When Will These “Senseless Tragedies” End? President Biden and Vice President Harris React to Today’s School Shooting in Georgia

From 2000 to 2019, there were 350 school shootings across the United States.

It is only 2024 and there have already been 207 school shootings in this country since 2020.

There were only 354 school shooting incidents in the whole Twentieth Century and there have been 557 in the first 24 years of the Twenty First.

Today, during the first week of school in Georgia, a 14 year old high school student opened fire on his classmates and school staff at Apalachee High School in Winder. Four People are dead. Two of them children. Two others were teachers. Nine are injured.

When will these, to quote Vice President Kamala Harris, “senseless tragedies” at our nation’s schools end?

How many more Columbine’s or Newtown’s or Parkland’s or Uvalde’s do the nation’s children and families have to endure before most Republicans detach themselves from the National Rifle Association fundraising umbilical cord and strengthen the country’s gun control laws so parents no longer have to bury their children following another school shooting?

Reacting to the latest school shooting in Georgia, President Joe Biden said in a statement:

“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed. What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart. Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal…”

“…Ending this gun violence epidemic is personal to me. It’s why I signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the most meaningful gun safety bill in decades – and have announced dozens of gun safety executive actions. I also established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Harris. We’ve made significant progress, but this crisis requires even more.”

“After decades of inaction, Republicans in Congress must finally say ‘enough is enough’ and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation. We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers. These measures will not bring those who were tragically killed today back, but it will help prevent more tragic gun violence from ripping more families apart.”

Before delivering comments on helping develop small businesses in New Hampshire, Vice President Harris discussed today’s tragedy, stating:

“…Our hearts are with the students, the teachers, and their families of course and we are grateful to the first responders and law enforcement that were on the scene but this is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many other senseless tragedies.”

“And it’s just outrageous that every day, in our country, the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. It’s senseless. We’ve got to stop it and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all.”

“You know it doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way…I’m going off script right now but listen. I mean…last year, I started a college tour and I traveled our country meeting our young leaders…One of the things I asked every time I went to the auditorium filled with these young leaders-students and I asked them to raise their hand if at any point between kindergarten and twelfth grade you had to endure an active shooter drill…Almost every hand went up…Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God given potential and some part of their big, beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of the classroom. It does not have to be this way. It does not have to be this way.”

Readers can view the Vice President’s comments on today’s school shooting starting at 18:20.

The Vice President is right. “It does not have to be this way” and these “senseless tragedies need to stop.”

President Biden is right when he states “Republicans in Congress must finally say ‘enough is enough’ and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation.”

Again, how many funerals do Republicans have to see where parents are burying their children because of a tragic school shooting before they come to their senses and pass gun safety measures that reduce and hopefully eliminate these horrible events at United States schools?

How many?