As the Uvalde, Texas community continues to struggle with the aftermath of last month’s mass murder at Robb Elementary School, an NFL team with no obvious ties to the tragedy is stepping in with a major contribution.
Via Albert Breer of SI.com, a front-page story in the Uvalde Leader-News reports that a $1 million contribution has been made by the Las Vegas Raiders.
The story explains that the donation was sparked by conversations between team owner Mark Davis and former Raiders safety (and retired NFL agent) Vann McElroy, who grew up in Uvalde and resides there now.
The money is aimed at fortifying the campuses of the Uvalde school district. The issue of making it harder for a shooter to get in raises real questions about the ease of getting kids out. It also represents an express capitulation to the concept that school shootings are inevitable.
Unfortunately, they are. And if sweeping changes won’t be made to restrict the ability of some American citizens who are unfit to responsibly own a BB gun to amass an arsenal of assault rifles, another solution is needed. It’s sad and depressing and dystopian that it’s come to this, but come to this it has. Unless and until real steps will be taken to minimize the ability of potential mass murderers to acquire weapons that allow mass murders to be made with lightning speed and precision, soft targets containing the most vulnerable among us must be hardened, in effective ways.
Hopefully, the money donated by the Raiders will put to the best possible use in order to keep the students in Uvalde safe. Hopefully, other communities will do the same. Ideally, we’ll get back to a time where such measures aren’t needed.
The saddest truth in all of this is that those days may be gone forever.