Statement from Rob Menendez on Texas Elementary School Mass Shooting

“The reports coming in from Uvalde, Texas, about a mass shooting at an elementary school that took the lives of 14 young children and a teacher are absolutely devastating. The shooter was only 18 years old, just like the perpetrator of the supermarket massacre in Buffalo last week. It is incomprehensible that after Virginia Tech, after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, that absolutely nothing has been done on the federal level to stop these massacres.

“For as long as the NRA and its bought-and-paid-for politicians block all meaningful gun safety reform in D.C., none of our children, our parents, brothers, sisters, family, or friends will be safe from gun violence, whether in a school, a place of worship, or a supermarket. We are not safe, and this has to end. We cannot accept a reality in which disturbed individuals have easier access to weapons of war than they do mental health resources.

“One dead child is one too many. That today 14 children and a teacher have senselessly lost their lives is beyond tragic. We must stand up to the gun lobby and its enablers to save lives and stop this bloodshed. While it has been said too many times, and unfortunately will be said many times hereafter, my heart aches for each child, teacher, parent, and family member impacted by today’s shooting, as my heart also aches for our country.”