What we know about the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas 6:59
(CNN) --
The nation faced another horror Tuesday after a lone 18-year-old gunman entered a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school with two assault rifles and killed at least 19 children and two adults, snatching the lives of innocent elementary school students before being gunned down by law enforcement.
It was a chilling reminder of how little progress America's leaders have made in stemming the tide of gun violence since the 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
It was also the second mass shooting in less than two weeks, after another 18-year-old sympathetic to white supremacist theories killed 10 black Americans in Buffalo.
At least 19 children and two adults killed in a shooting at a Texas elementary school
Tuesday's horrors prompted the usual calls for prayer and justice for the victims from Republicans, while Democrats added demands for legislative action on gun safety.
But there was no sign of consensus on what can be done to stop these incidents in a nation where efforts to stop gun violence have more often than not run up against an impenetrable wall of partisan blockade and lobbying power. of the weapons.
In a country where mass shootings are now a weekly, and sometimes daily, occurrence, flags at the White House and across the country were lowered to half-staff as President Joe Biden returned home from a trip to Asia to address to a troubled nation.
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It was a role he has played too many times.
He seemed agitated and, at times, angry as he took the dais in the Roosevelt Room accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, who was dressed in black.
Biden was vice president at the time of the Sandy Hook massacre and was tasked by former President Barack Obama with leading an effort to find a compromise in legislation to tackle gun violence.
Those efforts ultimately failed, a frustration he addressed on Tuesday.
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An 18-year-old man opened fire Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing at least 19 students and two adults, authorities said.
In the image, Kladys Castellón prays during a vigil that took place in Uvalde on Tuesday night.
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People pray Tuesday night at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Uvalde.
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People take comfort outside the Civic Center in Uvalde.
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Police personnel run near the scene of the shooting.
US Customs and Border Protection, which is the largest law enforcement agency in the area, helped with the response to the incident.
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A Texas State Trooper walks outside Robb Elementary School, where the shooting occurred.
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A woman reacts outside the Uvalde Civic Center.
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A minor boards a school bus Tuesday under police surveillance.
Robb High School had 535 students in the 2020-21 school year, according to state data.
About 90% of the students are Hispanic and about 81% are economically disadvantaged, the data shows.
Thursday was going to be the last day of school before summer break.
Marco Bello/Reuters
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People react outside the Civic Center.
With this, they add at least 30 shootings in primary and secondary schools in 2022. Marco Bello/Reuters
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Police officers and other first responders gather outside the school after Tuesday's shooting.
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A woman cries and hugs a minor while she talks on the phone outside the Uvalde Civic Center.
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A woman cries as she leaves the Civic Center.
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Law enforcement officers stand outside the school after the shooting.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.
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People sit on the sidewalk outside the school as state police patrol the area.
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Police walk near the school after the shooting.
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A woman and a minor leave the Uvalde Civic Center on Tuesday.
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"I was hoping that when I became president I wouldn't have to do this again. Another massacre," the president said.
"Beautiful, innocent, second, third and fourth graders. And how many dozens of little kids who witnessed what happened...watch their friends die like they're on a battlefield, for God's sake. They'll live with it." the rest of their lives."
"Losing a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped out of you," Biden said, briefly touching on the 2015 death of his own son Beau at the age of 46 from cancer, and years earlier, his daughter Naomi of 13 months, who died in 1972 in a car accident that also took the life of his first wife Neilia.
"As a nation we have to ask ourselves when in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby," he said.
"We have to act and don't tell me we can't be shocked by this carnage."
In the early afternoon, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut delivered the most scathing speech of the day from the Senate floor as he challenged his colleagues to break the legislative deadlock.
What are we doing?: reactions to the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in which 21 people died
"Just days after a shooter entered a grocery store to gun down African-American customers, we have another Sandy Hook on our hands. What are we doing?"
Murphy asked his colleagues.
"Our kids live in fear every time they step foot in the classroom because they think they're going to be next. What are we doing? Why are you spending all this time running for the United States Senate? Why are you going through all the bother to get this job, to put yourself in a position of authority, if your answer is that as the killing increases, as our children run for their lives, we do nothing?
The scenes from Uvalde, a small, close-knit community of about 16,000 people located about 80 miles west of San Antonio, were poignant and all too familiar.
Mobile phone footage captured local residents running towards the school building in disbelief as news of the shooting spread.
Then, the harrowing hours of the afternoon, when parents were directed to join their children at a local civic center, bracing for the news about which students had survived and which would not be coming home.
At least 20 injured victims were being treated at local hospitals.
And there were more questions than answers about the suspect, identified as Salvador Ramos, a student at the Uvalde institute.
One of those parents searching for their 10-year-old daughter in the chaotic hours after the shooting was Jessie Rodriguez, who spoke to CNN affiliate KHOU.
"After the shooting, they don't know where she is. We don't know the list of who has escaped and they won't let us into the hospital right now. So we don't know where to go," she said.
Authorities seek clues about Texas shooter's motives
As of late Tuesday afternoon, law enforcement was still trying to piece together clues about how the shooting unfolded and what led the shooter to open fire on innocent children and adults at Robb Elementary School.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the suspect arrived at the school alone around noon, abandoned his vehicle and went inside.
Sergeant Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety later described the chaotic series of events leading up to the shooting during an interview on "AC 360" hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Before going on his rampage, Ramos shot his grandmother at her residence, Estrada said.
She is in critical condition, she said.
The gunman then met up with officers after crashing his car into a ditch near Robb Elementary, getting out with a rifle and backpack while he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
It is not clear why the car accident occurred or if the school was the target of it.
After the accident, he was able to enter through the south gate of the Texas school.
As the shooting unfolded, he walked into several different classrooms, Estrada said, but it was unclear how long that terror lasted before officers cut him down.
According to Abbott, two of the officers who responded to the shooting were struck by bullets but were not seriously injured.
A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene in a town not far from the US-Mexico border, he was shot in the head, but the bullet did not penetrate, according to an official.
About 20 CBP agents responded to the scene to provide assistance, some of whom ended up helping to transport the students safely to their families and offering them medical assistance, according to authorities.
How many mass shootings have there been in the United States in 2022?
Investigators were also examining social media accounts, including an Instagram account linked to the suspect that three days before the incident had posted a story that included images of two AR15-style rifles.
A former classmate of the suspect told CNN's Curt Devine and Jeff Winter that Ramos "had a lot of bullying and teasing" and was sometimes teased about the clothes he wore and his family's financial situation.
The former classmate, who did not want to be identified, said Ramos "dropped out slowly" and ultimately "barely came to school."
Democratic state Sen. Roland Gutierrez told CNN's Erin Burnett in an interview Tuesday night that the shooter had acquired the two assault weapons on his 18th birthday, according to information given to him by the Texas Rangers.
"When he turned 18, he bought those two assault rifles," Gutierrez said.
"It's the first thing he did when he turned 18."
Sadness and blockage in Congress
Senate Democrats immediately took steps to try to put a background check bill passed by the US House of Representatives, known as the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021, on the legislative calendar. But there was no sign that the legislation won the 10 Republican votes needed for passage.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said the bill must be voted on the floor, even if it is likely to fail.
"I think we need to hold every member of Congress accountable and vote so that the public knows where each of us stands," he said.
Texas shooting reignites gun control debate 2:00
Biden's speech—which did not outline any clear plan of action on gun legislation—reflected the political reality he faces.
With inaction the most likely outcome, he chose to focus on the anguish of Texas families.
Biden played a role in passing the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 after lawmakers failed to renew it.
His administration has taken some executive action, such as recent policies to crack down on "ghost guns," but they fall far short of the sweeping moves he and many Democrats in Congress would like to see.
They are hampered in part by filibustering rules in the US Senate, which require 60 votes to advance major legislation.
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said he would do "everything possible" to push through what he called "common sense" gun legislation, but indicated Tuesday that he's not yet ready to eliminate filibustering to get guns out. gun legislation passes the Senate.
Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, offered a grim assessment of how the next few weeks will unfold in a familiar pattern in the aftermath of the Texas massacre.
"In a couple of weeks ... we're going back to the full House. We're going to have a moment of silence, and we're going to talk thoughts and prayers," he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."
"The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has passed a gun control bill, but it won't get anywhere in the Senate or with my colleagues across the aisle. And you and I will talk about this again, in some time in the next week, two weeks, months or years."
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