Just hours after a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, opened fire at the school, killing 17 people and injuring 14 others, "thoughts and prayers" started pouring in from politicians — and people from all walks of life started calling on those elected officials to offer up more than just expressions of sympathy.
On February 15, talk show host Kelly Ripa veered away from the lighthearted tone she usually brings to Live With Kelly and Ryan to speak about gun violence and how the terrible event one day prior was affecting children across the country — including her own.
"Don't know how many times this is going to happen," Ripa started. "I don’t know how many times it has to happen for a school shooting, a mass shooting of this caliber, before somebody does something, before people really get into it.”
Ripa admitted that she knows some viewers will dismiss her because she's "a talk show host." But she was quick to counter that she's also a mom of three kids: Michael (20), Lola (16), and Joaquin (14).
"I had to talk my kids off a ledge this morning because they were afraid to go to school," she said. "I said to my kids, follow the instructions of the school, you have these drills in place. Unfortunately, my kids have grown up having these drills in place — they just don't just have fire drills anymore, they have active shooter drills which is so tragic to me."
Ripa argued that there needs to be a bigger, better dialogue since the U.S. has failed, time and time again, to find a solution to gun violence. The studio audience agreed with her, applauding throughout her passionate speech.
"Offering thoughts and prayers are not enough anymore," Ripa said to cohost Ryan Seacrest. "I can't imagine the horror of the parents of that school, or any school when this happens, or any place where this happens."
Ripa ended her monologue by discussing the conversation she had with her kids that morning — and why she feels as though she's doing them a disservice by trying to comfort them.
"You know what to do in the event of this happening, even though it's highly unlikely. You know what to do. You've been trained," she explained. "You don't want to mislead your kids and say this is never going to happen, you hope and pray it doesn't happen, but when they are inundated with these images every day, day after day, all the time, you start to feel like a liar, and I don't like feeling that way."
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