A gunman at school stole their future. But we can change the future now | Opinion

I, along with most of America, was just trying to accept the news of the murder of 10 people on May 14 at a Buffalo grocery store when the news of the recent killings in Texas emerged. As I try to write this column, I don’t know what to say to make it better. Like you, I am feeling sad, and I am heartbroken. And yes, I am angry, too.

I am sad and heartbroken because 19 beautiful and innocent children and two of their teachers were gunned down like animals. So horrible were the gunshot wounds that some parents had to identify their children by their shoes and their DNA.

I am angry because in the 10 years since the Sandy Hook school shootings in Connecticut, there have been over 900 incidents of gunfire reported on school campuses. And after every mass shooting in the past 20 years, our lawmakers have labored over bills that pushed for gun control policy changes, but never got the votes necessary to pass the Senate.

What do we have to do before the lawmakers who are supposed to guard our safety and well-being wake up and do the right thing? What is so sacred about guns?

In reports that I have read, Salvador Ramos, the alleged Robb Elementary School killer, had no known record of mental illness or a police record. He was just days past his 18th birthday when he purchased a rifle and handgun just days apart.

Had he always planned the murders, or did something in him snap, making him believe the guns gave him a kind of superpower? Whatever it was, Ramos shot his grandmother in the face before he rushed out and drove a truck to Robb Elementary, crashing the truck in a ditch.

Prepared to kill (he wore body armor), he made his way to the school and barricaded himself in a classroom. It was a fourth-grade class, and Ramos started killing the fourth-graders and teachers before he was killed by police. I can only imagine the fright the children must have felt before being gunned down.

The late poet Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Like in other similar situations, Ramos posted on Facebook about his plans before shooting up Robb Elementary School. Somebody saw something. But nobody did or said anything. Now, we are left to mourn the lives of 21 souls taken away too soon. Because when Ramos took the lives of these precious souls, he took away all the dreams and aspirations their loved ones had for them, too.

He took away future scientists, and teachers and preachers, doctors, and nurses. It is even possible that he took away a future governor or a future president. But because of a deranged, gun-toting youth, we will never know the depth of our loss.

I am not going to accept that there is nothing we can do about the gun killings that just keep on happening in America. Other free countries don’t have this problem. Why do we? Do we love our guns more than the lives of our citizens — our young citizens? Have guns become gods to some people?

What’s going on here?

Something has got to change, America. We can’t keep on allowing our children and loved ones to be shot down like wild animals. At a news conference, a grieving President Joe Biden said it is time for lawmakers to “stand up to the gun lobby… As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our guts needs to be done?”

It is sad to even imagine that this could happen again. And it will happen again unless we do something now.

So, today as I write this, I am also thinking back to 2012, when a murderer left 26 dead at Sandy Hook Elementary. During this graduation season, I can’t help but think of how many of them would have beensmiling as they marched in their high school commencement ceremonies. I imagine them grinning proudly in their caps and gowns. I can see them hugging family members and friends who turned out to congratulate them.

But it is only in my imagination that this is happening. And so, all I can do, all any of us can do is to remember Sandy Hook with love and mourn with their parents at their loss. And think about what might have been.

That’s all that we can do for those who died at Robb Elementary. These beautiful children, who had so much to offer, are gone forever. All the love we have in our hearts can’t bring them back. But we can work together as a nation to keep this from ever happening again. We can trouble our lawmakers to seriously stand up to the gun lobby and to create sensible gun laws that will keep our children safe.

I believe our future depends on it.

Bea L Hines can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com