Even more American school shootings

Parkland shooting survivors offer words to Texas families: 'We support you' (Republicans are enabling the killing of America's young people by not supporting gun regulations to prevent school shootings.)

Hours after a shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, Florida families offered condolences, advice and promises for a renewed call to action

Echo from The Guardian ~ Kudos to the grieving and brave Fred Guttenberg

“My heart breaks for you,” said Fred Guttenberg, just hours after the news of a high school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, that claimed the lives of 10 (more) ~ young~ people.

An anguished Guttenberg went on: “Your world changes. Every day you’re going to find out how many people love you, because that’s what we found out. But be prepared. Every day you go forward with loss.”

Guttenberg was offering his advice to the newly bereaved families in Texas who will join a seemingly unending community of Americans processing the loss of loved ones in the wake of gun violence. Just three months ago, on 14 February, Guttenberg’s 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed with 16 other pupils and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida.

Speaking to Guardian by phone and audibly overwhelmed by the latest tragedy, Guttenberg continued: “It can happen anywhere. It is time for us to get off our asses and do something about this issue of guns. It is horrifying.”

The shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas injected new life into the gun reform movement in the US, and as news of the latest tragedy in Texas broke, many Parkland families and survivors reignited their call for reform.

“I know what it feels like to think that today might be your last day,” Eden Hebron, a 15-year-old Stoneman Douglas freshman, told the Guardian by text. 

Offering her advice to survivors of the Sante Fe shooting, she continued: “But you made it. And now all you can do to help the situation is make sure that these shootings stop happening.”

Hebron saw three classmates killed back in February. “I’ve learned that speaking with other survivors and firsthand witnesses is very helpful. No one else understands what it is like to be in a room and cover your head from bullets that are shooting into your class,” she said to the Santa Fe, Texas, survivors.

Hebron predicted the shooting would lead to renewed protests around the country.

In March, (March For Our Lives) over 2 million people in the US took to the streets following the Parkland massacre. In April, a nationwide walkout saw pupils in thousands of locations – including Santa Fe High – walk out of their classrooms in another moment of impassioned national resistance.

Shortly after Friday’s massacre, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez, who has become perhaps the most recognizable survivor of the Parkland massacre, tweeted in solidarity: “Santa Fe High, you didn’t deserve this. You deserve peace all your lives, not just after a tombstone saying that is put over you. You deserve more than Thoughts and Prayers, and after supporting us by walking out we will be there to support you by raising up your voices.”

Nineteen-year-old Ryan Deitsch, another Parkland survivor who addressed the Washington (March For Our Lives) rally in March, offered a single sentence: “Politics aside, how many more have to die before we can change?”

Other mourners in Parkland were simply too distraught to talk. John Crescitelli, whose 15-year-old daughter Sarah survived the attack cowering in her classroom, wrote in an emailed statement: “I have tears in my eyes as I write this and feel like I’m reliving that horrific day all over again. When I hear the term ‘family reunification center’ I shutter. When I hear the sirens in the background and see the overhead helicopter video of the Texas school my palms get sweaty.”

He added: “I’m sad to report that something deep inside me died today when I became aware of today’s shooting. My inner light became dim, as my hope for humanity and our children dims.”

Rebecca Schneid, a Stoneman Douglas senior and the co-editor of the high school’s news magazine, said Friday’s massacre should be something that “gets people angry again”.

“If we can do that, it will be an amazing thing,” she said. “This tragedy is likely something that wouldn’t have happened if the proper legislation had been put in place to prevent it.”

Additional reporting by Lois Beckett