Kelsea Ballerini Gets Choked Up Dedicating 2023 CMT Awards to Gun Violence Victims After Nashville Shooting

An emotional Kelsea Ballerini opened the 2023 CMT Music Awards with a poignant speech about gun violence following the recent school shooting in Nashville.

"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 The Covenant School and didn't walk out," said the singer-songwriter at the top of the show on Sunday, referencing the March 27 tragedy.

"The community of sorrow over this and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone stretches from coast to coast," continued Ballerini, before recalling her own experience with gun violence.

"I wanted to personally stand up here and share this moment because on Aug. 21, 2008, I watched Ryan McDonald, my 15-year-old classmate at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria," she said.

Check out PEOPLE's full CMT Awards coverage to get the latest news on country's big night.

"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," added Ballerini.

"I pray deeply that the closeness and the community that we feel through the next few hours 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," concluded the "Blindsided" singer's speech.

In a 2021 interview with PEOPLE, Ballerini, now 29, opened up about the shooting she witnessed as a sophomore at Central High School in her native Knoxville, Tennessee. "There's a moment in everyone's life when something happens and you go, 'Life is short,' and that was mine," she said at the time.

In the decade-plus since the devastating experience, Ballerini said she's done "so much" therapy and is still healing, adding: "It's something I think of all the time." She also noted that she continues to suffer PTSD from the shooting.

"I have a job where I'm in crowds often, I play loud music, there's pyro, and there are noises that are similar. But everyone close to me knows about it, and they help me just get ready for moments like that," said the star. "And if I'm having some kind of trigger... If I need to push a show 10 minutes, I push a show 10 minutes. Everyone's very understanding of that and very protective of that trauma, and that memory for me."

Ballerini is co-hosting the 2023 CMT Awards with Kane Brown, and she's also set to deliver a performance during the ceremony.

The 2023 CMT Music Awards are airing live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on Sunday, April 2 on CBS and Paramount+.