Statement in Response to School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas

The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center grieves for and stands in solidarity with the families of those lost in yesterday’s elementary school shooting in the predominantly Latinx community of Uvalde, Texas. There are no words to adequately express the pain of this event. It is the deadliest school shooting since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, in 2012, and it comes on the heels of the horrific shootings of African American residents in Buffalo, New York, and Asian American residents in Laguna Woods, California, and Dallas, Texas. Since January 1 of this year, thousands of people have been killed by guns in the United States.

We need to demand that our elected officials pass expansive gun reform legislation and increase support for mental health services now. It is unconscionable that gun-related deaths in the United States are so frequent and claim the lives of so many.

May 25, 2022