US President Joe Biden called Monday’s school shooting in Nashville “disgusting” and added that the gun violence is tearing at the “innermost soul” of the United States.
• Also read: A heavily armed young woman kills 3 children and 3 adults at a Nashville elementary school
“It’s just disgusting,” said the US President. It “rends the soul of our nation,” he said, praising police responsiveness and urging Congress again to ban assault rifles.
In a country where gun violence is rampant, the head of state made no specific address, but raised the issue at the start of a White House conference on women’s entrepreneurship.
Joe Biden spoke lightly at first, joking about his family and his fondness for chocolate ice cream, before his voice and face suddenly turned serious: “I want to talk to you very quickly about the Nashville shooting.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said of the shooting, to a murmur of sympathy from the audience, who had been enjoying it a moment before.
A heavily armed young woman, armed with “at least two assault rifles and a handgun,” police said, opened fire at an elementary school in Nashville, in the southern United States, killing three children and three adults before she was shot dead by police .
“It’s time again to make more progress” on firearms regulation, Joe Biden urged, before taking on a more playful tone with a speech praising business creation and celebrating women entrepreneurs.
Since his inauguration, Joe Biden has issued a number of firearms-regulating decrees that have limited scope because Congress has jurisdiction over the matter.
His calls for a ban on assault weapons are unlikely to be heard as Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, firmly oppose it while the powerful gun lobby, the NRA, fights hard against such a measure.
The United States banned assault rifles for ten years, between 1994 and 2004.
Since then, gun violence has increased and gun sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic, with a strong craze for the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
Defending the constitutional right to bear arms has also become a strong political hallmark of the far right.
A February ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 51% of Americans oppose a ban on assault weapons, while 47% support it.