U.S. President Joe Biden has called for stricter gun laws in the U.S., following a shooting incident at an elementary school in the town of Uvalde in Texas in which 19 students and two adults have been killed so far.
In a speech, the President of the United States said: “As a country we need to ask when for God’s sake we will face the lobby of the gun and arms companies. When will we do what we all know needs to be done? ”Biden ordered the flags flown at half-mast in the White House and government buildings after the incident.
The town of Yuvaldi is located in southern Texas, and is home to 15,000 people. The shooter, 18, was killed by police. The Yuvaldi shooting incident is the second to occur in the U.S. in a 10-day period, following the attack in Buffalo, New York.
Vice President Camla Harris also called for a tightening of gun laws: “Most of the time I would say at a moment like this our hearts are broken. But our hearts continue to be broken, and as a country we must have the courage to take action to ensure something like this never happens again.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told the Senate his colleagues: “Why are you struggling to get this job in the Senate, and put yourself in a position of power if your answer when our kids run in a panic is to do nothing? Why are you here if not to solve a fundamental problem like this?”.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, on the other hand, said that “after such a vicious murder case, you see a lot of people whose immediate solution is to restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens. It will not work, and it is ineffective.”