A tragedy unfolded and struck a small town in Texas on Tuesday, May 24. Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX was the victim of a school shooting that resulted in 19 students and two teachers being shot and killed, as well as 17 individuals being injured. 

Robb Elementary is home to second to fourth grade students. The shooter was an 18-year-old high school dropout who had no prior criminal charges and no history of any mental health conditions. He purchased two AR-15 rifles and ammunition for his 18th birthday, which is the legal age to own a rifle in the state of Texas. 

Before arriving at Robb Elementary, the shooter shot and seriously injured his grandmother. She was transported to the hospital along with five other victims that were shot and injured. After his attack on his grandmother, the shooter proceeded to steal and escape in her truck. As he approached the elementary school, he crashed in a ditch and took off on foot. The shooter fired shots at the school while still approaching the building. He then dropped a bag of ammunition on the ground, and walked into the school. It was inside the school that he barricaded himself inside of two classrooms and opened fire. 

The gunman fired the first shots at the school at 11:32 a.m., and was not shot by police until 1:06 p.m. Officers entered the school at 11:44 a.m., but were shot at by the gunman and decided to take cover while calling for backup. There was an effort to evacuate students and teachers from other areas of the school, but it took an hour for the Border Patrol Tactical Team to force entry into the classroom and shoot the gunman. The decision made by police to not breach the shooter earlier than they did has left people everywhere in outrage and wondering what went wrong. The gunman fired over 100 rounds before finally being shot and killed. There was a 40 minute gap between the time police arrived at the school and the time at which they entered the classroom to confront the shooter. 

The shooter’s name is not mentioned in this article due to an attempt to respect the victims of this shooting and their families. The gunman should not be afforded the recognition of being responsible for such a violent crime. 

 This tragic situation has become every parent’s worst nightmare. School is supposed to be a safe place for children and educators. It  is a place for learning, growth, and character development: not guns, blood, and violence. 

Social media has gone into a frenzy, with parents sending their children to school with bulletproof plates in their backpacks.. Being scared to send a child to school due to the fear of a massacre in their place of learning is not normal. The Uvalde shooting was the second worst school shooting in U.S. history. There is still an ongoing investigation as to what exactly happened on Tuesday, and there are many questions being raised about why the gunman was not confronted at an earlier time. 

School shootings have become something that we as a society have become numb to because of the normalcy of them. However, there is nothing normal  or conventional about students being gunned down in their classrooms. Something has to be done, and it needs to be done quickly. It’s not supposed to be this way.