Biden makes emotional call for tougher gun laws after Texas massacre | Abroad

“When the hell are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” he told a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House shortly after returning from a five-day trip to Asia. With First Lady Jill Biden by his side, he added: “I’m sick to death. We must act now.”

It is already the second massacre this month. Just two days before leaving for Asia, Biden met with victims and relatives of a shooting in Buffalo, where ten people were shot and killed in a Buffalo, New York supermarket, also by an 18-year-old.

“These mass shootings don’t happen anywhere else in the world,” Biden said. ,,And why? These parents will never be able to cuddle with their children again.” By order of the president, American flags will be flown at half-mast until Saturday.

Not everyone was impressed by Biden’s speech. According to Cameron Kasky, who survived the Parkland massacre in Florida in 2018, it is nice that Biden sympathizes with the victims. “But as proponents of stricter gun laws, we hoped to hear words like ‘Executive order’ (a kind of ministerial decree, ed.). Instead, we hear words that amount to thoughts and prayers,” said a disappointed Kasky.

As a Democratic presidential candidate, Biden pledged to enact tougher gun laws to reduce the country’s tens of thousands of annual deaths from firearms. Biden and his party members, however, do not have enough votes for that in Congress. According to Biden, this is partly due to the gun lobby, which is especially influential in rural, sparsely populated states. Those states, where gun ownership is rife, have a disproportionately large representation in the US Senate, where a majority of 60 out of 100 votes is needed to pass new legislation.

Elsewhere in the country, too, there were calls for stricter gun laws. From basketball legend LeBron James to writer Stephen King and Khloé Kardashian, everyone has been making themselves heard on social media.

US Senator Chris Murphy said he would literally get on his hands and knees “to beg my colleagues to find a way forward. To work together on legislation that will ensure that these kinds of tragedies happen less often.”

“Spare me the nonsense about mental illness. That problem is really no bigger with us than elsewhere in the world. But we are leading the way when it comes to access to firearms and the ease with which criminals and very sick people can obtain firearms. That’s the big difference,” he said.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, whose party is a staunch supporter of gun ownership, said he was “shocked and heartbroken.” “The whole country is praying for the children, families, teachers and first responders on the scene,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris said: “I hear from everyone now that their hearts are broken, but our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of these families. We must have the courage to actually take action.”