CHICAGO – State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago), enraged at yesterday’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, issued the following statement demanding that state and national leaders put a stop to gun tragedies:

“Again, we stand at the cross-roads of a senselessly politicized debate over the right to human life. Another school shooting has incessantly taken the lives of young children –sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, cousins and friends. The perpetrator of yesterday’s mass shooting had a mission: he set out to murder, and because of his access to a deadly firearm, he was able to shoot and kill nineteen students and two teachers in a facility that predominantly served Latino students.

“The terror of not having a safe space to exist because a nation’s rifles are poised against you is a pandemic in itself, yet leaders on the state and national level refuse to hold each other accountable and address the violence happening across the country. There can be no debate on constitutional rights when human rights are not respected, but still our country needlessly talks in circles, skipping over the issue at hand while hundreds continue to lose their life prematurely and without reason.

“America is in crisis. Our condolences are not enough. Statements mean nothing if there is no action behind them. Our country is in a state of emergency, and we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent to the issue at hand while innocent lives are at stake.”