Candlelight square5/4/2023 ![]() “Even though they’re not my kids, they’re still our babies.” Victoria, 37, a mother there with her own two young children, told me she came “to support the families,” she said, noting that when children are involved, we’re all connected. “I’m confused about what might happen next.” “I’m a little bit more nervous to go to school now,” Rhett said. Her daughter, a fifth grader, was also shaken. It’s so easy to get an assault rifle it’s insane. I vote, and I do things, but it’s just not enough. Guns are the number-one cause of death in kids. “I’m so sick of this happening,” she told me. She’s a pediatric nurse at a free clinic in East Nashville. Lorianne Solms, lighting a candle for her 11-year-old daughter, Rhett, certainly knows about the brevity of life and the rising tide of danger for children. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images) Getty Images Jill Biden didn’t speak at the event, but instead stood silently and solemnly watching the proceedings, while her husband, President Joe Biden, remained back in D.C., calling on Congress to ban assault weapons in response to the Covenant shootings.įirst Lady of the United States Jill Biden and Nashville Fire Department Chief William Swann attend a candlelight vigil to mourn and honor the lives of the victims, survivors and families of The Covenant School on Main Nashville, Tennessee. “Grief is not partisan,” noted Caroline Vaughn with a sigh. But the vigil offered an opportunity to close the political divide, and perhaps ease the tension, in a few sacred moments of memorial for lives lost and suffering friends and family members, no matter what political colors anyone flies. Guns are a deeply entrenched political issue, and the Covenant shootings made that sore subject even more raw in Music City, where concerned citizens have renewed their calls for more action. The imposing government building was a symbolic backdrop for the hopes expressed by many that Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature - widely regarded as lax on gun regulation, registration and background checks - would enact stricter gun laws. The need for grieving was palpable as a crowd hungry for signs of stillness, safety, calm and reassurance huddled together at Nashville’s Public Square Park, on the grounds ringed by crews of national media in front of the city’s Metropolitan Courthouse. Getting together and mourning together is important-a little bit of collective grief and catharsis.” “It seems so surreal that it could happen here,” said Nashville resident Caroline Vaughn, 28. Police shot and killed the shooter, a former student, minutes after they arrived on the scene. To date, s ome 175 people have died at such incidents across America at schools and colleges, according to the Associated Press. ![]() Sheryl Crow, who has spent more than 15 years as a Nashville-area resident, accompanied herself at a piano to sing “I Shall Believe,” a hymn-like track from her breakthrough album “Tuesday Night Music Club.” The crowd soaked up the hopeful balm of the spiritually tinged ballad in the wake of the shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, the small Christian elementary academy where three children and three adults were killed by a 28-year-old assailant carrying two assault weapons and a pistol. ![]() The event was relatively brief - only about half an hour - but powerful and moving, attended by First Lady Jill Biden, a host of local and state elected officials, police officers, and clergy, along with the musicians who performed songs obviously chosen with great care for the somber occasion. A candlelight vigil in Nashville Wednesday night drew hundreds to grieve the victims of the mass school shooting which claimed six lives earlier this week, with local residents Sheryl Crow and Margo Price among those offering performances as part of the public grieving.
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