On Tuesday a teenage armed with a gun killed at least 19 children and two adults after entering into a Texas elementary school. This is USA’s worst school shooting in nearly a decade. Several people, including children, were injured. Some are in critical condition. The school’s student body consists of children in the second, third and fourth grades, according to Pete Arredondo, chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, who also addressed reporters. Pupils in those grades would likely have ranged from 7 to 10 years of age.
Due to confusion over the early accounts of the death toll, the state attorney general’s office in an official statement put the tally of lives lost at 18 children and two adults, including the gunman. However, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson later told a TV channel that 19 school children and two adults were killed, not counting the shooter. One of the adults was a teacher.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Soon after returning from the Quad meeting in Japan, the US President Joe Biden in his televised speech from White House said, “As a nation, we have to ask when in God’s name we are going to stand up to the gun lobby, when in God’s name we do what we all know in our gut, needs to be done.”
Joe Biden accused the gun lobby of blocking enactment of tougher firearm safety laws as guns are available easily over the counter for any US citizen who is over 18 years of age. The President ordered flags flown at half-staff daily until sunset on Saturday in observance of the tragedy. Visibly shaken the US President Joe Biden urged the citizens of USA to stand up to the politically powerful US gun lobby, which he blamed for blocking enactment of tougher “common-sense” firearms safety laws.
In 2007 there were about ten such shootings, the most gruesome of which occurred at the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus of Virginia Tech, where 32 people were killed before the gunman took his own life. Later high-profile attacks took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut (2012), where a 20-year-old killed 27 people, including 20 young children, before committing suicide; and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida (2018), where an expelled student killed 17 people. Such incidents are becoming ‘common’ in a country which is highly security conscious.
As of now, it is very easy to obtain a weapon across the counter. Hundreds of stores sell guns, from big chains like Walmart (WMT) to family-run shops. One can even attend one of the dozens of gun shows that take place almost every weekend nationwide to buy a weapon. People also regularly buy guns from neighbours or family members in USA.
However, a background check is conducted and it is done only in store purchases. Gun buyers have to fill out a simple form which requires information like, name, address, place of birth, race and citizenship. A social security number is only ‘optional,’ though it’s recommended. The store then calls the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), which runs a background check on the person through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, also known as NICS. The background check can just take minutes and if cleared the buyer walks out of the store after purchasing the weapon within 30 minutes.
President Biden is right by seeking stricter firearms safety laws. His move is staunchly opposed by the gun lobby who want their products to be sold easily over the counter. This is only helping create ‘spot terrorists with sick mindset’ who massacre innocent children in school campuses. It is absolutely essential for the USA to make stricter laws on purchase of weapons.
