The horrific shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, which killed 18 children and one adult, immediately reignited the gun debate across the United States with no prospect of outlets.
• Also read: Texas Murders: A Teenage Boy’s Wild Outfit
• Also read: 21 people killed, including 18 children, in a shooting at a Texas elementary school
• Also read: “When do we face the gun lobby?” Biden asks
“It’s time to put that pain into action,” urged Joe Biden, “sick and tired” from those repeated shootings, during an address to the nation on Tuesday.
“We need to make this clear to all elected officials in this country: It’s time to act” to better regulate guns in America, he began, while also denouncing “those who prevent, repel or block common sense laws on firearms.
Shortly before him, his Vice President Kamala Harris had launched, “We must find the courage to act,” addressing a Congress powerless or reluctant to legislate despite the litany of massacres.
From the US Senate Chamber, US Senator Chris Murphy lashed out that such events “don’t happen anywhere but here in the United States, and it’s an election.”
The elected representative represents the state of Connecticut, forever marked by the Sandy Hook shooting on December 14, 2012, when a 20-year-old man killed 26 people, including twenty children, ages 6 and 7.
“It is our decision to let this happen,” he said, asking his colleagues in Congress to find a compromise in order to pass ambitious national legislation on the issue.
“Epidemic”
At the moment that seems almost impossible.
In the United States, shootings are a recurring scourge against which successive governments have been powerless, as many Americans remain deeply attached to their guns.
30% of adults own at least one firearm.
That’s especially true in Texas, the scene of the drama that on Tuesday plunges America back into the recurring nightmare of school shootings: it’s one of the easiest states to get hold of a gun.
In fact, in 2015, state Gov. Greg Abbott said he was ashamed that Texas was “only” the second-biggest state in terms of gun sales.
On Tuesday evening, Joe Biden again called for reforms. “Don’t tell me there’s nothing we can do about this slaughter,” he said of the recurring scourge of gun deaths.
A long-time advocate of better arms control, the US president pledged to act on this front during his election campaign.
In April 2021, the Democratic leader unveiled a limited plan against what he denounced as an “epidemic” of gun violence. But knowing full well that he is currently unable to persuade Congress to take bold action on this highly sensitive issue due to his very narrow parliamentary majority, Mr. Biden has so far been content with only micro-measures.
“politicizing the debate”
No major progress can be reported, for example, on the subject of the review of the criminal or psychological background of buyers of individual weapons, which has been required by associations for years.
“For too long, after these shootings, members of Congress have spoken hollow words while defying every effort to save lives,” said Speaker of the Democratic House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
There was an immediate reaction from the Republican camp, with the voice of Texas Senator Ted Cruz warning of “politicizing the debate.”
“Some have called for seizing the opportunity to attack the Second Amendment of law-abiding citizens,” he denounced, referring to the constitutional amendment guaranteeing the people’s right to own and bear arms. “We have seen in the past that this is not effective in preventing this type of crime,” the elected official said.