HPAE releases statement on Texas school shooting

Please attribute the following statement to HPAE President Debbie White, RN:

This tragic moment calls on us all to be compassionate not just to the families of 19 children and two adults senselessly killed yesterday in Uvalde, Texas, but also to the anguished soul of an 18-year-old who perpetrated this tragedy. A few days before that, another 18-year-old killed innocent people grocery shopping in Buffalo, NY.  Such needless and senseless destruction!

We learned a few years ago that America has 4 percent of the world’s population but more than 46 percent “of the estimated 857 million weapons in civilian hands at the end of 2017.”

We should certainly pray for the families of the victims and perpetrators of these killings and keep them in our thoughts but, also, know this: Gun violence is a public health issue.

 We are also a deeply polarized society, seemingly unable—or unwilling—to take common-sense steps necessary to protect ourselves from this unrelenting violence. We are in desperate need of help because we are a society overflowing with guns while we are mired deep in a mental health crisis following more than two years of a global pandemic.

We are calling on HPAE members to talk to their families and neighbors as well as their elected representatives to seek common ground on solutions that will serve us all and save us this endless grief.

Fore more information, contact: Michael Allen, (646) 436-7556.