US President Joe Biden has made an emotional call for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman opened fire on Tuesday at a Texas elementary school.
“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? I’m fed up. We have to act”
“When in God’s name are we going to take on the gun lobby?” Biden said at the White House shortly after returning from a five-day tour of Asia.
With First Lady Jill Biden at his side in the Roosevelt Room, Biden added, “I’m fed up. We have to act.”
At least 18 students and a teacher were killed, according to a state senator who said he was told by police.
Just two days before starting his tour, Biden met with families of victims after a hate-motivated shooter murdered 10 black people in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store.
These back-to-back tragedies are a reminder of the frequency and brutality of America’s gun violence epidemic.
“These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world,” Biden said. “Why?”
He ordered that the American flags where they are half a spear until Saturday night in honor of the victims of Texas. Vice President Kamala Harris previously said that people often declare at times like this that “our hearts are broken – but our hearts keep breaking … and Our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of those families.”
“We must have the courage to act … to ensure that something like this does not happen again,” he said.