Joe Biden says he is sickened by the 27th school killing of the year, but the “pro-guns” camp is not moving.
New-York.
A fugitive shadow, hooded and dressed in black, enters an American school, an assault rifle in hand. This vision of horror has become familiar in the United States since the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado in 1999. Sordidly commonplace, as cable channels repeatedly broadcast images of toddlers being evacuated in single file and readjust the balance sheet of each new killing. That of Uvalde, Texas, is now added to the list.
It was 11:43 a.m. on Tuesday morning when the first warning message was posted online by the administration of Robb Elementary School, which serves 600 children from CE1 to CM1: “Students and staff are safe. The building is secure and cordoned off)». The shooting had already started 11 minutes ago. Thirty minutes later, the tone changed: “There is a killer active in the building.”
It’s not guns that kill people, it’s people who kill people
Terrence K. Williams, a pro-Trump comedian
An 18-year-old boy named Salvador Ramos managed to break into the school compound, shooting every living soul. Panic spreads through the corridors. In the general confusion, police officers who came to save their own children were themselves shot and wounded. The aggressor, long black hair, taciturn look, will be by a team of three men from an elite border guard unit, which was working not far from Uvalde that morning. Nineteen children were mowed down, as well as two supervisors, including a mistress adored by all, Eva Mireles. Two people are still between life and death in hospital, fifteen others are injured to varying degrees. The shooter had announced on Facebook, “probably less than 15 minutes before arriving at school”that he was going to carry out this attack, also reported the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.
SEE ALSO – The Texas town of Uvalde, with 19 children killed, plunged into a “nightmare”
More difficult to adopt a dog
America is again frozen in amazement. Uvalde is the 212e mass shooting since the beginning of the year, the twenty-seventh in a school environment. At the White House, it seems that Joe Biden took time to collect his thoughts and find the desire to speak before appearing in front of the cameras on Tuesday evening, to confide his disgust.
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The assassin, who also shot his own grandmother, bought an assault rifle on his 18th birthday for $1,370 on Georgia-based online retailer Daniel Defense. According to CNN’s Jim Sciutto, he acquired two more from local gunsmiths last week, along with 375 rounds. How is it possible to acquire such weapons of war when one is not allowed to order a beer before turning 21? To cross the meshes of a minimal safety net, when it is even more difficult to adopt a dog? On Twitter, Joe Biden continues his tirade: “The idea of an 18 year old walking into a store and buying assault rifles is just intolerable. Why, by the grace of God, do you need such a weapon, if not to kill someone? On behalf of all parents, of every citizen, it is time to act. We can do more. We need to do more.” The US President also announced that he would visit Texas “in the next few days”.
General paralysis
The NRA (National Rifle Association) cleared itself of all responsibility, denouncing “the act of an isolated and deranged criminal”. Terrence K. Williams, a pro-Trump comedian, also retorted on behalf of the gun lobby to the 5.5 million adherents: “It’s not guns that kill people, it’s people that kill people.” It would therefore be better to focus on individuals who have “pulled the trigger”, these “bad guys” to whom we simply have to oppose more “good guys” who are better armed. “It’s not the NRA that’s at fault here, he shouts. It’s a case of good versus evil. All schools need to be equipped with metal detectors and armed guards at the gate to search all visitors.”
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These are the measures being advocated by a compact bloc of NRA-backed elected officials in Congress, rather than a moratorium on assault rifles passed in 1994 and expired since 2004, or the imposition of a federal database for all individuals at risk.
This general paralysis unbearable Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors basketball team. Livid, the one who lost his father in a shooting in 1984 hammers the table with his fist in a press conference. “When are we going to do something? I am so tired of offering my condolences to devastated families. I am tired of these minutes of silence. In the past ten days, black people have been killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, Asian parishioners have been killed in Southern California, and now children are being murdered at school. There are 50 senators, at the moment, who refuse to vote the HR8 law (checking of criminal and psychiatric records for transactions between individuals or via unauthorized resellers, Ed) that the House of Representatives passed (submitted in 2019, adopted in 2021). And there’s a good reason they won’t vote on it: they cling to power. I ask you, you who refuse to lift a finger, if you will put aside your thirst for power to take care of the lives of our children, our elderly and our parishioners. fifty senators (Republicans, editor’s note) hold us hostage. Do you realize that 90% of Americans want universal background checks?”
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The exact figure even fluctuates between 93 and 95%, according to polls published since 2019. As for background checks, experts recognize that they are not a panacea. The author of the Buffalo massacre on May 14 (10 dead), another 18-year-old teenager named Payton Gendron, was also able to buy an assault rifle without the seller finding anything wrong with it. “The irony is that we all agree on the need to impose constraints on weapons,” notes Nicholas Kristof, former columnist for the New York Times. “No one would appreciate people being allowed to drive a tank through the streets, or have an air defense battery in their backyard. Thanks to God, we succeeded in banning these weapons. for the general public. It remains to find a way to do the same for semi-automatic rifles, high-capacity magazines and other paramilitary “gadgets” available online or at arms fairs in deep America.
SEE ALSO – “When are we going to do something?”: moved to tears, Steve Kerr launches a rant after the massacre in a school in Texas