Dear John,

Two years ago today, an eighteen-year-old walked into Robb Elementary School with an AR-15 rifle, slaughtering 19 children and two teachers. Seventeen others were injured in the carnage.

I’ll never forget the feeling of hearing that news. My mind went straight to the families of the victims and the incomprehensible amount of pain and grief they were going through.

We must do better as a nation. We cannot accept a society where this violence can occur, where someone can murder elementary schoolers indiscriminately. 

Yes, we have won some recent victories in the fight against gun violence. We introduced and passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first significant gun reform legislation in decades. But it’s not enough.

When my son Jordan was shot and killed in 2012, I prayed to God that no more mothers would have to go through the pain that I felt. We can’t bring back the innocent lives that were lost in Uvalde two years ago, but by enacting comprehensive gun control, we can prevent future tragedies.

The NRA and the Republican politicians they back must come to terms with the consequences of their actions. The consequences of blocking our attempts to make guns less accessible to those who should not have them.

John, thoughts and prayers are meaningless without action.

The families of the Uvalde victims deserve better, gun violence survivors deserve better, and I’ll do everything in my power to keep families safe against this heartbreaking epidemic of unnecessary gun violence.

Thanks for reading,

Lucy McBath