Ballerini shared that she survived a school shooting herself in 2008.
Kelsea Ballerini opened the 2023 CMT Music Awards with a call to action regarding last week's shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, also telling audiences she is the survivor of a 2008 school shooting in the same state.
"On March 27, 2023, three 9-year-olds -- Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs -- along with Dr. Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill walked into Covenant School and didn't walk out," Ballerini began the CMT broadcast.
"The community of sorrow over this and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone stretches from coast to coast," Ballerini continued. “I wanted to personally stand up here and share this moment, because on August 21, 2008, I watched Ryan McDonald, my 15-year-old classmate at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria."
Ballerini called for her community and country to push for a solution to the growing epidemic of gun violence.
"Tonight's broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of families, friends, survivors, witnesses and responders whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence," she said. "I pray, deeply, that the closeness and the community we feel for the next few hours through of music can soon turn into action -- like real action -- that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and our loved ones."
Ballerini hosted Sunday's CMTs with Kane Brown, who she took the stage with following her opening message.
The shooting took place last Monday when a 28-year-old woman opened fire at the Covenant School in Nashville. She was later fatally shot by Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officers.
Shortly after news of the tragedy, President Joe Biden delivered a message to Congress calling for an assault weapons ban. "We have to do more to stop gun violence. It's ripping our communities apart. It's ripping at the very soul of the nation. We have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons," he said.
The 2023 CMT Music Awards airs live on CBS and is streaming on Paramount+. For more coverage of the big event, including all of the night's winners, keep checking back with ETonline.
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