'As the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing. What are we doing?'
After a gunman shot up a Texas elementary school Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., addressed his colleagues on the Senate floor:
Kids dead in an elementary school in Texas right now. What are we doing? What are we doing?
Days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African American patrons we have another Sandy Hook on our hands. What are we doing?
There are more mass shootings than days in the year. Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in a classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?
Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority? … As the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing. What are we doing?
Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day
Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this? This isn’t inevitable. These kids weren't unlucky. This only happens in this country and nowhere else. Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.
Don't look away from Buffalo tragedy: In our silence, racism thrives
Donna Brazile: George Floyd, the Black people killed in Buffalo ought to be alive
Nowhere else do parents have to talk to their kids as I have had to do about why they got locked into a bathroom and told to be quiet for five minutes just in case a bad man entered that building. Nowhere else does that happen except here in the United States of America. And it is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue. What are we doing?
In Sandy Hook Elementary School after those kids came back into those classrooms, they had to adopt a practice in which there would be a safe word that the kids would say if they started to get thoughts in their brain about what they saw that day. If they started to get nightmares during the day reliving stepping over their classmates’ bodies as they tried to flee the school. In one classroom, that word was "monkey." And over and over and over through the day, kids would stand up and yell "monkey.” And a teacher or a paraprofessional would have to go over to that kid, take them out of the classroom, talk to them about what they had seen, work them through their issues.
Sandy Hook will never ever be the same. This community in Texas will never ever be the same. Why? Why are we here if not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fewer communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through, what Uvalde is going through? Our heart is breaking for these families. Every ounce of love and prayers we can send we are sending.
Stop sending this quiet message of endorsement to these killers
But I’m here on this floor to beg – to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely. I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything I support, but there is a common denominator that we can find. There is a place where we can achieve agreement, that may not guarantee that America never ever again sees a mass shooting, that may not overnight cut in half the number of murders that happen in America. It will not solve the problem of American violence by itself but, by doing something, we at least stop sending this quiet message of endorsement to these killers whose brains are breaking, who see the highest levels of government doing nothing, shooting after shooting.
What are we doing? Why are we here? What are we doing?
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: Texas school shooting: Sen. Chris Murphy asks, 'What are we doing?'
