The chorus of angry and sorrowful cries continue as yet another mass shooting shocks our nation. This time the once unimaginable struck close to home as Huguenot High School students left the Altria Theater ready to celebrate their newly minted diplomas with family and friends.

Shots rang out and amid the chaos people ran for cover. Most of those fearing and fleeing for their lives survived. Screaming ambulances carried seven others to hospital emergency rooms. Death claimed two of the wounded.

Response from elected officials was swift and unending—just like the gunfire and killings that seem to have found a sweet spot in Richmond.

From Rep. Jennifer McClellan from the halls of Congress:

“We shouldn’t have to live like this. What should have been the happiest day of those kid’s lives turned into every parent’s worst nightmare. Those kids’ saw their freshman year cut short by COVID. They should have felt the joy, yesterday and last night, of graduating. Instead, their final memory of high school is marred forever by trauma.

“The active shooter drills they endured throughout their school years did not prepare them for a shooting at their graduation. Or in a public park. In a grocery store. At a theater. At their house of worship. At a concert. At the mall. Walking down the street. On a highway. In their home. Where are they safe?”

From Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Sears:

“Even if you took all the guns off the street, from the law-abiding citizens, the others who mean harm, who mean to kill and mayhem, they’re going to have the guns,” she said when speaking to the press Tuesday. “So we have to figure out what’s going on in our communities. We have to find the right problem, so that we can come to the right solution.”

From the Democratic Party of Virginia Chairwoman Susan Swecker, who rebuked the lieutenant governor’s comments:

“Our thoughts today continue to be with the victims and families of this evening’s mass shooting in Richmond. These grieving families in Richmond and across the Commonwealth are why we fight for common sense gun safety legislation. It is to prevent tragedies like this that we champion an assault weapons ban, background checks, and red flag laws.

We are disgusted, yet hardly surprised, by Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears’ comments following yesterday’s shooting in Richmond. She campaigned as a hardline pro-gun ‘activist’ and a poster child for the NRA. Simply put, serious times need serious, thoughtful leadership – and Lieutenant Governor Sears is not a serious leader. I’m calling upon Governor Youngkin to publicly disavow her comments.”

From the Richmond Branch NAACP President James “JJ” Minor:

Gun violence is of a major concern to our nation, and especially to the communities served and represented by the Richmond, Virginia Branch NAACP. Curbing that violence, at every opportunity is a concern and major priority. Our condolences go out to all the families in the past and recent homicides in the RVA region. We are praying for all victims affected by this plague of violence and praying for a speedy recovery of the surviving victims and their families.

From the Richmond Free Press:

Elected officials: Stop talking, stop the madness and do something. Now.

Our young people and our residents deserve better than having to constantly witness the city’s carnage and violence.

During Tuesday’s shooting, Daisy Jane Cooper Johnson, the daughter of Bettie Elizabeth Boyers Cooper, a Black woman whose federal lawsuit more than 60 years ago led to the integration of the City’s schools, was nearly gunned down as she approached the Altria to watch her 17-year-old grandson graduate from Thomas Jefferson High School’s ceremonies, which were to follow Huguenot’s.

One can only imagine what Mrs. Cooper would think of Tuesday’s bloodletting.

During an honorary street renaming ceremony yesterday for Mrs. Cooper, her granddaughter, Kelly Johnson-Crowley, lovingly spoke of her grandmother who died last October at age 94. She also mentioned this week’s tragedy.

“This is a bittersweet moment ... it should be a happy occasion but my son got to graduation yesterday and had to turn around because of the shooting, said Mrs. Johnson-Crowley. But I’m just really thankful that we’re able to gather and do this in her honor.”