"Graduation in Uvalde gives tragedy-stricken town a night of normality"

STORYTELLING CATEGORY

The Texas Tribune
05/29/2022

In the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Texans again confronted the agonizing question of why gun violence is so prevalent, and how we became a state where a disturbed teenager can easily purchase military-grade weapons on his 18th birthday and set forth on a killing spree.

The answer, largely, is that Texas – politically, culturally and with religious fervor – has embraced one side of an irreconcilable argument over whether more or fewer guns make society safe.

In her insightful, skillfully crafted story “A gun and a prayer: How the far right took control of Texas' response to mass shootings,” Texas Tribune reporter Eleanor Klibanoff made what sense was possible out of a horrific moment, and provided a crucial framework for understanding the state's endemic pattern of mass gun violence.

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Submitted by Sewell Chan.