US Senator Chris Murphy reacted with horror to the massacre at an elementary school in the state of Texas and addressed moving words to his Senate colleagues. “What are we doing?” asked the Democrat on Tuesday afternoon (local time) in the US Congress. “Why do you spend so much time running for the United States Senate? Why bother getting this job (…) when your answer is that while this slaughter increases and our children run for their lives, we do nothing,” he asked, clearly struggling. “Why are we here?”

At least 19 children and two adults were killed in an elementary school shooting in the small town of Uvalde near San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said after the attack. The shooter is also dead.

Murphy is from the state where 20 young children were killed in a 2012 massacre at an elementary school in the town of Sandy Hook. Such massacres are not inevitable. “It only happens in this country. And nowhere else,” Murphy said. “Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.” Murphy added, “It’s our decision whether this goes ahead.”