Sept 19 Layla Salazar

Today, September 19th, is the birthday of Layla Salazar. Layla should be turning 13 today but died in the Uvalde shooting at the age of 11. The family was from Chicago, but ironically, they moved to Uvalde to be in a safer place to raise their daughter. Layla loved to dance, swim, run, make TikTok videos, and watch the Dallas Cowboys. She excelled at field day, winning first in each of her races for 3 years in a row, and she was looking forward to pursuing track in junior high and high school. She was already planning for junior high and was particularly looking forward to having her own locker.
Each morning, she would sing all the way to school while her dad drove her in, then she would sing all the way home with her mom. Her favorite song was “Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. On special occasions when her grandparents picked her up, they would treat her to tacos. This motivated her to look for excuses for her grandparents to pick her up. For this and other reasons including her rambunctious spirit and high energy, her dad called her “a firecracker.”
The 18-year-old shooter acquired two AR-style semi-automatic rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammo in the days before his attack. He left a trail of warnings including telling several individuals that would be in the news soon. No one spoke up, and 19 children and 2 adults died before he was killed by responding officers 74 minutes into his attack. The director of the Texas DPS analyzed the response and stated that the attack should have been stopped within 3 minutes.
#sensiblegunlaws #remembertheirnames #banassaultweaponsnow