THE US President Joe Biden called for action in the United States yesterday to address the scourge of gun attacks, a few hours after the massacre inside a primary school in Texas, despite the strong influence of the gun lobby in Congress.
“When in the name of God will we stand tall in front of the arms lobby?” the 78-year-old Democratic head of state wondered. “I’m heartbroken and tired”he added.
I’m addressing the nation on the horrific elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. https://t.co/8WI1nWHu6R
– President Biden (@POTUS) May 25, 2022
He described as unthinkable the fact that commentators watch their friends die as if they were on a battlefield while in school.
While acknowledging that there is not much that the US authorities do not yet know about the Texas massacre, he stressed that he considers it wrong for any 18-year-old to be able to buy weapons such as assault rifles.
He said the Americans would not forget those who obstruct or delay the passage of gun ownership legislation based on common sense.
“It’s time to act,” Biden said. “We can do so much more.”
19 children and 2 teachers were killed by the 18-year-old perpetrator
An 18-year-old boy opened fire Tuesday inside a Texas elementary schoolkilling 19 children and two teachers, a tragedy that plunges the US back into the ever-returning nightmare of gun attacks inside schools.
Representative of the Texas State Department of Public Safety told CNN that the victims of the school massacre in the town of Uwalde were 19 students and two adults, adding that the perpetrator was also killed in an exchange of fire with police.
THE US President Joe Biden ordered the flags to fly at half-mast earlier and is expected to speak out about the massacre in a short time.
The suspect in the massacre was named by the authorities as Salvador Ramos, 18 years old. He killed children and teachers “in a barbaric and irrational way” inside the school in the town of Uwalde, he said earlier the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbottduring a press conference.
Salvador Ramos is also dead, according to authorities in the city, about 130 kilometers west of San Antonio.
A Texas State Department spokesman told CNN that 19 students and two adults were killed in a school massacre in Uwalde, adding that the perpetrator was also killed in a shootout with police.
He initially targeted his grandmother, whose condition has not been clarified – according to CNN, she is also dead – before going to school“Leave his car” and enter the building, according to the governor, armed “with a pistol” and possibly “with a rifle”.
The motive of the perpetrator of the attack, one of the worst of its kind in the US for years, remains unknown at this stage.
Children 5 to 7 years old
The massacre took place at Rob Elementary School, attended by children aged 5 to 7 living in Uwalde. More than 500 children, almost 90% of Latin American descent, went there in the 2020-2021 school year, according to public data from the southern US state.
Videos uploaded to social networking sites show children rushing away from the building, in small groups, to the typical yellow school buses in front of the school.
At least two people, a 10-year-old girl and a 66-year-old woman, were treated “in critical condition” at University Health in San Antonio, the hospital announced.
President Biden is “constantly informed” of the events, said his spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre. He will speak out about the deadly attack, addressing the American people at 20:15 (local time; 03:15 Greek time), after his return from Asia.
He ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-mast in the White House, in all public buildings and public places until Saturday, May 28, as a “sign of respect for the victims” of the attack, according to a press release issued by his services.
Ms Jean-Pierre added that Mr Biden was “praying for the families of the victims”.
The attack plunges the United States again into the torment of repeated school attacks in recent years, with shocking images of children being physically and mentally injured, often forced to lock themselves in classrooms before being driven away by law enforcement and insane parents desperately seeking to learn. the fate of their shoots …
Sterile dialogue
The tragedy is especially reminiscent of that in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, when a 20-year-old with mental health problems killed 26 people, including twenty children aged 6 to 7, before committing suicide.
Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator of this state, “begged” his colleagues to take action yesterday, assuring that these tragedies are not “inevitable”. “It’s only happening in this country – in no other. “In no other country do children who go to school think they can be shot,” he said, adding that members of Congress “are not powerless,” and that in the United States, “guns are flowing like water.” slaughter follows one another.
Vice President Kamala Harris, stressing that “our hearts continue to crack” every time something like this happens, stressed that as a nation Americans must find the courage to take action so that there is “never again” a massacre at school.
In 2018, after the massacre at Parkland High School in Florida (17 dead, most of them teenage students), there were massive demonstrations, especially of young people, demanding that politicians take action.
But the debate on the issue has remained virtually barren: there is no real chance that Congress – where the arms lobby is heavily influential – will vote for an ambitious gun reform, an issue that has always divided Americans.
According to the Small Arms Survey research institute, in 2017 there were 393 million firearms in the country, more than the population.
Update on the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde: at University Hospital, one patient, a 66-year-old woman, is in critical condition.
The other patient is a 10-year-old girl, also in critical condition.
– University Health (@UnivHealthSA) May 24, 2022
Officials: Texas shooter killed grandmother before killing 14 students, teacher at school https://t.co/fn5nhBi8XC pic.twitter.com/KvTxlRbVzI
– NBC Chicago (@nbcchicago) May 24, 2022
BREAKING Multiple shooting victims at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas. #RobbElementary #UvaldeTexas #SchoolShooting pic.twitter.com/BYR977aJpY
– TheFamily’sSoup TV (@FamilysSoupTV) May 24, 2022
President Biden has been briefed on the horrific news of the elementary school shooting in Texas and will continue to b briefed regularly as information becomes available.
– Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) May 24, 2022
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