The White House condemned the attack that killed several people on Monday at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, and reiterated its calls for Congress to act to toughen legislation on semi-automatic weapons.
“We must do more. [O Presidente, Joe Biden] he wants Congress to act. That’s enough,” US presidential spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a news conference.
Three children and three adults were killed in the attack at a private Christian school in Nashville, where the alleged attacker was also killed by police.
Jean-Pierre stressed that Biden has been informed of the situation, prays for the affected families and appreciates the response offered so far by the emergency teams.
“While we don’t yet know all the details of this latest tragic attack, we do know that all too often our schools and communities are devastated by gun violence,” the spokeswoman added.
Jean-Pierre stressed that while Biden has done everything he can to increase gun control, “it’s not enough and more needs to be done.”
“We need to ban semi-automatic weapons, take more steps to keep our kids safe at school, so our communities don’t fall apart. (…) This can’t happen. Educators can’t risk their lives going to work” he added.
The deadly attack comes as communities across the country are reeling from a wave of school violence, including last year’s shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; or a shooting last week in Denver that injured two administrators.
This is already the 128th mass shooting in the United States since the beginning of the year, according to data from the File of Gun Violence, which defines a mass shooting when at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Home to an estimated 400 million firearms in circulation, the United States is regularly plagued by deadly shootings, including in schools.
Since the beginning of 2023, there have been at least 30 firearms incidents in schools in the United States, which have left eight dead and 23 injured, according to data from the organization Everytown for Gun Safety.
Source: TSF
