“Someone who is not old enough to buy alcohol should not be allowed to purchase a firearm,” Kardashian wrote. “There is no world in which an 18 year old needs a semi automatic weapon, or any weapon, and no world in which the outcome can be anything other than tragic.”
Posted on May 26, 2022, 3:49 pm
Kim Kardashian penned an impassioned statement calling for lawmakers to take immediate action on gun control after 21 people were shot dead at a school in southwest Texas.
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Members of the community gather at the City of Uvalde Town Square for a prayer vigil in the wake of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
On Tuesday, an 18-year-old man entered Robb Elementary School in the small city of Uvalde and shot and killed at least 19 children and two adults. The children who died were between 7 and 10 years old.
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A memorial is seen surrounding the Robb Elementary School sign following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 26, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters on the day of the shooting that the gunman was shot dead at the scene.
JUST IN: Gov. Greg Abbott gives an update on the school shooting in Uvalde. INFO: https://t.co/rhVwftZh2Y
The attack has been declared the deadliest shooting at a grade school since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 and has once again sparked calls for lawmakers to enact stricter gun laws.
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Gun-control advocates hold a vigil outside of the National Rifle Association headquarters following the recent mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 25, 2022, in Fairfax, Virginia.
Among those utilizing their platforms was Kim Kardashian, who has a long history of speaking out about gun control legislation.
Two years later, she was one of many to assemble in Washington, DC, for the March for our Lives demonstration following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
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On Wednesday evening, Kardashian shared a lengthy statement to her hundreds of millions of social media followers urging government officials to enforce a ban on semiautomatic weapons.
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“The current laws in our country around gun control are not protecting our children. We have to push law makers to enact laws that are fitting in today’s world,” the statement read.
There is no excuse and no justification for what happened yesterday. The current laws in our country around gun control are not protecting our children. We have to push law makers to enact laws that are fitting in today’s world.
“Semi automatic weapons, assault weapons, weapons of war, should not be legally sold or owned by American civilians. They should be banned. Period,” she said.
Semi automatic weapons, assault weapons, weapons of war, should not be legally sold or owned by American civilians. They should be banned. Period.
It has emerged that the Uvalde gunman legally purchased his firearms in celebration of his 18th birthday just weeks prior to the shooting.
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Police officers stand near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 26, 2022.
The shooter obtained two semiautomatic AR-15 style rifles at a local federally registered gun dealership on May 17 and 20, and on May 18, he purchased 375 rounds of ammunition.
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An FBI agent walks by the outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022.
State Sen. Ronald Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, told CNN that purchasing the weapons was “the first thing” the gunman did when he turned 18, adding that he “had no problem accessing” them.
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Emergency officials clean up outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022.
In her statement, Kardashian highlighted that similar AR-15 semiautomatic rifles were used at a number of other mass shootings, including the Buffalo grocery store massacre where 10 people were killed less than two weeks prior to the Uvalde attack.
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Law enforcement officials are seen at the scene of a mass shooting at Tops Friendly Market on Sunday, May 15, 2022, in Buffalo, New York.
“Assault weapons are not a self defense tool. They are sophisticated weapons, designed to kill,” Kardashian said, before going on to note that these types of firearms weren’t even created when the Second Amendment was written.
Assault weapons didn’t even exist when the Second Amendment was written. We have to stop allowing people to use a sentence written centuries ago when technology, times, humanity were completely different, to dictate how we regulate gun ownership, & how we protect our kids today.
“We have to stop allowing people to use a sentence written centuries ago when technology, times, humanity were completely different, to dictate how we regulate gun ownership, & how we protect our kids today,” she added.
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Community members embrace and mourn together at a vigil for the 21 victims in the mass shooting at Rob Elementary School on May 25, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
Kardashian also compared the ages of the Uvalde gunman and the suspected shooters in the Parkland and Buffalo attacks, who were both also 18, noting that they reportedly were all able to purchase their weapons legally.
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Nikolas Cruz, who could face the death penalty if convicted of murdering 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in court with his attornies on April 11, 2018.
“These are teenagers. Someone who is not old enough to buy alcohol should not be allowed to purchase a firearm,” she wrote. “There is no world in which an 18 year old needs a semi automatic weapon, or any weapon, and no world in which the outcome can be anything other than tragic.”
Someone who is not old enough to buy alcohol should not be allowed to purchase a firearm. There is no world in which an 18 year old needs a semi automatic weapon, or any weapon, and no world in which the outcome can be anything other than tragic.
And though some have called for more mental health resources to be put in place within communities to better support teens and prevent devastating attacks, Kardashian stated that access to weapons is the first thing lawmakers should be addressing.
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“There are of course people over 21 who buy guns to cause harm, and other mass shootings in recent years have been carried out by people over 21,” she wrote. “But if we increase [the] legal age to purchase, coupled with a ban on assault weapons, we can without a doubt reduce the number of senseless tragedies and save children’s lives.”
but if we increase legal age to purchase, coupled with a ban on assault weapons, we can without a doubt reduce the number of senseless tragedies and save children’s lives.
Like many, Kardashian emphasized that people must not become desensitized to such brutal attacks, writing, “We can’t accept it. We can’t have another five years go by without effective, impactful laws put in place to protect our kids.”
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A family grieves outside of the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.
“We are parents, we are mothers, we are begging and pleading for action,” she said. “I’m urging our leaders to come together and put politics aside and put children first.”
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She finished the statement by referring to a similar post she published back in 2017 in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
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Demonstrating how little has changed to protect lives and enact stricter gun control, Kardashian shared some excerpts from the five-year-old statement, which tragically echoed many of the issues she raised in response to the Uvalde shooting.
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Community members mourn at a vigil for the 21 victims of the mass shooting at Rob Elementary School on May 25, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
“Here is my blog post from 2017, unfortunately it has not aged,” she concluded.
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