The President of the United States, Joe Biden has once again called on Congress to pass gun control bills after yet another tragic mass shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, at a Texas mall on Saturday.
The Democratic president renewed calls on Sunday for Congress to impose a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as to enact universal background checks and end immunity for gun manufacturers. There is little chance the narrowly divided House and Senate would pass such legislation, although polls show most people in the United States support background checks.
He went on to add; ‘I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe’.
Biden, who has made similar pleas before, said the assailant at Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, a northern suburb of Dallas, wore tactical gear and was armed with an AR-15-style assault weapon.
‘Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables,’ he went on. ‘Republican members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough.’
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The gunman killed eight people, including children, and wounded at least seven, before a police officer killed him, police said on Saturday.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Mass shootings have become commonplace in the US, with at least 199 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The non-profit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.
Texas Department of Public Safety on Sunday confirmed the identity of the gunman in Saturday’s shooting as Mauricio Garcia, a 33-year-old Dallas resident, but by the evening had not released any details about a possible motive for the attack.
Police have not released the identities of the victims, but a family member said one of those killed was Christian LaCour, a security guard.
‘We watched this sweet young boy turn into a very sweet gentleman,” Kellie Smith wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, identifying LaCour as the brother of her daughter-in-law. “Words can not even begin to describe the devastation that our family feels.’
As of Sunday, according to officials, three of the patients who were transferred to surrounding hospitals were in serious condition, while three others—including one at a children’s hospital—were in stable condition.
Just over a week after another tragic shooting in the Texas town of Cleveland, the tragedy in Allen revived the contentious discussion about gun control in the country.
The right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, and many Republicans, who are supported by millions in donations from gun rights organisations and manufacturers, are passionate about this topic.