Mike Levin: “I am saddened to come to the floor this afternoon to speak about a tragedy that occurred yesterday in my home State of…”

“I am saddened to come to the floor this afternoon to speak about a tragedy that occurred yesterday in my home State of Michigan. Yesterday morning, in room No. 6 at Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township near Flint, a first-grade student allegedly shot and killed his young classmate, Kayla Rolland. We don't yet know all the facts about how the first-grader gained access to the handgun or whether the shooting was accidental or intentional. We do know, however, that one girl lost her young life in this tragedy and the children at Buell Elementary are scared and confused and their parents deeply concerned. Although grief counselors and social workers are at the elementary school now and will work their hardest to help these children understand and cope with the trauma, there is really no amount of counseling that can replace the innocence these children have lost. The class of 22 students who witnessed the shooting is looking for answers and so are most of the rest of us. How can we make sense of this tragedy and the apparent relative ease with which a 6-year-old brought a 32-caliber semiautomatic handgun to school? It is impossible to come to terms with this or any of the other shooting tragedies in this country that claim the lives of 12 children on the average each day. Yet always after a tragedy such as this one, we ask ourselves if it could have been prevented. The answer is a resounding yes.…”