6 dead in an elementary school shooting in the United States, Biden again calls for stricter gun control

28.03.2023

There has been another school shooting in the United States, and a private elementary school in Tennessee was said to have attacked students and school personnel with guns on Monday, resulting in the death of six people. The suspect has been killed by police. US President Biden called on Congress to pass legislation as soon as possible to protect campus security.

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) A shooting occurred at an elementary school in Tennessee in the southern United States on Monday (March 27) A young woman with two assault rifles and a pistol broke into Ysgol y Cfamod (Covenant School), killing 6 of people, including 3 adults and 3 9-year-old children.

A spokesperson for the Nashville Police Department said they received a call at 10:13am local time. When the police arrived at the scene, they started to clear the first floor of the school, and at the same time, they heard gunshots from the second floor. The gunman was shot and killed by the police at 10:27am.

Police say there was a planned killer

The authorities noted that the suspect, Audrey Hale, 28, who had previously attended the school, had drawn a detailed map of the campus by hand marking the entrances. Nashville Police Chief John Drake said that according to the information they have, there is more than one shooting location in the plan, and the school is just one of them. The police said that the attack was targeted and that the criminals had “carefully planned” it in advance.

Ysgol Gynradd y Cyfamod, where the crime took place, is a mission school established in 2001 with approximately 200 students from pre-school to sixth form. Being a private elementary school, it does not have police officers on duty like ordinary public schools. In a media conference, Nashville police said the three children killed were all 9 years old, and the other three adults who died were the school’s principal, an administrator and a kitchen worker. Nashville Mayor John Cooper expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

Biden urges Congress to act

So far in 2023, there have been 89 school shootings in the United States, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. There will be a total of 303 school shootings in the entire year of 2022, the highest number ever recorded in the database.

Responding to the tragedy, the White House said US President Joe Biden wanted Congress to do more to stop gun violence, which he called “a family’s worst nightmare.” Biden, who has repeatedly called for stricter gun laws, signed the first gun control law in nearly 30 years last June.

Biden reiterated that Congress must pass an assault weapons ban because “we need to do more to protect our schools.” White House spokesperson Jean-Pierre (Karine Jean-Pierre) also called on Republicans to take action at the briefing in support of stronger gun control. However, while Democrats currently hold a narrow majority in the Senate, the House of Representatives is led by Republicans, making it unlikely that a bipartisan consensus on a gun solution will emerge in this Congress.

(comprehensive report)

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