Biden Makes Emotional Plea After 19 Children Killed In Texas School Shooting
President Joe Biden made an emotional plea to stand up to the dangerous gun manufacturing industry and to draft commonsense gun laws after a deadly shooting in a Texas school Tuesday.
A teenager carrying a handgun and an AR-15 rifle opened fire at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers.
The children were aged between seven and 10.
The teachers, identified as Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, were shielding their students from the attacker when they were shot, reports quoting their relatives and witnesses said.
The 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, was killed by law enforcement at the scene.
It is the deadliest shooting targeting innocent school children since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which claimed the lives of 26 people, including 20 first graders.
Responding to the shooting incident at the White House on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden said he learned about the tragic news while on the aircraft returning from his Asian trip. “And what struck me on that 17-hour flight was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world.”
He said it’s high time the country have the courage to deal with the crime and stand up to the gun lobbies.
“For every parent, for every citizen in this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: It’s time to act. It’s time — for those who obstruct or delay or block the commonsense gun laws, we need to let you know that we will not forget,” he told the televised briefing.
Biden recalled that when the Senate passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down, and when the law expired, mass shootings tripled.
The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong, according to the President.
“The gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit. For God’s sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry,” Biden said, with First Lady Jill Biden, a teacher, at his side.
He added that most Americans are supportive of commonsense gun laws.
Speaking at the US Senate shortly after the tragic news broke, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy accused his fellow lawmakers of complacency and appealed to them to pass gun control law.
The latest incident of gun violence in the U.S. comes just 10 days after an 18-year-old gunman killed 10 people in a shooting at a Buffalo supermarket targeting the Black community.
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