Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dakota Prescott said in the wake of this week’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas that he’s “fearful to have children.”
“I don’t know how something like that doesn’t impact everyone, I don’t care if you’re an athlete or not,” the 28-year-old quarterback told reporters after practice Wednesday.
“We’re talking about children. We’re talking about the future. I mean, I don’t have kids and can’t imagine having to send my kid to school with that anxiety. Honestly, it makes me fearful to have children, and that’s not right. That’s sad.”
Prescott, a two-time Pro Bowler, also mentioned that he planned to hold a community outreach event through his Faith Fight Finish Foundation, noting that there’s still much work to be done on gun reform.
“If yesterday and two weeks ago and all of what we’ve been through hasn’t been a call for each and every one of us for help, for our neighborhood and what’s going on with them individually and how we’re protecting, policing and serving one another throughout our community, something has to be done and a change has to happen now,” Prescott said.
Prescott’s remarks come after 19 schoolchildren and two teachers were killed and 17 other people were injured on Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas, when a gunman opened fire inside of a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School.
One of Prescott’s teammates, defensive end Demarcus Lawrence, also urged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to increase security at schools in wake of the shooting.
“It’s very hard. It’s nerve wracking,” Lawrence said. “Every time I have a chance to go in the locker room, I hit up my wife. ‘How are the kids? Are they home yet?’ It’s something you wouldn’t expect. But this is what we are dealing with.”
“This is all of us. All of us are going to have to step in,” Lawrence added. “Make sure we are builder a safer work space, safer environment for us to grow in.”
The massacres in Texas closely followed the May 14 mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., which resulted in the deaths of 10 people.
The Buffalo Bills and the NFL announced that they will contribute up to $400,000 to the city’s East Side neighborhood and community organizations in response to the shooting.