US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden are hoping to comfort a city plagued by grief and anger when they meet with families affected by a mass shooting at a Texas primary school that killed 19 students and two teachers.
Sunday’s visit to Uwalde is Biden’s second trip in so many weeks to comfort a mourning community after a stunning loss. On May 17, he was in Buffalo, New York, to meet with the families of the victims and condemn the superiority of whites after a gunman killed 10 blacks in a supermarket.
The shootings in Texas and New York and their aftermath have put the spotlight on the nation’s entrenched divisions and its inability to reach consensus on action to reduce gun violence.
“Evil has come to this classroom in Texas elementary school, to that grocery store in New York, to too many places where innocents have died,” Biden said in a speech to the University of Delaware on Saturday. “We need to be stronger. We need to be stronger. We can’t stop the tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer.”
The president attends school, church
The Biden family visited the makeshift memorial in front of Rob Elementary School, where they presented a bouquet of flowers, hugged school principal Mandy Gutierrez, and viewed an exhibition of photographs of the victims.
Shortly afterwards, the Biden family attended a liturgy at a local Catholic church. They also had to meet with family members at the community center and first aid workers at the local airport before returning to Washington, the White House said. The president was not expected to make official remarks.
US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden pay tribute to an impromptu memorial in front of Rob Elementary School in Uwalde, Texas, on Sunday. A gunman killed 21 people, including 19 children, at the school on Tuesday. (Chandan Khan / AFP / Getty Images)
McKinsey Hinohosa, whose cousin Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10, was killed on Tuesday, said he respected Biden’s decision to mourn Uwalde’s people.
“It’s more than mourning,” she said. “We want change. We want action. It continues to be something that happens again and again and again. There is a mass shooting. This is on the news. People are crying. Then he is gone. Nobody cares. And then it happens again. And again “
The police’s reaction to the shooting is being deepened
The Biden family’s visit to Uwalde comes amid growing police control of the shooting.
Officials revealed on Friday that students and teachers had repeatedly asked 911 operators for help, even when a police commander told more than a dozen officers to wait in the hallway. Officials said the commander believed the suspect had been barricaded in an adjoining classroom and that there was no longer an active attack.
The revelation caused new pain and questions about whether more lives were lost because officers did not act more quickly to stop the shooter, who was eventually killed by tactical Border Patrol officers.
On Sunday, the US Department of Justice announced that it would review the reaction of local police to the shooting.
On Wednesday, before details of the police’s delayed response became known, Biden praised their efforts, saying “brave local officials and border patrol agents intervened to save as many children as possible.”
Biden greets Texas Gov. Greg Abbott when they arrive in Uwalde on Sunday. The president was to attend a liturgy at a local Catholic church and meet with family members and first aid workers. (Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)
Authorities said the shooter had legally purchased two weapons shortly before the school attack: an AR-style rifle on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. He has just turned 18, which allows him to purchase weapons under federal law.
Speaking on Saturday, Biden said something needed to change in response to the attack.
“I call on all Americans at this hour to hold hands and make your voices heard, to work together to make this nation what it can and should be,” he said. “I know we can do this. We’ve done it before.”
Hours after the shooting, Biden passionately asked for additional gun control legislation, asking, “When on earth are we going to face the gun lobby? Why are we ready to live with this carnage? Why do we keep allowing this to happen? “
Over the years, Biden has been intimately involved in the most notable successes of the gun control movement, such as the 1994 arms attack ban, and his most alarming frustrations, including the failure to pass new legislation since the 2012 massacre. at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut
Two girls wrote encouraging words on a path in Uwalde’s town square on Saturday, where a memorial was erected to the victims of a shooting at a primary school earlier in the week. (Je K. Hong / Associated Press)
At the White House, Biden sought to end gun violence through executive orders. He now faces several new opportunities, but the executive’s actions may be the best the president can do, given Washington’s sharp divisions over gun control legislation.
Lawmakers have resumed long-stalled talks to expand past vetting requirements and promote red flag laws aimed at keeping guns in the hands of people suspected of posing a risk to themselves or others, but the talks are facing a heavy battle on Capitol Hill.
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