Earlier today, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, traveled to the town of Uvalde in Texas to pay tribute to the 19 children and two teachers killed during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. The attack was the deadliest shooting at an American school since Sandy Hook in 2012, marking a grim new chapter in the ongoing fight for stricter U.S. gun control laws.
While Markle chose not to make any public statements during her visit, the unannounced appearance—which saw her lay a bouquet of white roses at the foot of a makeshift memorial to victims set up outside the Uvalde County Courthouse—made her the most high-profile figure to visit the town since the killings. (President Biden is expected to arrive in Uvalde, which sits 80 miles southwest of San Antonio, in the coming days.)
According to The Telegraph, Markle also paid a quiet visit to the Herby Ham Activity Center to support a blood drive taking place there, providing snacks and drinks for donors. The most emotional moment in Markle’s visit was her laying of flowers by a cross set up to honor the life of Uziyah Garcia, who was, at eight years old, the youngest victim of the shooting.
While Markle’s visit may offer little comfort to those whose friends and family members were killed during the massacre earlier this week, it reflects the heightened level of both anger and political activity that this latest tragedy has imprinted on the American public consciousness.
Yesterday, a press conference held by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who attempted to foist the blame onto “mental health illness,” was interrupted by the Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, who expressed his frustration in a public declaration that Abbott was “doing nothing.” Other impassioned statements over the past few days have come from the likes of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Connecticut senator Chris Murphy, whose advocacy around gun reform has made him a genuine agent of change. Whether all this can turn the dial towards action on a national level remains to be seen.