An apparently 18-year-old opened fire in the elementary school.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Uvalde/Washington A shooting spree at a Texas elementary school has killed 18 children and three adults. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday after the attack in the small town of Uvalde near San Antonio. The shooter was also dead. According to initial findings, the attacker was an 18-year-old young man who had been killed by officials. According to Abbott, two police officers were slightly injured in the exchange of fire. Abbott initially assumed that 14 children and one teacher had been killed. Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez later told CNN, citing law enforcement officials, that the death toll had risen to 18 children and three adults.
US President Joe Biden was shocked by the killing spree. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter that Biden had been briefed on the “terrible news” and would be kept updated on the new findings.
The President is praying for the affected families and will comment publicly on the terrible event as soon as he returns to the White House from his trip to Asia. Biden had visited South Korea and Japan in the past few days and was expected back in the capital Washington on Tuesday evening local time – according to German time on Wednesday night.
US Vice President Kamala Harris has called for new political measures. “Enough is enough,” Harris said on Tuesday evening (local time) in Washington. “As a nation, we must have the courage to act.” Measures must be taken to ensure that crimes like this don’t happen again, Harris said – without getting specific. “Our hearts are always broken.” US President Joe Biden wanted to comment on this later in detail, she said. A number of Democrats are calling for stricter gun laws after the bloodbath in the small town of Uvalde.
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Shooting spree in Buffalo just over a week ago
Shooting sprees, including in schools, occur with sad regularity in the United States. A massacre at an elementary school ten years ago was particularly shocking: In December 2012, a 20-year-old with severe mental health problems in Newtown, Connecticut, first shot his mother. He then went to his elementary school, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and killed 20 school children and six teachers there. He then killed himself. At the time, the act caused a shock across the country and also caused horror beyond the borders of the USA.
Just over a week ago, a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others. He was arrested at the scene of the crime. According to investigators, the act was racially motivated – 11 of the 13 victims were black. Buffalo has a mostly black population.
US Senator Chris Murphy reacted in horror to the massacre and addressed moving words to his Senate colleagues. “What are we doing?” asked the Democrat on Tuesday afternoon (local time) in the US Congress. “Why do you spend so much time running for the United States Senate? Why bother getting this job (…) when your answer is that while this slaughter increases and our children run for their lives, we do nothing,” he asked, clearly struggling. “Why are we here?”
“Work with us to find a way to pass legislation that makes this less likely,” the Democrat said. “I know that my Republican colleagues will not agree with everything I advocate, but we can find common ground.” Congress, the US parliament, is responsible for tightening gun laws. Many Republicans oppose such a move. The gun lobby is very powerful in the US.
More than 120 gun deaths a day
Last year, the FBI counted 61 gun shootings in the United States. The FBI announced on Monday evening (local time) in Washington that this was more than 50 percent more than in the previous year. The number has doubled since 2017. In 2021, 103 people were killed and 140 injured in rampages.
That, too, is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2020. According to the information, 60 of the 61 shooters were men. The FBI uses a strict definition for the count: it only includes cases in which a perpetrator shoots at people in public in order to kill them. Classic criminal cases involving armed violence or shootings among gang members are ignored.
The level of gun violence overall is far greater in the United States. Fatal incidents involving firearms, which are readily available there, occur regularly. In its most recent statistics from 2020, the health authority CDC recorded a total of 45,222 gun deaths in the USA – more than 120 deaths per day.
More: At least ten people have died in gunfire in upstate New York. The perpetrator was arrested and charged.