Texas Shooting Highlights Need for Gun Control Laws

Zhanna Hayes, Staff Reporter

On Tuesday, May 24th, a tragic occurrence took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. There were 19 elementary students and 2 teachers who were brutally murdered in a school shooting by a man named Salvador Ramos. It was a traumatic experience for those children, the teachers, and for guardians of the students. ABC News explained that the shooter was bullied at school previously, he is 18 years old, no friends, no close family relations, and no significant other. The article says, “The 18-year-old suspect, Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School, is also dead, Abbott said, adding that Ramos “shot and killed horrifically and incomprehensibly.”” (ABC News) Ramos had shot up the Robb Elementary School, then was killed on scene.

With no gun laws in Texas, he was able to go in and buy two AR-15 style rifles. This should not be allowed in any circumstance. On his eighteenth birthday, he felt the need to go buy not one, but two guns. Since Texas has no gun laws, he was able to kill 19 students and 2 teachers. If there had been some sort of lock on those school doors or some sort of someone to have stopped him, those people would still have their lives today. Officials stated that when the shooter had seen the cops, he engaged in open gunfire with them. “Sources said that the gunman first shot his grandmother at a separate scene. Authorities initially said the grandmother was killed but later said she was in critical condition. Then he crashed his car outside of the school and emerged with an AR-15-style rifle, according to multiple law enforcement sources.”(ABC News). Ramos was shot on scene and killed. If someone that sick is going to shoot up a school filled with innocent children, they deserve karma to come back to them. His karma was being shot after shooting at the policemen. 

Ramos was definitely going through something, whether it was the underlying trauma of being bullied or just untreated mental illness. That should not have driven him to hurt all of those people. I like to think that he was trying to get his message across, saying that “when life is hard, it can always be harder.” but there was definitely a better way to do that. There was no need for him to do that, and with no gun laws he was able to have the access to the materials he needed to fulfill that. Gun laws need to be regulated. Let this traumatic experience for those people be your evidence.