Local parents respond strongly following Texas school shooting

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (CW69 News at 10) — Metro Atlanta parents are reacting to the horrible news of the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. CW69’s Valencia Jones spoke with local parents who shared their thoughts on the tragedy.

Parents waited in a long line of cars outside Trip Elementary School Tuesday afternoon to pick up their kids after the last day of classes, and on the minds of many of those Gwinnett County parents was the tragic Texas elementary school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers and injured several others.

READ MORE: Affordable broadband expansion in Fulton County

Yosan Konan said she’s concerned about her kindergartener and fourth grader. “As a mom, I really don’t feel safe sending my kids to school anymore, because I feel like this can happen just about anywhere,” she said.

This comes weeks after police say Celeste Saunders shot at a Gwinnett County school bus carrying elementary students.

READ MORE: Stores have too much stuff; Get ready for discounts

Shaun Thompson’s kids attend Bay Creek Middle School and Grayson High School. “I just thought about how awful that was in this country for something like that to happen again, and I immediately thought about Sandy Hook,” he said, recalling the shooting at Sandy Hook Middle School shooting that left 28 people dead, including 20 children, in 2012. “I cannot even fathom the hole that’s torn in everyone’s heart that their child didn’t come home yesterday or they had waited at that location and they were told their child wasn’t going to show up,” he said, regarding the Texas shooting.

Thompson and Konan both echoed President Joe Biden’s response, calling for gun control. “The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong,” Biden said during a press conference following the shooting.

MORE NEWS: Delta Air Lines to ‘strategically decrease’ flights this summer

Gwinnett County police provided extra patrols around schools on Tuesday in an effort to comfort residents. Thompson said divine intervention may be the only solution to the repeated mass shootings. “We have to pray about everything, because you don’t know what tomorrow holds,” he said.