'We cannot become numb to it': Colorado leaders react to elementary school shooting in Texas
DENVER — Familiar feelings of dread set in May 24 after a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. An 18-year-old gunman opened fire in classrooms, killing at least 19 children and two adults.
The attack happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a predominantly Latino town west of San Antonio. Law enforcement officers reportedly killed the shooter.
Nearly 1,000 miles away in Colorado, state leaders reacted to the tragedy with a common message: shootings of this type are hauntingly familiar, and action is needed to prevent similar massacres in the future.
“Another senseless tragedy and another painful reminder that we must act,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a series of tweets. “Prayers and thoughts mean well. They are indeed comforting. But action is better. We as a society have to act.”
“This morning I visited Mancos Elementary School and saw the joy on the faces of students and teachers in their last week of school as they looked forward to new adventures this summer and next school year,” Governor Jared Polis said. “Now fourteen students and a teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas had their joy ended forever from a cold blooded attack and their parents, friends and families won’t ever hold them in their arms again or be able to watch them grow. Colorado’s hearts are heavy for our friends in Texas and join in showing love for the families and community affected.”
Polis released his statement before the full death toll was reported. The latest updates on the shooting are available here.
The Uvalde shooting happened just 10 days after a racist attack at a Buffalo grocery store that left 10 people dead. And this year alone, there have already been 27 school shootings, according to data from Education Week. Renewed calls for gun control legislation arose following the tragedy in Uvalde.
“This horrific gun violence is uniquely American. We cannot become numb to it,” tweeted Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado. “We need to act and #EndGunViolence now.”
For his part, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), who was serving as the Governor of Colorado during the Century 16 movie theater shooting in Aurora, said “As a parent, I weep. Our children deserve so much better than this nightmare. We need to protect our future from this senseless violence.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado said, in part, “We cannot lose more children or loved ones. We must find a way to solve our country’s gun violence epidemic & save lives.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a staunch supporter of gun ownership who once said she would bring a handgun to Congress, encouraged people to “turn to God for comfort and healing,” later adding from her campaign’s Twitter account that “You cannot legislate away evil.”
Colorado Republican Reps. Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn did not post about the Uvalde shooting on Twitter as of Wednesday morning.
[Related: In the 10 years since Sandy Hook, gun laws in the U.S. haven't changed much]
Craig Nasion, a survivor of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, said “This is America. There is no end in sight for the steady cadence of mass gun violence we seem unwilling to ever address. A reality my peers could not have imagined on our worst day in April 1999.”
President Biden delivered a televised address May 24 to talk about the Uvalde shooting.
“Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” the president asked. “Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the [gun] lobbies? It’s time to turn this pain into action.”
As Biden emphasized in his remarks, most Americans support legislation that would help curtail gun violence. But such bills have been nonstarters in Congress, largely due to the fact that they would require Republican support in order to pass. Less than a day after the shooting in Uvalde, several GOP lawmakers have already made it clear that they would not support gun control legislation. Some are instead advocating for arming teachers, a policy that is unpopular on a national level.
After the shooting in Uvalde, NPR spoke with Ron Avi Astor, a mass shooting expert and professor at UCLA, who said he is unsure why gun laws have barely changed since the Sandy Hook shooting 10 years ago.
“Maybe it is money. Maybe it is the gun lobby. Maybe it's become politicized and an ideological thing,” Astor said, “but [gun violence] should be treated as a public health measure.”
From Columbine to the Aurora movie theater to the Boulder King Soopers, the Colorado community is, unfortunately, deeply familiar with shootings of this scale. And it was Colorado’s poet laureate Bobby LeFebre who perhaps communicated that pain best when he shared this poem Tuesday:
Silly humans
when will
you realize
that you
do not
have to
fill bodies
with holes
to see
the light
innately shining
through them
If you would like to support the families of the victims of the Uvalde shooting, GoFundMe has organized a list of verified fundraisers that you can donate to.
Because events like the Uvalde shooting can be difficult to speak to kids about, PBS organized a list of tips that parents and guardians can use to help children feel more secure in the aftermath of tragedies. The full article is available here.
Kyle Cooke is the digital media manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.