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Joe and Jill Biden at the White House
Photo: STEFANI REYNOLDS / AFP
The pictures from Texas bring back memories of Parkland 2018 and of course the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown 2012. Again there was a deadly attack on a school in the USA, again most of the victims are children.
After the massacre in the state of Texas, US President Joe Biden spoke out in favor of stricter gun laws.
"As a nation, we have to ask ourselves when in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby," Biden said Tuesday night (local time) at the White House.
"The idea that an 18-year-old boy can walk into a gun store and buy two assault rifles is just wrong."
An 18-year-old attacker opened fire on Tuesday afternoon at Robb Elementary School in the small town of Uvalde, 135 kilometers west of San Antonio, police said.
18 children were killed - and according to current information up to three adults.
The attacker was also dead, said Texas governor Greg Abbott at a press conference.
According to investigators, he legally acquired the guns shortly after his 18th birthday.
In the past decade, there have been more than 900 incidents of reported shootings on school grounds, Biden said.
You can't prevent every tragedy with stricter gun laws - but these laws have positive effects.
Gun lobby and Republicans oppose each other
After firearm incidents like the current one in Texas, the debate about tightening gun laws usually flares up again briefly in the USA.
Serious changes are then prevented by the powerful gun lobby and parts of the Republican Party.
Congress, the US Parliament, is responsible for tightening gun laws.
Many Republicans oppose such a move.
In his speech, Biden also remembered his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, and his daughter, who was killed in a car accident in 1972.
"Losing a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped out," he said.
Referring to Texas, he said, visibly moved, that innocent second, third and fourth graders had lost their lives in "another massacre."
Their parents "will never see their child again, never put them to bed and be able to cuddle with them," according to the Democrat.
The authorities initially assumed 14 dead children, but the number later had to be corrected upwards.
Instead of one dead adult, as initially assumed, three adult fatalities are now assumed.
However, the on-site information is still partially imprecise.
So far it is unclear whether the killed perpetrator was counted among the adult victims.
There are also reports that the attacker shot his own grandmother before the attack at school.
Demand from Vice President Harris
US Senator Chris Murphy reacted in horror to the massacre and addressed moving words to his Senate colleagues.
“What are we doing?” asked the Democrat on Tuesday afternoon (local time) in the US Congress.
“Why do you spend so much time running for the United States Senate?
Why bother getting this job (...) when your answer is that while this carnage escalates and our children run for their lives, we do nothing,” he asked, clearly struggling.
"Why are we here?"
US Vice President Kamala Harris also called for new political measures after the massacre.
"Enough is enough," she said on Tuesday evening (local time) in Washington.
"As a nation, we must have the courage to act." Measures must be taken to ensure that crimes like this don't happen again, Harris said - without being specific: "Our hearts are always broken."
Uvalde is just the latest in a string of attacks on schools across the United States.
In February 2018, a 19-year-old ex-student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
He killed 17 people and injured 17 others.
Another example: On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman shot and killed 20 children, ages six and seven, and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Before that, he had already killed his mother.
After the bloody deeds, he took his own life.
After the fact, the then US President Barack Obama campaigned for stricter weapons regulations – even then and to this day without success.
jok/dpa