Eighteen-year-old teenager opened fire yesterday Tuesday (24/5) inside the Robb Elementary School in Uwalde of Texaskilling 18 children and three teachers, a tragedy that plunges them again USA in their ever-returning nightmare attacks using firearms within schools.
The American president Joe Biden ordered the flags to fly at half-mast earlier and is expected to speak out about the massacre in a short time.
The suspect in the massacre was named by the authorities as Salvador Ramos, 18 years old. He killed children and teachers “in a barbaric and irrational manner” inside the school in the town of Uwalde, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said earlier during a news conference.
Salvador Ramos is also dead, according to authorities in the city, about 130 kilometers west of San Antonio.
He initially targeted his grandmother, whose condition has not been clarified – according to CNN, she is also dead – before going to school, “leaving his car” and entering the building, according to the governor, armed “with a pistol” and possibly “with a rifle”.
The motive of the perpetrator of the attack, one of the worst of its kind in the US for years, remains unknown at this stage.
Children 5 to 7 years old
The massacre took place at the primary school, which is attended by children aged 5 to 7 living in Uwalde. More than 500 children, almost 90% of Latin American descent, went there in the 2020-2021 school year, according to public data from the southern US state.
Videos uploaded to social networking sites show children rushing away from the building, in small groups, to the typical yellow school buses in front of the school.
At least two people, a 10-year-old girl and a 66-year-old woman, were being treated “in critical condition” at University Health in San Antonio, the hospital said.
President Biden is “constantly informed” of the events, said his spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre. He will address the deadly attack by addressing the American people at 20:15 (local time; 03:15 Greek time), after his return from Asia.
He ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-mast in the White House, in all public buildings and public places until Saturday, May 28, as a “sign of respect for the victims” of the attack, according to a press release issued by his services.
Ms Jean-Pierre added that Mr Biden was “praying for the families of the victims”.
The attack plunges the United States again into the torment of repeated school attacks in recent years, with shocking images of children being physically and mentally injured, often forced to lock themselves in classrooms before being driven away by law enforcement and insane parents desperately seeking to learn. the fate of their shoots…
Tragedies are on the rise
The tragedy is especially reminiscent of that in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, when a 20-year-old with mental health problems killed 26 people, including 20 children aged 6 to 7, before committing suicide.
Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator of this state, “begged” his colleagues to take action, assuring that these tragedies are not “inevitable”. “It’s only happening in this country – in no other. “In no other country do children who go to school think they can be shot,” he said, adding that members of Congress “are not powerless,” and that in the United States, “guns are flowing like water.” slaughter follows one another.
Vice President Kamala Harris, stressing that “our hearts continue to crack” every time something like this happens, stressed that as a nation Americans must find the courage to take action so that there is “never” another massacre at school.
In 2018, after the massacre at Parkland High School in Florida (17 dead, most of them teenage students), there were massive demonstrations, especially of young people, demanding that politicians take action.
But the debate on the issue has remained virtually barren: there is no real chance that Congress – where the arms lobby is heavily influential – will vote for an ambitious gun reform, an issue that has always divided Americans.
According to the Small Arms Survey research institute, in 2017 there were 393 million firearms in the country, more than the population.
Source: News Beast
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