'I don't want it to happen again': Even our babies know we're failing to protect them from guns

Suzette Hackney, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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Oftentimes, when we dissolve to a new and unimaginable low in America, I'm perplexed as to how we got there. This takes a lot for a journalist like me to admit. I’ve spent decades reporting and writing about those low points (and many high ones, to be fair) and analyzing the reasons for them.

It’s factual storytelling 101: the who, what, when, where, how and why.

Yet as I watched congressional hearings about gun control Wednesday morning, as I listened to Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old fourth-grader, testify via a prerecorded video about how she had to use her friend’s blood and play dead to thwart the gunman who shot up her school in Uvalde, Texas, last month, all I could tearfully think was, "What am I witnessing?" "Who finds this acceptable?" "Why is this happening?" "How is this real life?"

We are here because America has a  gun problem

Let me be clear: I know how we got here. We got here because America has a gun problem. We got here because the origins of the Second Amendment are constantly bastardized for and by those who want to keep an arsenal in their basements. We got here because on any given day thousands of angry and dangerously unbalanced people can walk into gun shops, buy semi-automatic rifles and leave with them on that same day. We got here because someone who isn't deemed old enough to purchase alcohol can buy a weapon. We got here because the National Rifle Association and its blood money run Washington.

We got here because of cowardice.

Why do mass shootings keep happening? Because this is what we've allowed America to become.

I know how we got here. I’m just amazed that we’re willing to stay here. I’m unable to believe that Americans refuse to rise up and fight to protect one of our most vulnerable populations: our children. School shooting after school shooting. Thoughts and prayers. Hand wringing. Talk of mental health intervention. Sadly, it’s all for show.

Even though there are sensible solutions that could help this country chip away at the complex and deep-seated issues surrounding guns and the violence in our communities, we just sit back and allow people to kill kids in schools with military-style firepower.

Mass shootings didn't stop after Texas. They're all around us. Do you feel safe?

Oh, no, another one.

This time 19 students and two teachers are dead.

Rinse and repeat.

We're failing Uvalde survivor Miah Cerrillo, who doesn't feel safe

After watching the hearings and contemplating what I was going to write, I felt completely defeated. This is also very difficult for a journalist like me to admit. I got into this business to change the world, to dig for facts and solutions, to enlighten those willing to learn and elevate those who need a shoulder.

But I also know that even as we subjected that horrified town, those grieving families and surviving children and teachers to relive that painful day in the hopes of changing laws on Capitol Hill, it ultimately won’t mean a damn thing. And that may be the biggest tragedy of all.

Survivor Miah Cerrillo addresses Congress in a video, recounting the shooting attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Survivor Miah Cerrillo addresses Congress in a video, recounting the shooting attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

After sharing the grisly details of how the gunman entered her Robb Elementary School classroom and the adjoining one, how fourth graders tried to hide behind their teacher’s desk and backpacks, how he shot her friend next to her, how he shot her teacher in the head, Miah was asked if she feels safe in school. She vigorously shook her head.

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"Why not? the interviewer asked Miah.

"I don't want it to happen again."

When asked if she thinks it will happen again, Miah vigorously nodded and said, "Yes."

Even the babies know how much we are failing them.

National columnist/deputy opinion editor Suzette Hackney is a member of USA TODAY’S Editorial Board. Contact her at shackney@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @suzyscribe

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Uvalde shooting survivor afraid as we fail our kids on gun safety