Texas school shooting brings back Sandy Hook memories

Tuesday’s school
shooting in Texas, in which at least 19 students and two adults were killed,
immediately brought back memories of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. At Texas’ Uvalde,
the gunman, who was eventually killed, was 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. At Sandy
Hook Elementary School, it was a 19-year-old gunman who was later identified as
Adam Lanza. Twenty first-graders and six teachers were killed in the shootout.

When the Sandy
Hook massacre took place, then US President Barack Obama, a stoic yet
bedazzling presence in the nation’s political life, was moved to tears. “…So
our hearts are broken today – for the parents and grandparents, sisters and
brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were
lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of survivors as well, for as
blessed as they are to have their children tonight, they know that their children’s
innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that
will ease their pain.”

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Ten years later, Obama,
now former president with his then-vice president at the helm of affairs,
tweeted, “Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed,
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.”

On Tuesday, US President
Joe Biden, said, “I had hoped, when I became president, I won’t have to do this,
again.” The president called upon the people of the United States to stand up
to the gun lobby.

At Texas’ Uvalde,
Salvador Ramos, reportedly first shot his grandmother at home and then took his
car to the school where he himself was a student. A body armour on his self,
the 18-year-old crashed his car in a ditch while attempting to enter the school
premises. He then entered several classrooms and began shooting.

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At the Sandy Hook
Elementary School in 2012, 19-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother at home in
Newtown, Connecticut, and then went to the school and shot 20 first-graders and
six educators. He subsequently took his own life.