Horror author Stephen King responded to the mass shooting at the University of Virginia (UVA) on Sunday with an apologetic tweet toward a fellow author dealing with the aftermath of an all-too-common event in American society.
A man named Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr. allegedly opened on a bus full of students who were returning from a field trip, according to local reports. Three UVA football players were confirmed to be killed on Sunday: wide receivers Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler, and linebacker D’Sean Perry.
Author Richard Chizmar tweeted that his son was a student at UVA and that he woke up to 17 missed Facetime calls from him. “Active shooter—for the past 3 hours— at UVA. Woke up to 17 missed Facetimes from my son. A nightmare.”
A few hours later he said “My son is okay. Others are not. A long, sad, scary night.” King responded to this with a concerned and apologetic message.
This is not the first time the Carrie has responded to a mass shooting event. Last year around this time a 15-year-old student allegedly opened at Oxford High School, killing four and injuring many others.
King feels passionately about the gun issue, as evidenced in his non-fiction essay Guns written in 2013 following the Sandy Hook school shooting.
“Guns are not tools. … Autos and semi-autos are weapons of mass destruction. When lunatics want to make war on the unarmed and unprepared, these are the weapons they use. In most cases, they are bought legally. These killing machines are for sale on the Internet as I speak. The real question is … How many have to die before we will give up these dangerous toys?”