The Texas School Massacre: Why Are We Failing to Protect Our Kids?

Readers express frustration at government inaction in the wake of the latest school shooting.

The New York Times – May 25, 2022

To the Editor:

Re “At Least 18 Children Shot Dead at School” (front page, May 25):

My daughter was born three days after Sandy Hook in 2012. She has never lived in a world where terrorism hasn’t been waged on elementary schoolers. She’s cowered in a dark closet or a cramped bathroom during a code red drill while her teachers urged her and her young classmates to stay quiet so the “bad man” doesn’t find them.

Because it’s always a man, typically young, who has decided the world has wronged him or owes him and chooses to terrorize those smaller than him. It’s coldblooded murder in a space that should remain safe.

My heart aches for those parents who have lost their children to such violence. And as a parent, I am furious.

How dare this country become complacent! How dare this country offer thoughts and prayers as parents lose the most important people in their lives!

We must do more. We need gun reform. We need assault rifles off the streets. We need background checks to keep guns out of the hands of those people unable to handle the responsibility.

This is no longer about the right to bear arms. This is now about the right to a childhood. This is about the right to grow up safe. This is about the right to life.

I call on Congress to prove to the American people that we care about our children more than firearms.

Fallan Patterson
Plantation, Fla.
The writer is a public high school teacher.