Kim Kardashian calls for tighter gun control after Texas shooting: I'm 'heartbroken'

Kim Kardashian is speaking out about gun violence after the Texas school shooting, in which 19 children and two teachers lost their lives.

Earlier this week an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom.

The death toll also included two teachers, while the attacker was killed by a Border Patrol agent who rushed towards the school with a tactical support team.

Now, two days after the horrifying event, Kardashian has issued a statement in support of gun control.

The 41-year-old reality star shared a lengthy message to social media, calling for political leaders in the US to put "politics aside and put children first".

Kardashian began by drawing attention to a blog post she wrote five years ago, in which she asked, “Is it more important to protect the second amendment than to protect our own children?”

“Yesterday 19 children were murdered by an 18-year-old, and I find myself heartbroken, disgusted and furious about how little has been done by law makers to enact gun laws that protect our children,” she said.

“There is no excuse and no justification for what happened yesterday. The current laws in our country around gun control are not protecting our children.

"We have to push law makers to enact laws that are fitting in today’s world. Semi automatic weapons, assault weapons, weapons of war, should not be legally sold or owned by American civilians. They should be banned. Period.”

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The Skims founder went on to note that AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles have been used in a number of mass shootings in recent years, but added that they didn't even exist when the Second Amendment was written.

"We have to stop allowing people to use a sentence written centuries ago when technology, times, humanity were completely different, to dictate how we regulate gun ownership, & how we protect our kids today," she wrote.

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She went on to share her thoughts on the impact the legal age to purchase a firearm has on the situation and called for the age limit to purchase a firearm to be raised from 18 to 21 years old.

“Someone who is not old enough to buy alcohol should not be allowed to purchase a firearm," she wrote. "There is no world in which an 18-year-old needs a semi automatic weapon, or any weapon, and no world in which the outcome can be anything other than tragic."

While she pointed out that mass shootings have also been carried out by those over the age of 21, she believes raising the age limit coupled with a ban on assault weapons could "reduce the number of senseless tragedies and save children's lives".

Kardashian went on to urge politicians to take action to protect children in schools from gun violence.

“We can’t accept this as normal anymore," she wrote. "It’s not normal for a teenager to kill children. It’s not normal for our kids to be practicing active shooter drills in schools. It’s not normal to be shot while shopping for groceries. I’m not numbed by it. I will never be numbed by it.”

The reality TV star concluded her emotional post by highlighting the impact the shooting will have had on the children who survived the attack.

“Imagine the entire classroom of children who witnessed their friends die in front of them,” she wrote. “The trauma will last a lifetime for everyone involved. Words can’t express my heartbreak for the parents whose babies didn’t come home from school yesterday. I’m urging our leaders to come together and put politics aside and put children first.”

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Other members of the Kardashian family have also shared their thoughts on the fatal shooting.

In a social media post, newlywed Kourtney Kardashian wrote: “Schools should be a place where our kids go to learn, to make friends, to laugh, to grow, to discover themselves. A safe place where they can envision their futures. Not a place where their futures are taken away from them. How have we gotten to a point where it is acceptable for our children to be murdered in their schools?

“It breaks my heart. I plead to lawmakers to take accountability. We need a plan to protect our babies.”

Khloe Kardashian also added: “My heart is breaking. I pray, I hope, I beg, I plead… please, law makers, government officials, leaders of our country, do something to protect our children.”

The Kardashians join other celebrities including James Corden, Chris Evans, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner in speaking out following the school shooting tragedy.