Torontonians react to mass school shooting in U.S.

Investigators search for evidences outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. Desperation turned to heart-wrenching sorrow for families of grade schoolers killed after an 18-year-old gunman barricaded himself in their Texas classroom and began shooting, killing several fourth-graders and their teachers. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The day after 19 children and two adults were shot to death in a Texas school massacre, Canadians are feeling sorrow for their neighbours.

“It’s sad, it is heart breaking,” said one woman exiting the subway.

Retired teacher Janice Genova told CTV News Toronto she cannot fathom being inside a classroom with a gunman firing at her young students.

“I just cringe. I can’t imagine being in a classroom with Grade 4’s and that happened and you have no chance of doing anything. You don’t even know that they are in the building. You can’t even hold and secure under the desks like you are taught.”

“For me I was obviously upset about it, I was really shocked with what is going on in the world, its really sad," one young school girl told CTV News Toronto.

Another said she was scared.

“I think it honestly really worries me because I don’t think children should have to worry about being shot by a random adult. They could literally do it any time”

Psychotherapist Roxanne Francis recommends parents of very young children not talk to them about the mass shooting, saying that at that age they don’t need to know about all the tragedy in the world.

‘I would say it depends on the age of the children. If the children are really little, if they are in junior kindergarten then I would say don’t bring it up unless they ask.”

But if they are in grade school, there could be an opening to talk.

“If the children are a little bit older, if they are in grade five, grade four, grade six you may want to say something like ‘something really tragic happened in the U S yesterday’, they maybe talking about it at school."

But the question of how to stop these mass school shootings weighs heavy on the minds of Canadians. Teresa Popanachi says the answer is simple--gun control.

“And the Senate should be able to understand that and pass the law that they can not sell those rifles to just anybody, especially an 18 year old.”

Doug Thompson says the answer is far from simple.

“The guns are already out there and they are going to last 100 years with minimal maintenance. So even if you turned off the tap tomorrow you’ve got 100 years of guns. A very difficult problem.”