Biden Lays Flowers at Texas School in Tribute to Slain Children

by Nancy Cook - 29 May 2022

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden laid flowers outside a Texas elementary school where an 18-year-old with an assault rifle killed 19 children and two teachers, paying his respects during a day-long visit to comfort families of the victims.

With gun control back on the agenda in Washington, Biden heard shouts of “do something” from a crowd as he left a Roman Catholic memorial service. “We will,” he replied, before getting into the presidential limousine to meet in private with grieving parents and relatives.

The president and first lady Jill Biden were joined on Sunday by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who regularly criticizes the Democratic president over immigration and is seeking re-election in November. Some onlookers booed and heckled Abbott, with one yelling, “We need change, governor, our children don’t deserve this.”

Children sat on the altar in a sign of hope during the memorial mass for the victims who died on Tuesday at Robb Elementary School, where white crosses memorialized each of the dead kids by name.

“Our hearts are broken,” Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller said.

The US Department of Justice said Sunday it will conduct a “critical incident review” of the law enforcement response to the May 24 shooting. State officials, including Abbott, harshly criticized actions and public statements by police in the immediate aftermath.

In the wake of the killing, Vice President Kamala Harris called for a ban on assault weapons and enhanced background checks for firearm purchases, while Biden broadly has urged Americans to stand up to the “gun lobby.”

“In the face of such destructive forces, we have to stand stronger. We must stand stronger. We cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer,” Biden said Saturday during a commencement ceremony at the University of Delaware, his alma mater.

“We can finally do what we have to do to protect the lives of the people and of our children,” he added, linking both the shooting in Uvalde and a recent shooting at a Buffalo supermarket to a rise in white supremacy. “There’s too much violence, too much fear, too much grief.”

Assault Weapons

The shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo are the latest instances of US gun violence. Harris said on Saturday that there have been over 200 mass shootings to date, despite being “barely halfway through the year.”

“We are not sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like. You know, we’re not looking for a vaccine,” Harris told reporters in Buffalo, New York, after attending the funeral for a victim of that mass shooting. “We know what works on this. It includes, let’s have an assault weapons ban.”

A 10-year federal law banning assault weapons for civilian use expired in 2004 and hasn’t been renewed, reflecting the political difficulty of passing gun-control legislation.

Poster Comment:

A buddy of mine in Las Vegas, his kids are building AR-15s with parts imported from China.