US President Biden has called for action “against the firearms lobby in the name of God”. At least 21 people, including 19 children, were killed in an armed attack at an elementary school in Texas, USA. It was reported that the 18-year-old attacker, who entered the school with guns in his hand and killed 21 people, was killed as a result of fire opened by the police in the incident that took place in the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a small city with a population of approximately 16 thousand, 120 kilometers from the Mexican border. Authorities reported that there is no information yet as to why the attacker, who also lives in Uvalde, made such an attack.
CALL FROM BIDEN
Addressing the American people after the incident, US President Joe Biden stated that action should be taken against the firearms lobby in the name of God. Stating that the families in Uvalde will never see their children again, Biden said that losing a child is like “a piece of the soul being cut off”. In his speech, Joe Biden also emphasized that no country in the world experienced as many massacres with firearms as in the USA.
Many politicians from both Democrats and Republicans across the country made statements expressing their sadness about the incident. However, attempts to make legal amendments to make it difficult to acquire firearms, which have been on the agenda frequently in the past years, have remained inconclusive, especially due to the attitude of the Republicans, who argue that this is a right guaranteed by the US Constitution.
Finally, on May 14, in a similar attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, an 18-year-old white man shot and killed 10 black Americans. The court case against the suspect, who murdered 14 students and three teachers at a school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, continues at the stage of determining the members of the jury. In the bloodiest gun attack in US history, the 64-year-old killer, who opened fire on the people attending a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017 from his hotel room, killed 60 people.
MORE THAN 45,000 PEOPLE ARE SHOOTED IN ONE YEAR
According to the data of the American health institution CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), at least 45 thousand 200 people died in the country in 2020 as a result of being shot with firearms. It is stated that about 19,400 of them were murdered and the others died by suicide or accident.
According to the results of the studies conducted by the Small Arms Survey, the number of licensed firearms such as pistols and rifles found in individuals across the USA is 393 million.
NRA (National Rifle Association), the largest gun lobby in the USA, will hold its annual meeting in Houston, Texas, next weekend. It was reported that the Republican senators of the state of Texas, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, as well as the former US President Donald Trump will also attend the meeting. Senator Cruz, one of the most important names in the gun lobby, expressed his sadness for the incident in Uvalde and said that he prayed for those who lost their lives in the attack.
On the other hand, Cruz warned Democrat politicians and press representatives who brought up the issue of restricting constitutional rights to own guns, arguing that this would not prevent crimes.
epd / ET,JD