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Monday, May 30, 2022, 12:21
Gunman kills 21 at US school
By Chen Yingqun in Beijing, Ai Heping in New York and May Zhou in Houston
Monday, May 30, 2022, 12:21 By Chen Yingqun in Beijing, Ai Heping in New York and May Zhou in Houston

A woman reacts as she pays her respects at a memorial site for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 26, 2022. (DARIO LOPEZ-MILLS / AP)

US President Joe Biden urged the nation to act on gun control, after 19 children were slaughtered in Texas a decade after another president cried out after a mass shooting of students in Newtown, Connecticut. 

In an emotional televised address, Biden called for new gun restrictions and said: “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone?”

Noting that no other country has such mass shootings, Biden added, “It’s time to act.” The White House ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in mourning for the victims.

An 18-year-old gunman killed at least 19 children and two adults at a Texas elementary school on May 24 morning, prompting increasing pressure on United States politicians to make moves to end the country’s cycle of mass shootings, but the prospects for change seem to be slim.

The gunman was killed by responding officers at the scene, state officials said.

The shooting took place at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a town of about 16,000 people that is about 135 kilometers west of San Antonio.

It was the deadliest shooting at a US grade school since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children and six staff members were killed, which prompted former president Barack Obama then to urge for gun control. 

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott said the gunman — identified by authorities as Salvador Ramos — was a student at Uvalde High School. The suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother before entering the school, according to Texas Department of Public Safety officials.

“At this point, the investigation is leading to tell us that the suspect did act alone during this heinous crime,” said Pete Arredondo, chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.

Uvalde Memorial Hospital had said that 15 students were being treated in the hospital’s emergency department. Two patients were transferred to San Antonio for treatment, while a third was to be transferred, the hospital said.

The shooting occurred one day after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation released a report that showed active-shooter incidents in the US increased by more than 50 percent in 2021, and these took the lives of 103 people, nearly triple the number from the previous year.

“Gun control has become a political debate that usually reaches no concrete results, as proposals by state and federal lawmakers to tighten laws are generally rebuffed by conservative politicians, who count on voter support from people who oppose gun control,” Yuan Zheng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

“The US democratic system can’t solve this problem or safeguard the public’s security,” he added.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing in Beijing on May 25 that he was saddened by the repeated deadly shootings in the US that have caused heavy casualties.

He said that the US has the worst gun violence and racial discrimination, and also the worst human rights deficit, of any country.

What is unacceptable is that Washington has not taken any substantive measures to address these problems in the past decade, he added.

Contact the writers at chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn


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