In front of candles in honor of the victims of recent massacres in the United States, the American president, Joe Biden, returned to press, this Thursday (2), the country’s congressmen to pass stricter measures to control access to weapons and called for to Democrats and Republicans to break what he called “years of ideological impasse”.
“The question is, what is Congress going to do now?” Biden asked during a speech at the White House. The Democrat again called for a ban on assault weapons and said it was necessary to have a criminal record in order to acquire the weapons. According to him, the country “cannot fail again”.
Biden’s appeal was primarily aimed at the Senate, where each party now has 50 seats. Under the rule known as “filibuster”, a majority of 60 votes in favor is required for a bill to pass—that is, ten Republicans must jump the wall.
In addition to pressuring congressmen, Biden again criticized the pro-gun lobby in the country, saying that a repeal of what he called the “immunity” of manufacturers was needed. On recent attacks that shook the country, Biden expressed condolences to the victims’ families.
“In both places, we spent hours with hundreds of family members, who were broken, whose lives will never be the same again,” he said. “They had a message for all of us: Do something. Just do something. For God’s sake, do something.”
The statement came amid a revival of the country’s gun control debate, brought to the fore after two other recent massacres — at an elementary school in Texas and at a supermarket in New York.
Nine days ago, a massacre at Robb School in Texas ended with 19 children and 2 teachers dead. The author, an 18-year-old, carried an AR-15 rifle and, before being responsible for the worst massacre at a children’s educational institution in the country in a decade, he also shot his grandmother.
Salvador Ramos had no history of mental illness or a criminal record, but he made threatening posts on social media before the shooting. He had a adolescence marked by bullying and family problems and, when he turned 18, he celebrated by posting a photo with two rifles he bought shortly after his birthday. Ramos was killed by the police in the action.
The case in the city of Uvalde came days after another episode in Buffalo, New York, in which ten people died in a supermarket. The author had racist motives and should be indicted for domestic terrorism. After the attack in Texas, President Joe Biden gave an emotional speech in which he criticized the pro-gun lobby in the country and defended the control on access to weapons.
