-year-old student survivor from Robb Elementary School, Miah Cerrillo, recalls how she smeared her classmate’s blood on her face and played dead to avoid being targeted by the shooter.

A 2021 review published in Current Psychiatry Reports shows the effects of mass shootings on mental health of children and adolescents. The review found that children aged 2 to 9 who are directly or indirectly exposed to gun violence have increased rates of PTSD. However, older children aged 10-19 need several exposures to violence for it to lead to PTSD. The research concluded that “younger children are more sensitive to violence and develop psychological symptoms post-exposure to violence at higher rates”.

Moreover, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, described the Texas school shooting as “heart-wrenching”.

I’m deeply saddened by the heinous mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas. It is particularly heart-wrenching that most of the victims are children.

My heart goes out to the families & loved ones of the victims and to the community of Uvalde.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) May 25, 2022

Disproportionate Impact of School Shootings Affect Children of Color

The Washington Post conducted a study that found a disproportionate impact of school shootings affect children of colour.

Caption: Statistics obtained from the Washington Post. The image shows how black students make up 16.6% of the school population but still experience school shootings disproportionately at twice that rate (33%).

Is This the Moment to Reform US Gun Laws?

In November 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared a national children’s mental health emergency. Gun violence and mass shootings are ubiquitous in the US, contributing to a worsening mental health crisis.

The Democrats and Republicans must find a middle ground in improving gun regulations to prevent future mass shootings. The next few days will demonstrate whether both parties can reach a bipartisan deal. Will the Texas school shooting serve as another reminder that Congress will be unable to create meaningful change? Or will they be able to compromise and stop future attacks?

Call it madness, call it a cycle, or call it a script. But, the death of nineteen innocent children and two adults gunned down in the recent texas school massacre is not new in the US. In fact, over the years, gun violence has killed more people than the total fatalities recorded by the country in all its wars.

Collages of beautiful young faces, surrounded by families who will bear a loss so significant that we shudder at the prospect of having to bear it ourselves. We read and hear the same hand-wringing headlines, condemn the perpetrator and prey for the victims, and find ourselves amidst the same discussion. But, just until we move on and the moral necessity vanishes.

Gun violence in the US is a political story but also a psychological one. It dictates a narrative about what many claims to cherish but never defends and what they claim to desire but never genuinely demand. Death by the gun lobby defeats American democracy, a let-down society, and learned helplessness, whose only weapons are protests and demonstrations that change is possible.

So, what is behind the increasing gun violence in the US? What is the government doing to halt it? And is there a way out?

Breaking Down Lives Lost in Gun Violence in the US

As per the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 45,222 lives were lost from gun-related injuries in 2020 alone. This includes cases of gun murders and gun suicide.

However, while gun violence and mass shootings grab tremendous media attention, gun suicide accounts for about 54% (24,300) of all gun-related deaths. Furthermore, according to a 2016 study published in the American Journal for Public Health; states with a higher number of gun owners are associated with higher firearm suicide rates.

*BREAKING* Robb Elementary School shooting. Uvalde Texas. This video shows the chaos outside of the school where parents were trying to find their children.#Uvalde #RobbElementary #SchoolShooting pic.twitter.com/yx97i6Bh9w

— TheFamily'sSoup TV (@FamilysSoupTV) May 25, 2022

Advocates of stricter gun laws often use this statistic to persuade policymakers in the United States to allocate more funds to mental health and less to loosen firearms restrictions.

When terrorists attacked a school in Afghanistan, America called it “senseless targeting of innocent civilians.” However, in 2020 alone, ten schools across the US were attacked, followed by almost no actions against halting such violence.

Over 2,900 people died in the deadly 9/11 terrorist attack, and in response, the American military invaded Afghanistan. But, more American have been killed by guns at home than in all its wars abroad.

So, what is the US doing to defend its citizen from the terror within?

How is the Flawed Constitution Promoting Gun Violence in the US?

The constitution of America gives every American the right to bear and carry arms. As a result, today, the US has more guns than people; 393 million firearms over a population of 327 million. With just 4% of the world’s population, the country accounts for 46% of the entire stock of privately owned arms.

But why do so many Americans need arms?

Anyone above the age of 18 is eligible to own a shotgun, while at the age of 21 citizens are allowed to own a handgun. The only criteria are passing the NICS (Nationation Instant Criminal Background Check System), which takes less than ten minutes.

Furthermore, in many instances, the NICS has failed to flag criminals. Lapses like this are alarmingly common. In most such instances, the media plays it down by branding the terrorists as perpetrators.

Earlier, the blame was pinned on violent video games, and now the finger is pointed at mental health problems. However, if headlines like these came out from any other country, the US would have screamed human rights violations, not brushed it under the carpet by labeling it a mass shooting.

But, in reality, the problem lies in the constitutional flaw of giving everyone easy access to arms. The US policies have put millions in the line of firearms. They have allowed the frequency, and the most significant hand behind the concrete policies of owning a gun is the NRA.

The NRA and Gun Lobby in the US

National Rifle Association (NRA) was founded in 1817 with the ambition to promote and encourage rifle shooting based on scientifically proven data.

The association was governed and controlled by some high-profile members, including the late George HW Bush (former US president).

Though the numbers of members are uncertain, the association claimed the number to reach as high as five million after the Sandy Hook school mass shooting in 2012. However, officials estimate that the NRA’s budget exceeds all the budgets of gun-control advocacy groups in the country. For example, in 2020 alone, the NRA spent over $250 million. On average, the organization spends over $3million per year to sustain its influence on the gun policy.

High Time to Deal with the Terror at Home

In the United States, gun terror has grown into a silent genocide, but it is not without racial disparities. For example, African Americans make up 14% of the US population but account for 58.5% of lives lost to gun homicides since 2017.

The disparity can also be assessed by the response to gun violence and recent Pew Research Center studies. For example, 82% of black adults agree that gun violence is a problem, in comparison with only 39% of white adults.

The leaders of the United States have failed to confront systematic prejudice, safeguard their children, and dismantle domestic terrorism. As a result, when purchasing pistols, big capacity magazines, assault weapons, and military-type rifles in the United States today, you are spoiled for choice.

But why do people of the United States require war weapons?

Perhaps to boost the country’s arms industry. How will the huge arm manufacturers survive if American citizens give up their weapons? How can strong gun control legislation withstand the political clout of powerful gun lobbyists like the NRA if the US president enacts them?

What’s playing out in the US is appeasement politics, and it is flowing from the barrel of the gun. This is an example of the United States valuing gun rights over human rights. The result is gun violence at bars, concerts, schools, churches, malls, and even Times Square.

Read More: Ukraine War: Arms Supplier Profiting From the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Gun Violence: The Much Needed Change

President Joe Biden has recently issued a Zero Tolerance Policy on gun violence that will include:

• Tougher background check
• Calls for ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines
• Boost community policing

Though they look like harsh measures on the face, will they deliver any results?

Experts believe dropping arms is the only solution that could show a drastic fall in gun violence. America needs strict gun laws, and the answer is simple; give up on guns. But it requires political will and the courage to face hard facts and undo the historical wrongs.

“The right to live and the right to own guns are contradictory. They cannot co-exist.”