Photo: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP/Getty Images
By: EFE Posted May 24, 2023, 12:53 pm EDT
Vice President Kamala Harris advocated Wednesday for laws restricting firearms possessionone year after the attack on a Texas school that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
“Today our nation continues to mourn the lives lost, pray for their families, and grieve for a country where this violence, even in elementary school classrooms, is sickening and common,” Harris said in a statement.
On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos stormed Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and magazines containing hundreds of cartridges, in an attack that lasted 77 minutes. he killed 21 people before being shot down by police officers.
“One year after Uvalde, violence with firearms continues to be the main cause of child deaths in our country. One in five American families have lost a member to gun violence,” Harris said.
According to GunViolence, a group that records data on firearms in the United States, so far this year 16,768 people have died in firearm-related incidents, 56% of which have been suicides.
Harris added that, in the year since the massacre, “many families in Uvalde have channeled their anguish into mobilization.”
“Together, they demand that we act to save lives,” the vice president said, noting that President Joe Biden “has signed into law the Most Significant Gun Safety Legislation in 30 Yearsand put into practice important executive actions”.
“There is much more to do. We urge Congress and state legislatures to address this trying time not just with words, but with actions,” Harris said.
Keep reading:
• Uvalde parents remember their children with nostalgia one year after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary school
• They reveal new details about the shooting in Uvalde: agents felt intimidated by the attacker’s firearm
• Texas Senator Proposes Bills Allowing School Shooting Victims to Sue the State