Joe Biden emotionally called on the United States to “stand up to the gun lobby” and “turn the pain into action” after 18 children and a teacher were killed in a shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday.
The US president’s call, shortly after he returned to the White House from a trip to Asia, was intended to provoke a response from Congress, where stricter gun control legislation has been fading for years.
“Why are we ready to live with this carnage?” Why do we continue to allow this to happen? Where on earth is our backbone to have the courage to deal with this? ” Biden asked.
Earlier on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old man from Uwalde, had entered Robb Elementary School and opened fire on teachers and students. Eric Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN that at least 18 children were killed along with a teacher.
“Texans across the state mourn the victims of this senseless crime and the Uwalde community,” Abbott said in a statement.
The shooter was armed with a pistol and possibly a rifle, the governor said. Abbott said the shooter was dead, believed to have been killed by police. Two responsible police officers were also hit by bullets, but received no serious injuries.
Abbott said the suspect reportedly shot his grandmother before going to school. Estrada said the shooter crashed his car into a ditch near the school and was “engaged” by law enforcement before entering the building. He said the shooter was wearing a bulletproof vest and rifle when he entered the school.
Pete Aredondo, chief of police for the consolidated independent school district of Uwalde, confirmed that the “mass casualty incident” occurred shortly after 11:30 a.m. local time at a school with second-, third- and fourth-graders.
Aredondo said the investigation was still ongoing and that the police department was still working to obtain information from the victims’ families. “Let me assure you that the intruder has died and we are not actively looking for another person or suspect in this case,” he said.
Uwalde is a small town in southwest Texas with a population of about 15,000, about 50 miles from the US-Mexico border and 80 miles from San Antonio. About 90 percent of Robb Elementary’s students are Hispanics, and most students are considered “economically unequal” by the state, according to the Texas government.
The shooting in Texas comes less than two weeks after a teenager shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
Biden was briefed on the massacre during Air Force One and began his brief remarks by describing the pain of parents who had a piece of their soul torn off and the classmates of the victims who witnessed the shooting of their friends as on the battlefield.
“As a nation, we have to ask ourselves when, for God’s sake, will we face the arms lobby?” Biden said. “They have mental health problems. They have internal disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost. But this type of mass shooting never happens as often as it does in America. Why? ”
Democrats in Congress have been trying for tougher measures for years, but have come across unwavering Republican opposition that shows no signs of weakening even modest proposals for gun control, such as tougher arms purchases. Any legislative changes will require clearing the 60-seat Senate threshold under current rules, which means at least 10 Republicans will have to support it to continue.
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“I beg you, my Republicans, to join the Democrats and finally make changes to our gun laws to prevent Americans from surviving this gun tragedy too often. “We can’t continue to sit on our hands and allow innocent lives to be lost,” said Dick Durbin, an Illinois senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator representing Connecticut – the state where a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children and six staff members, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 – delivered an emotional speech on the Senate floor, criticizing his fellow Republicans. “Why are you here?” he asked. “Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate?” . . if your answer is as the massacre increases, as our children flee for their lives: are we doing nothing?
Republicans have expressed mostly sympathy for the victims and their families, but not or very limited interest in new gun control measures in the immediate aftermath of the Texas shooting.
“Sorrow overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Extinguished lives. The parents’ hearts were torn. Incomprehensible. I offer prayer and condolences, but I know this is not enough. We need to find answers, “tweeted Mitt Romney, a Utah senator.
Ted Cruz, a Texas senator, accused Democrats of trying to politicize the shooting and said “past experience, one of the most effective tools to protect children is armed law enforcement” on the school grounds.
Cruz is scheduled to speak at the annual convention of the National Arms Association, the largest arms lobby group, on Friday, along with former President Donald Trump and Abbot, the governor of Texas.
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