Daniel and Mark Barden.
On Tuesday, May 24, just before noon, the deadliest school shooting in nearly 10 years took the young lives of 19 Texas elementary school students — each one of them someone’s beloved, precious child — and two of their teachers, one described endearingly as “the kind of teacher everybody loved.” With that horrific event, yet another wave of grieving parents and families is in profound, unspeakable pain. My own broken heart aches for them because I know and have known that visceral pain since my sweet little Daniel was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Daniel was taken from us right before Christmas. When he left for school on December 14, 2012, our home was filled with holiday cheer and happiness. When we learned that our kind and gentle little boy was killed, our joy turned to unimaginable grief. It’s the kind of pain and darkness that cannot be described with words.
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I don’t know any words to comfort someone in the hours and days after a child is murdered. I do know that my path to surviving the death of my son has been to honor him through my work. After his death, I made a promise to my sweet little Daniel that I would devote my own life to preventing gun violence so that no other parent would ever have to suffer such unspeakable pain.
Memorial for the 21 victims of the Uvalde school shooting.Elaine Aradillas
We also need sensible gun safety policies, such as extreme risk protection orders, so that when we see warning signs in our loved ones, we can temporarily remove their firearms and connect them to support. And expanded background checks for every gun purchase can help keep firearms out of the hands of those who are prohibited from owning them. We can respect and uphold the second amendment while also protecting our children and communities.
We know how to prevent tragedies like the Robb Elementary School shooting — but only if we come together right now to turn the anger and heartbreak of this moment into real, meaningful action. The best way to honor the lives of the children who have been violently taken from us is to act now and not stop until we end this epidemic of violence.
source: people.com
