19 young students and two adults were killed after an 18-year-old opened fire in a Texas elementary school yesterday and was shot dead by police, continuing the nightmare of gun crimes in the United States.
Following the incident, U.S. President Joe Biden urged to implement of controls on the gun industry, at a time when the U.S. Congress seems unable to pass any real measure despite the repeated tragedies.
Biden opined in a formal White House speech after the incident that “the time has come to turn this pain into real action,” asking, “When, for God’s sake, will we stand up to the gun lobby?”
He added, “I am disgusted and tired of the frequent school shootings. This latest tragedy took the lives of children as young as 10 years old.
For his part, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference that the assailant “shot and killed the victims in a horrific and senseless manner at an elementary school in the town of Yuvaldi, located about 80 miles west of San Antonio.”
The shooter, Salvador Ramos, was also killed in the incident. Texas Public Safety officials said police were searching for him, noting that two adults, including a teacher, also died in the attack.
The shooter was carrying at least one gun, police officer Eric Estrada told CNN.
Most likely, the American killer first targeted his grandmother, before going to the school, to commit the massacre. The health condition of the grandmother has not yet been determined.
For her part, Biden’s deputy, Kamala Harris, said that “enough is enough,” calling for “action” to reduce gun violence, which has become a national scourge.
Addressing the powerless Congress, she continued, “Our hearts are broken again. We must have the courage to act.” The White House ordered flags lowered in all official departments “in honor of the victims” of Yuvaldi.
This attack plunges the United States once again into the tragedies of educational shootings, with horrific scenes of shocked students evacuating security forces, and terrified parents reclaiming their children.
This is reminiscent of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where a psychopath in his 20s killed 26 people, including children between the ages of 6 and 7, before killing himself.
The United States was also shocked by the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people, mostly teenagers, were killed by a former student.
The U.S. witnesses almost daily shootings in public places and major cities such as New York, Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco are seeing an increase in the rate of gun crimes, especially since the pandemic began in 2020.
