In the deadliest school shooting in the decade after the Sandy Hook massacre, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in the city of Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, killing 19 students and two teachers. The gruesome shooting has evoked strong reactions from film personalities across the globe with Priyanka Chopra Jonas and R Madhavan urging the US government to find a solution to end rampant gun violence in the country.
Priyanka shared a news clipping of the shooting on her Instagram Stories and wrote, “Condolences are not enough. There needs to be more done. So tragic.”
“Really heartbreaking and heart-wrenching. There has to be an obvious solution to this,” Madhavan wrote on Twitter.
Actor Swara Bhasker called the shooting episode “horrific” and “tragic” and questioned why no amendment has been made to the US gun laws despite the occurrence of similar incidents in the past. “What the hell is going on in the USA?!! This is horrific and tragic! Seems entirely avoidable too… why are gun laws not changing in the USA? 14 children dead in a school & only 10 days after the #Buffalo shooting. My heart goes out to the parents & families,” she tweeted.
Richa Chadha said her heart goes to the families of the children, who have been killed. “America, where one half of the population believes guns don’t kill people and the other half constantly worries if they’re sending their kids to school to die. Heart goes out to the families of these children,” the actor wrote as she commented on a story about the death of a ten-year-old boy in the incident.
Describing the US as “a broken nation” with misplaced priorities, music composer Vishal Dadlani tweeted, “America. Where unborn foetuses are forced into the world to be shot down in elementary schools, yet ‘gun control’ is a bad word…”
According to new legislation signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, most abortions after 15 weeks will be banned in the American state. The shooting in Texas came less than two weeks after a gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 Black shoppers and workers in what officials have described as a hate crime.