People react to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Just 10 days after the brutal mass murder of 10 Black people by a white supremacist in Buffalo, New York, another mass shooting has taken the lives of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.
The shooter has been identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, Police Lt. Christopher Olivares told NBC News. Olivares described Ramos as “an evil person” who entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, May 24, and began shooting indiscriminately with “complete disregard for human life.”
Ramos also shot his grandmother at her home before going to the school, authorities said. He was wearing body armor and carrying a long gun but was eventually killed by law enforcement.
A close-knit small community 83 miles west of San Antonio, Uvalde is now the site of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. Many are drawing comparisons to Sandy Hook, where 20 elementary school children and six adults were murdered by a gunman on Dec. 14, 2012.
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In addition to the mass murder victims, more than a dozen others were injured and transported to regional hospitals. Some are still in serious condition and fighting for their lives.
Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsay told CNN on Wednesday, that this is “not a moment of silence. This is the time for a moment of loud voices to really be heard.”
With another round of families having to plan funerals for their loved ones, Black America weighed in on Twitter.
“Instead of posting pics of the shooters. Let us show pics of some of the many innocent lives that were lost in the past 2 weeks due to mass shootings,” @Blacklavendar91 tweeted, along with a collage of the known victims in both shootings.
“I bet Governor Abbott was so proud of this tweet smh,” former NBA player Etan Thomas tweeted along with a screenshot of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott saying he was “embarrassed” Texas wasn’t No. 1 in the nation for new gun purchases.
“You can talk about gun control in this country but the triggers of these guns do not pull themselves… you cannot legislate the hate in somebody’s heart” The Breakfast Club tweeted.
Twitter user @black_mixed called America, “A crumbling ’empire’ in real time.”
She then added, “I really detest cowards. They target our elders grocery shopping. They target kids.” Later, she wrote, “I hate how desensitized people have become. We seem to move on from things faster and faster.”
For some, becoming desensitized is a buffer to the ongoing trauma, a Twitter user wrote. “One thing I can agree with is that no human is built to withstand these never ending traumatic events” @black_mixed responded.
“A ‘controlled demolition’ as brotha @OmowaleAfrika says,” @ZakiyaChinyere responded.
“Too many young males are committing senseless acts of perverted violence (driven by rages they DON’T understand),” Judge Joe Brown tweeted. “They’ve been cheated out of the Man Training that Real Men have always gotten … Real Men DON’T kill defenseless Women & Children Emasculated Sissies & Punks do.”
“Friday, I wrote that Buffalo was the “deadliest mass shooting so far this year” And it didn’t even hold up for one week,” journalist Clyde McGrady tweeted.
“It takes a monster to kill children. But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity—it’s inhumanity,” poet Amanda Gorman tweeted.
“My thoughts and prayers goes out to the families of love ones loss & injured at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX! Like when is enough enough man!!!” NBA superstar LeBron James tweeted. “These are kids and we keep putting them in harms way at school. Like seriously “AT SCHOOL” where it’s suppose to be the safest!”
Twitter user @b0mbchell simply wrote “Enough,” along with a visual of the lack of tangible solutions produced after mass shootings in a tweet that has since been deleted.
“If only there were answers…,” @hbyant42 wrote in response to Sen. Mitt Romney’s tweet noting the problem and saying we must move beyond prayers and condolences.
“A reminder that in Texas K-12 students are banned from being taught the #1619 project, but an 18-year-old can purchase multiple assault weapons,” Jemele Hill tweeted.
“The American government decided long ago that the deaths of children is an acceptable cost of doing business and you are never gonna vote your way out of that,” Context Media founder Torraine Walker tweeted.
“If they don’t care about whyte kids being murdered in mass shootings… you know they won’t even blink at black and brown people being murdered,” @darkdenaro responded.
“University in California did a comprehensive study of school/mass/spree shooters of all ages & found that the common link between them ALL is a vehement hatred of women (80% had a history of domestic violence),” @GeauxGabrielle wrote. “Most killed a female relative/gf/wife immediately prior to the event.”
“Homeboy killed his grandmama right before he killed them babies and that teacher seems egregious (I didnt even know) but is RIGHT on par with the data on school/mass shooters,” she continued. “And it’s BEEN studied and reported on.”
“Biden gonna be like ‘What happened in Buffalo & now in Texas is unacceptable. $10 billion dollars will be sent to Ukraine immediately,’” @MaadyBK67 tweeted.
Others pointed out how some high-profile Black Americans decried the Uvalde shooting but were silent about the Buffalo shooting victims.
“Let’s play a game Black Twitter, any black celebrity/politician who’s giving their condolences for the Elementary school mass shooting, type their name in the search bar with the word “Buffalo” to see if they did the same for the black victims. I wanna see sumin,” @_TheShawn tweeted.
“This man said nothing about Buffalo,” @majornija said about LeBron James’ tweet for the Uvalde tragedy. When others pointed out that James posted the Buffalo victims’ names in his Instagram story and donated, some said he only did so after being called out.
“He responded to both tragedies on the same day but nothing about Buffalo. That’s odd,” @majornija responded.
Here are a couple more reactions from Twitter:
PHOTO: People react outside the Civic Center following a deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas Tuesday, May 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
