The president of the United States, Joe Biden, stressed this Thursday that no one should be silent in the face of violence instigated by hate against certain communities in the country, such as Asia, and warned that not raising our voices favors this problem.
Biden delivered a speech to the Asian community following a shooting that took place Saturday night at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California, shortly after celebrating Chinese New Year.
The attacker, a 72-year-old Asian man armed with an assault weapon, fired 42 rounds, killing 11 men and women, all over the age of 50, before killing himself on Sunday after being cornered by police.
“Hate cannot have refuge in the United States. No one deserves to be treated with hate. We all deserve dignity and respect. (…) It is very simple. Silence is complicit. I will not do that”, stressed the US head of state during the Lunar New Year celebration at the White House.
The Pew survey and research organization revealed in May that a third of Asian Americans admitted to changing their daily routines out of concern about the threats they have received.
Biden also emphasized that this community has seen a rise in hate.
In the Monterey Park case, the shooter went to a second dance hall after the first attack, but was forced to flee after being disarmed by a young man, Brandon Tsay, also of Asian descent.
“Brandon is a true hero. (…) He thought he was going to die, but instead of running away, he thought about the people inside. .
On Monday, 600 kilometers north of that town, in Half Moon Bay, another man, also of Asian origin, killed at least seven Chinese farm workers on two farms.
Some 49,000 people died from firearms in 2021 in the United States, up from 45,000 in 2020, which is more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.
On Tuesday, the President of the United States called on Congress to quickly pass a bill that would set the legal age to purchase an assault rifle at 21, following a new spate of murders with firearms.
“The scourge of gun violence in America demands stronger action,” Biden wrote in a letter sent to Congress.
One of the proposals seeks to completely ban the sale of “military-style” assault weapons; the other seeks to raise the legal age to purchase a standard assault weapon in the United States from 18 to 21.
The president has long called, to no avail, to reinstate the US assault weapons ban, as it did between 1994 and 2004, but has run into opposition from the Republican Party, which has risen in defense of constitutional law. own weapons.
Since the beginning of the year, the Republican Party has controlled the House of Representatives, making an outright ban unlikely.
Source: TSF
