May 25, 2022
For Our Children’s Safety Congress Needs to Hear from You Today!
A Statement by Brenda V. Castillo, President & CEO, National Hispanic Media Coalition
There are no words to describe the heartbreak NHMC feels as we begin to mourn alongside the Uvalde community for the 21 innocent lives lost, the majority of which were Brown children, in yesterday’s senseless and preventable shooting in the predominantly Latino American town in Texas. We cannot continue on with business as usual - or become numb to the fact - that our niños are being murdered, and our government does nothing to stop or prevent it.
In fact, instead of preventing this horrific tragedy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has worked tirelessly to expand access to guns in Texas, bragging about making Texas a
permitless open carry state just last year. Even in the wake of this murder of elementary school children and teachers, Governor Greg Abbott is scheduled to make a speech at the National Rifle Association’s Annual Conference in Houston this Friday. NHMC calls on Governor Abbott and Republican Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn to withdraw their participation immediately from the NRA’s conference. We believe this is the least Texas politicians can do to pay their respects to the Uvalde victims.
Ten years after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and only 11 days after two mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Laguna, California, the American carnage ravages our nation. While mass shootings have been linked to mental health issues, disinformation, or hate and extremism, these massacres are uniquely American problems that disproportionately target historically and intentionally marginalized communities, like the Latinx community.
In the ten years since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, we’ve taken so little action as to allow another 3,800+ mass shootings to occur under our watch, including the El Paso massacre in 2019, which also robbed innocent Latinos of their safety in their everyday activities. Hate–and the disinformation that fuels it–must be addressed before taking more innocent lives. NHMC urges Congress to end this madness and pass common-sense gun reforms to prevent the overwhelming and non-ending mass shootings from killing our communities.
We also call on you, our NHMC familia, to use your voice to help us drive change by calling Governor Greg Abbott’s office demanding he withdraws from his NRA speaking engagement at (512) 463-1800 or
here. In addition, we ask that you
join us in calling your Senators to demand they stand up to the gun lobby and support gun reform legislation, H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, which was slated to the Senate’s legislative calendar late last night.
Some Republicans have prevented multiple efforts at common-sense reforms to end this carnage at the state and federal levels. They love their guns more than our very own children, something that is perplexing given that they claim to be the party protecting life. As President Biden stated, “[w]hen in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby.” The time is now.
NHMC demands greater accountability from our elected officials and urges for passage of federal gun reform laws to stop the carnage of murdering our communities. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Action is needed now to protect our children, families, and communities from the plague of gun violence killing our nation.
Yours in the Movement,
Brenda Victoria Castillo
President & CEO
National Hispanic Media Coalition
