Texas elementary school shooting echoes the Sandy Hook massacre

The United States is once again reeling from a shocking act of violence inside an elementary school — an institution where the most innocent are supposed to feel safe.

Nearly 10 years after the Sandy Hook massacre, one of the most horrific mass shootings in American history, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday, killing 14 students and a teacher.

The killings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a town about 85 miles west of San Antonio, recalls the agony of other tragedies, such as the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.

But the violence stirs especially painful memories of Dec. 14, 2012, the day 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

In an especially grim parallel between the two events, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News they were investigating whether the Texas suspect shot his grandmother before the incident. Lanza shot and killed his mother before he drove to Sandy Hook.

Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization founded by the parents of victims, reacted to the Texas news on Twitter: “We are devastated about reports that multiple people are dead, including children.

“Our hearts are with the families and community as this tragic story unfolds,” the organization added.

The tweet was accompanied by a hashtag: #EndGunViolence.

Democratic politicians and gun control advocates expressed their shock over the Uvalde killings and renewed their calls for legislative action.

“It has been nearly a decade since Sandy Hook and gun safety legislation has been repeatedly blocked,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., tweeted. “Unconscionable.”

President Joe Biden, who served under former President Barack Obama at the time of the Newtown killings, has been briefed on the attack and will address the nation Tuesday evening, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter.

Story continues

The White House said the briefing will be at 8:15 p.m. ET from the Roosevelt Room.

Fred Guttenberg, a gun control advocate whose daughter Jamie was killed in the Parkland shooting, fought back tears in a live interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, expressing his condolences to the parents of children killed in Uvalde.

“Their world is spinning,” Guttenberg said of the Uvalde parents, describing them as people “who right now have to think, ‘How am I going to plan a funeral?’ Who right now have to think, ‘What kind of casket?’ Who right now have to think, ‘All I did was send them to school.'”