Amanda Gorman has shared a poem on Twitter about the attack in Uvalde, Texas where a gunman killed at least 19 students and two adults at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday (24 May).
“Schools scared to death. The truth is, one education under desks, Stooped low from bullets; That plunge when we ask Where our children Shall live & how & if,” wrote the 23-year-old poet.
“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,” Gorman wrote.
“The truth is, one nation under guns.
“What might we be if only we tried. What might we become if only we’d listen.”
Eighteen-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos, a student at the Uvalde High School, carried out the mass shooting alone before being shot dead by law enforcement.
According to state senator Roland Gutierrez, Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming. “He suggested the kids should watch out,” the lawmaker told reporters.
The gunman reportedly shot his grandmother before driving to Robb Elementary just before midday on Tuesday.
“The suspect made entry into the school and as soon as he made entry into the school he started shooting children, teachers, whoever’s in his way,” Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told local media.
Soon after the incident, US president Joe Biden said it was time to “turn this pain into action” and finally make meaningful changes to US gun laws.
“Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” he said at the White House. “Where in God’s name is our backbone, to have the courage to deal with this and stand up to the [gun] lobbies?”
The school went into lockdown after the shooting occurred. Students there were transported to St Willie Delon Civic Centre where they will be reunited with their parents.
Follow live updates about the Texas school shooting here.
