On May 14th, 18-year-old-Peyton Gendron shot and killed 10 people, injuring 2 more in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The 10 people that Gendron killed were Black, while Gendron himself was white. Officials are considering this event a hate crime.
While the shooting was taking place, Gendron streamed the event as it was taking place to an online platform, called Twitch. According to an online diary that belonged to Gendron, months of arranging and detailed planning of this live-streamed attack on Black people led up to the shooting.
This shooting has affected countless people, but there is a big question: how has the Buffalo shooting has affected young Black people in America?
“I was mad because I thought we had started to move past things like this, but obviously not,” Woodside freshman Dumace Bell said. “It made me mad to find out the shooter also live-streamed the shooting. It made me sick to my stomach.”
At one point in the video, which was circulating on Twitter after the shooting took place, Gendron accidentally pointed his gun at a white person hiding behind the checkout counter. He then apologized by saying, “Sorry!” and continued to violently kill Black customers in the supermarket.
“I was shocked,” Woodside freshman Ashlee Vigil said. “I couldn’t believe how violent the crime was, and how blatantly racist someone could be. The amount of hate [Peyton Gendron] had against Black people completely blew me away.”
This violent event left many students worried about similar shootings taking place in the near future.
“I was afraid, and I wondered if more racially motivated shootings were going to happen,” Vigil admitted.
The Buffalo shooting has impacted many around the country and the world.
“It will probably have long-lasting effects and will remind people how something needs to change,” Bell said.
Only 10 days after the Buffalo shooting, a horrific school shooting unfolded at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Although the Uvalde shooting was not racially motivated, both of these violent crimes have sparked desperate protests for gun reform.
“There will definitely be a lot of fear: fear for themselves and their loved ones,” Vigil predicted. “There’ll be anger, too, maybe for lack of gun control, and possibly protests.”
Indeed, there were protests. People across the nation are demanding stronger gun control after more shootings keep happening. Protesters holding signs that read, “No more silence, end gun violence” and “Protect kids, not guns” have marched at events such as the NRA (National Rifle Association) convention on May 27th.
“We need to stop shootings, and whether that’s gun control, or just making guns unavailable to purchase,” Bell said.
Republican lawmakers have been protecting the second amendment for a long time, and many states still have gun-friendly laws. Ultimately, it is evident something needs to be done in order to end the gun violence.
“We need more gun control and tougher laws,” Vigil explained. “We need people to come together and put our beliefs aside, and recognize that countless lives are being lost because of the lack of gun control.”
