Another killing spree shakes the United States.
In Texas, the nation experiences the next shock - of almost incomprehensible proportions.
Shooting spree in Uvalde:
An 18-year-old shoots 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school in the state of Texas in the USA.
Criticism of the gun lobby:
US President Joe Biden wants to tighten gun laws in the USA.
School massacres are increasing:
A total of 126 people have died in school shootings in recent years.
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Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed their condolences after the killing spree in Texas.
"Our thoughts are with the injured and the survivors of the victims of this incredible massacre, for which words can hardly be found," wrote Scholz in a tweet.
Pedro Sanchez tweeted, "This everyday horror in America needs to stop."
At an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also spoke.
"I want to offer my condolences to all the families and loved ones of the children who died in the horrific shooting in Texas," said Zelensky, who attended the event via video link.
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Damion Lee, basketball player with the Golden State Warriors, sharply criticized the US weapons policy after the massacre at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
"It shouldn't be so easy to buy guns.
Right now, in the country we live in, it's easier to buy a gun than get baby food," Lee said Tuesday (May 24).
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Many families are desperately waiting for news of missing loved ones after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Texas, USA.
© Jintak Han/Imago
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The shooting spree at the elementary school in Uvalde is the second deadliest in recent US history.
Only the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 killed 26 people.
There have been 13 school shootings in the United States since 1988.
Since then, 126 people have died.
An overview of school shootings only in the USA:
School shootings - the sad statistics of recent years in the USA
1988: Chicago, Illinois - 4 dead
1989: Stockton, California- 5 dead
1992: Olivehurst, California - 4 dead
1998: Jonesboro, Arkansas - 5 dead
1999: Littleton, Colo. - 13 dead
2005: Red Lake, Minnesota - 8 dead
2006: Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania - 5 dead
2012: Newtown, Connecticut - 26 dead
2014: Marysville, Washington - 4 dead
2018: Santa Fe, Texas - 10 dead
2018: Parkland, Fla. - 17 dead
2021: Oxford, Michigan - 4 dead
2022: Uvalde, Texas - 21 dead
Primary school shooting in the US: Uvalde in shock
Update from Wednesday, May 25, 6:30 a.m .:
An almost incomprehensible act took place in the US state of Texas.
An 18-year-old opened fire in an elementary school, killing at least 19 school children.
It is one of the deadliest school massacres in US history.
According to investigators, the shooter entered the primary school in the small town of Uvalde on Tuesday afternoon (May 24) and shot himself.
He also killed at least two adults.
According to initial findings, the shooter was killed by security forces.
It was unclear if he himself was counted among the adult fatalities.
US President Joe Biden addressed the nation after the massacre and called for stricter gun laws.
Uvalde, Texas: rampage in the USA – police comment on the course of events
Initially, the Uvalde police did not provide any information on the death toll.
Erick Estrada from the Texas Department of Public Safety only commented on the numbers later in an interview with CNN.
He also described the events leading up to the massacre.
First, the suspect shot his grandmother, Estrada said.
The incident happened in the grandmother's apartment - she was taken to a hospital.
Nothing was known about her condition at the moment.
The shooter then drove to school in a car and had an accident there, Estrada said.
He then got out of the car and entered the school wearing a protective vest, a backpack and a gun.
There he opened fire.
The 18-year-old was then asked by the school's security staff.
However, Estrada emphasized that the investigation was still ongoing and that this information was still preliminary.
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Emergency services at the primary school in Uvalde.
© Dario Lopez-Mills/AP/dpa
Gunman kills 14 children in attack at US elementary school in Uvalde, Texas
First report from Tuesday, May 24, 11:35 p.m.:
Uvalde / Washington – 14 children and a teacher were killed in a shooting spree at an elementary school in the US state of Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said after the attack in the small town of Uvalde near San Antonio.
The shooter was also dead. According to initial findings, the attacker was an 18-year-old young man who had been killed by officials.
Tat reminiscent of Sandy Hook rampage
Shooting sprees, including in schools, occur with sad regularity in the United States.
A massacre at an elementary school ten years ago was particularly shocking: In December 2012, a 20-year-old with severe mental health problems in Newtown, Connecticut, first shot his mother.
He then went to his elementary school, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and killed 20 school children and six teachers there.
He then killed himself.
At the time, the act caused a shock nationwide and also caused horror beyond the borders of the USA.
Just over a week ago, a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others.
He was arrested at the scene of the crime.
According to investigators, the act was racially motivated - 11 of the 13 victims were black.
Buffalo has a mostly black population.
Number of rampages has doubled since 2017
Last year, the FBI counted 61 gun shootings in the United States.
That's more than 50 percent more than the year before, the FBI said in Washington.
The number has doubled since 2017.
In 2021, 103 people were killed and 140 injured in rampages.
That, too, is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2020. According to the information, 60 of the 61 shooters were men.
The FBI uses a strict definition for the count: it only includes cases in which a perpetrator shoots at people in public in order to kill them.
Classic criminal cases involving armed violence or shootings among gang members are ignored.
The level of gun violence overall is far greater in the United States.
Fatal incidents involving firearms, which are readily available there, occur regularly.
In its most recent statistics from 2020, the health authority CDC recorded a total of 45,222 gun deaths in the USA - more than 120 deaths per day.
(Luke Zigo/dpa)
Rubric list image: © Jintak Han/Imago
