SANTA FE, Texas – This week it was Nashville. Nearly five years ago, it was Santa Fe.
Back in 2018, eight students and two teachers were killed at a high school near the Houston area.
“I can’t believe it happened again,” Rhonda Hart said.
Hart is the mother of Santa Fe victim Kimberly Vaughan.
She says something needs to be done to prevent mass shootings from happening in schools.
Hart says she’s tired of the school shootings. She was in Austin over the weekend with several families from Uvalde for a rally.
Nearly 48 hours later, the mass shooting in Nashville happened. Hart is working closely with Senators Mayes Middleton and Roland Gutierrez and hopes the laws will change.
Sitting on her front porch, Hart shared a portrait of her daughter.
“This year in August, it would have been her 20th birthday,” she said.
Kimberly was killed in the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018. Hart says she misses her a lot.
The Nashville community is now grieving the loss of three adults and three children following a school shooting on Monday.
“I’m so tired of it,” Hart said.
The Nashville shooter was heavily armed with assault-type weapons and was under care for an emotional disorder.
Tennessee and Texas do not have any “red flag” laws which would take away firearms from a person who may be a danger to themselves or others.
“If Texas had had an extreme risk protection order, or a red flag law, the Santa Fe School shooting would not have happened because the dad in that family knew that his kid was unwell,” she said.
Hart believes states should have a comprehensive background check, safe storage for all firearms, and limited access to AR-15s.
“Those are weapons of war designed to kill the enemy on the battlefield, and they need to be reserved for military and law enforcement,” she said.
Hart hopes there won’t be any other mass shootings and families won’t have to experience the pain of losing a child.
“Everybody on both sides of the aisle…Democrat, Republican, you all need to get your head out of your third points of contact, and you need to do something about gun reform,” Hart said.
President Biden is urging Congress to pass an assault weapons ban. Hart says she will continue to fight for gun reform.
She shared her five steps she says she uses every day and hopes it will be beneficial to families who are grieving:
Drink five glasses of water
Try to get four hours of sleep
Eat three times a day
Brush your teeth twice a day
Take a shower
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