A survivor of a 2022 mass shooting shared her exasperation over gun violence with the press at the scene of the Nashville school massacre that left six people dead on Monday.
Ashbey Beasley attended the bloody Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, US, on the morning of July 4 last year.
Seven people died on that day and 48 others were wounded by bullets or shrapnel after a shooter fired a rifle down at the crowd from a rooftop above the parade.
The traumatic experience led Ms Beasley to start lobbying in support of gun control laws, she said, and when she found herself near the scene of the tragic shooting at the Covenant School, she stepped in front of the cameras.
"Aren’t you guys tired of covering this? Aren’t you guys tired of being here and having to cover all of these mass shootings?" Ms Beasley told journalists.
She explained she was on a family vacation with her son to Nashville, Tennessee when news of the shooting broke.
And she continued: "I have been lobbying in DC since we survived a mass shooting in July.
"I have met with over 130 lawmakers. How is this still happening? How are our children still dying, and why are we failing them?"
"Gun violence is the number one killer of children and teens. It has overtaken cars. Assault weapons are contributing to the border crisis and fentanyl. We are arming cartels with our guns and our loose gun laws.
"And these mass shootings will continue to happen until our lawmakers step up and pass gun safety legislation."
As Nashville residents reeled from the fatal grade school shooting that left six dead, including three children, tensions ran high among state lawmakers.
On the same day as the Nashville shooting, a federal judge approved a legal settlement lowering the minimum age to carry handguns without a permit in Tennessee from 21 to 18.
That came just two years after a new law set the age at 21.
Republicans this year have introduced bills that would make it easier to arm teachers and allow college students to carry weapons on campus.
Meanwhile, Democrats called for action on gun control — and got their microphones cut off by Republican leadership for criticising their GOP colleagues' love of the Second Amendment.
"Prayers are good, but faith without works is dead," Democratic state Sen. Raumesh Akbari implored with a biblical reference. "Let’s not let another preventable tragedy unfold without this legislature taking real action.”
