Joe Biden is going to the Texas town of Uvalde this Sunday, five days after the massacre in an elementary school, to bring all his empathy to the loved ones bereaved by this shooting which shocked America and reignited the debate on firearms .

“We can’t make dramas illegal, I know that. But we can make America safer,” the President of the United States pleaded on Saturday, regretting that “in so many places, so many innocent people have died. “.

Nineteen children and two teachers died on Tuesday in the Robb school in Uvalde under the bullets of Salvador Ramos, barely 18, in one of the worst shootings in recent years in the country.

A powerful arms lobby

The 79-year-old Democrat, who himself lost two of his children – his still baby daughter in a car accident, and an adult son following cancer – spoke of his own suffering shortly after the killing.

“Losing a child is like having a part of your soul ripped out of you,” he said on Tuesday. “Nothing is ever the same again.”

In Uvalde, Joe Biden is to meet with families of victims, local leaders and religious leaders. But the head of state can hardly promise action to those who demand stricter control of firearms.

The too narrow Democratic parliamentary majority does not allow him to pass significant legislation on the subject alone. The elected representatives of his camp need to convince a few Republicans to obtain the necessary qualified majority.

Police response time criticized

The White House, reluctant to involve Joe Biden too much in the political battle, said Thursday that it “needs the help of Congress”, through the voice of its spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre.

Message echoed by Vice President Kamala Harris, who said on Saturday that elected officials must “have the courage to oppose, once and for all, the gun lobby, and pass reasonable laws on security in matters of ‘fire arms”.

The Uvalde massacre and the childlike faces of its very young victims plunged America back into the nightmare of school shootings. The first testimonies of the students who emerged alive from the Robb school gave a glimpse of the nightmare they lived through.

It took about an hour on Tuesday for the police to put an end to the massacre. The 19 agents on site awaited the assault of a specialized unit. A delay in intervention which caused a strong controversy, and a mea culpa from the Texas authorities. However, the police received numerous calls from people in the two affected classrooms, including one from a child pleading: “please send the police now”.

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