Amanda Keller breaks down live on air over US school shooting

Amanda Keller became overwhelmed with emotion during the Jonesy and Amanda show as she and her co-host broached an “awful” topic this morning.

Amanda Keller broke down in tears during the Jonesy and Amanda show this morning as she addressed the news of the latest horror massacre in the US.

Eighteen primary school children and three adults were killed in a shooting at a Texas primary school on Tuesday, in a situation that Keller’s co-host Brendan Jones pointed out is becoming “so normal” for America.

Comparing the situation to the Sandy Hook massacre – in which 20 students, aged between six and seven years old, and six teachers were murdered – Keller became overwhelmed with emotion as she discussed the ongoing gun law debate.

“You know, after Sandy Hook, when small children were killed, you think, ‘They (the US) can never change’,” she told her co-host.

“We’re hearing this morning, it’s happening now, 14 elementary schoolchildren shot, a teacher shot – killed. Another batch of children in hospital, shot.”

Initial reports indicated that 14 children had been killed, but that number has now risen to at least 18, with the total death toll currently at 21.

Keller broke down as they discussed the horrifying school massacre.

She also voiced her frustration at the current US abortion rights debate.

“Elementary school is primary school, ages 5 to 10. Fourteen children, dead. And this is America, who at the moment are fighting for abortion rights, so that even if you’re raped, you cannot abort that child,” Keller said this morning.

“But right-to-lifers don’t give a rats about children from the minute they’re born. That you can allow an elementary school kid just to turn up at school and be shot … What awful news this morning.”

A sheriff checks his phone as he sits on the sidewalk with two women outside Robb Elementary School as state troopers monitor the area. Picture: Allison Dinner/AFP

The “incomprehensible” tragedy occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 96km east of the southern border of Mexico and about 128km west of San Antonio. The victims were aged between seven and 11, CNN’s Ed Lavandera has reported.

Robb Elementary is a school for students in grades two, three, and four.

Authorities believe the shooter was a local 18-year-old man named Salvador Ramos who was a senior student at Uvalde High School.

Salvador Ramos has been identified as the shooter. Picture: Instagram

Police have since confirmed the suspect is dead, after being shot during a stand-off with Texan officials responding to calls of an active shooter.

“He shot and killed horrifically … incomprehensibly,” said the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.

“It’s believed that he abandoned his vehicle and entered the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a handgun and he may have also had a rifle, but that is not yet confirmed according to my most recent report.”

As it stands, how he acquired the weapons – a handgun and possibly a rifle – and his motives are unknown, said Mr Abbott. However, he said authorities believe Ramos acted alone.

It’s also emerged that Romas reportedly also shot his grandmother before opening fire on the school.