This editorial is written with a heavy heart — and sense of helplessness.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday afternoon that a gunman had just killed 14 students and a teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 85 miles west of San Antonio. We also learned many more injured students and another adult were rushed to hospitals.

Dozens of parents are grieving now over the senseless loss of their young sons and daughters.

This shooting comes on the heels of another mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo that left 10 Black shoppers dead. In this particular tragedy, we learned the 18-year-old gunman was shackled with hatred in his heart.

“This was pure evil,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said, calling the shooting a “straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community.”

At this point, we don’t know the Texas gunman’s motive. Texas officials are reporting this gunman was also 18 years old.

Is there any connection between the two shootings? It’s too early know.

What we do know is such mass shootings are causing extreme pain across our nation. And that pain is currently being felt in Texas.

Today we mourn the loss of 14 young innocent lives and a teacher. And we offer prayers to the families.

But tomorrow we need to discuss solutions to avoid this sense of helplessness and utter despair in the future.