As Texas teacher Arnulfo Reyes hid his class of nine and 10-year-old pupils under their desks, he prayed they would stay silent and pretend to be asleep. Just as they'd been taught to do.
On Wednesday, he apologised to the parents of the 11 children in the room that day - all of them killed by the gunman who entered Robb Elementary school and killed 19 students and two teachers.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I tried my best."
In a highly personal 22-minute speech, the actor offered a full-throated exhortation for a gridlocked Congress to pass gun reforms. (Source: 1News)
Reyes, however, was at the mercy of not just the gunman - but the police who waited outside as the shooter went room to room, killing indiscriminately. More than an hour passed before a janitor unlocked the door to the last class the teenage killer had entered.
"I get more angry," Reyes said of the wait time, "because [the police] have a bulletproof vest I had nothing."
Reyes has now joined a chorus of calls for gun regulation - a charge on Wednesday led by actor and Uvalde native, Matthew McConaughey.
"We need background checks, we need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle," he told reporters at the White House.
A gun owner himself, McConaughey spent the day urging lawmakers to restrict sales of semi-automatics.
"These are reasonable, practical, tactical regulations," he said.
The proposal being discussed would see the minimum age to buy one move from 18, up to 21. At the moment, 43 states allow teenagers to buy AR-15 style rifles.
New York has recently banned the purchase and possession of semi-automatics to anyone aged under 21.
But many Americans still interpret the Second Amendment to mean unrestricted gun ownership. So far, no Republicans have voiced any public support for nationwide gun reforms or regulations.
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