Amanda Gorman pens poem about Texas shooting, puts spotlight on gun violence

UVALDE, Texas -- Amanda Gorman is putting a spotlight on gun violence after 19 children and 2 adults were killed in a shooting at a Texas elementary school.

The 24-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate and author of "The Hill We Climb" took to Twitter following Tuesday's tragedy with a poem.

"Schools scared to death. The truth is, one education under desks, Stooped low from bullets;" she wrote. "That plunge when we ask Where our children Shall live & how & if"

Gorman also posted a series of tweets on gun violence.

"It takes a monster to kill children," she wrote. "But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn't just insanity -- it's inhumanity."

Tuesday's shooting unfolded shortly after 11:30 a.m. local time, officials said. The suspect, who also died in the shooting, was identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School. Officials said he allegedly shot and killed his grandmother before entering the school and opening fire.

Many Americans are still reeling from several shootings that have happened in the past month, including one at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store where 10 Black people were killed.

In response to the shooting, lawmakers, including President Joe Biden, addressed gun violence in the U.S. and pleaded that Congress "keep weapons of war off our streets."

"As a nation we have to ask when in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby," Biden said. "We have to act."