Kerry Kennedy felt paralysed. Uncontrollable noises escaped her mouth, later described as involuntary whimpering. Someone shouted 'Get down, get down' as Secret Service agents, weapons drawn, pushed chairs aside and hopped over a mosaic of bodies. When it was over, and Kennedy felt safe, her thoughts turned to the schoolchildren who witness gun violence daily in America.
Kennedy was traumatised by what she witnessed at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner last week, when a man breached security and opened fire. But she is no stranger to the impact of gun violence. She was just four when her uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, and eight when her father, Robert F. Kennedy, was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles five years later.
Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin was standing near Kennedy when the gunshots rang out. As everyone dived to the floor, he threw himself on top of her, acting as a 'human shield'. Raskin later told NPR that Kennedy's first thought after the incident was about the children who endure such trauma in classrooms across the country.
'When I was lying on that floor, I was thinking about my mother and my father,' Kennedy told The Independent. 'My parents had ten children, and my mother was pregnant with the eleventh. She was standing next to my father when the gunman killed him and shot five others. It is a miracle she survived. She got up every day afterward and made it through. What a superhero.'
Kennedy acknowledged her family's history of trauma but noted her access to psychiatrists and trauma specialists, resources unavailable to many children and families. 'Since my father and Martin Luther King were killed in 1968, 1.9 million Americans have lost their lives to guns. Think about that – 1.9 million. Every one of those people had family, friends, teachers, doctors. What country does this to its people? And it goes on and on.'
On April 20, five days before the dinner, two teenagers were killed in a park near a middle school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was the 32nd school shooting in America in 2026, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. Their database counts any instance where a gun is discharged on or onto a school campus. Of those 32 incidents, 14 died and 15 were injured.
Everytown insists gunfire at schools is just the tip of the iceberg. Their research shows that every year, more than 4,400 children and teens are shot and killed across America. Firearms are now the leading cause of death for children and teens. There are enough guns in circulation to arm every man, woman, and child, and more Americans have died from domestic gun violence since 1968 than in all US wars combined since the American Revolution.
'We live in a country where there are more gun sellers than McDonald's,' Kennedy said. 'For many Americans, owning a gun is part of being American. If you say "gun control", people think you will take away their hunting rifles. I would say fine, take away all the hunting rifles if it stops two million people from being killed. But I understand that will never happen.'
After every mass shooting, the fault line emerges: Republicans call for more mental health care, Democrats for gun control. Kennedy asked, 'Can't we deal with both? Of course we need mental health care. I am leading the parade for better mental health care across the board. We need to normalise talking about it, supply schools and workplaces with resources, and educate people about signs of depression and suicidal ideation. But I have seen Republicans vote down very basic gun control legislation. Everyone purchasing a gun needs a mental health background check. They won't even pass that.'
While Democrats in Congress have introduced bills mandating safe storage of guns, they have stalled or faced opposition from Republicans. Instead, the focus has shifted to school safety measures like bulletproof glass, metal detectors, and surveillance cameras, and mental health funding – strategies that avoid direct regulation of the firearms industry.
At the state level, the divide has deepened. In Tennessee, gun rights expansion has advanced through the courts. In August 2025, judges ruled unconstitutional two laws: one criminalising carrying a firearm 'with the intent to go armed', and another banning guns in public parks. In Texas, Republican leaders have repeatedly stymied efforts by Uvalde shooting victims' families to raise the age for semi-automatic rifles, despite polling showing 80% support. As of late 2025, six states had enacted 'anti-red flag' laws prohibiting courts from issuing Extreme Risk Protection Orders to temporarily seize guns from dangerous individuals. In Missouri, politicians have attempted to revive the Second Amendment Preservation Act, penalising police for cooperating with gun control efforts.
For families like those Kennedy advocates for, the message is clear. At the federal level, universal background checks, red flag laws, and safe storage mandates have repeatedly died in Congress, leaving states to fight alone. In Republican-led statehouses, the right to carry guns is treated as a fundamental absolute, even as the body count in classrooms continues to rise.
