President Joe Biden addressed the country on Tuesday night, in response to the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 18 children and one teacher dead. The gunman also killed his grandmother before opening fire in the school.
“I had hoped when I became president that I would not have to do this again,” the president began. He referenced to 10 years ago, when he gave an address at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, where a gunman had killed 26 people.
“Since then there have been over 900 incidents of gunfire reported on school grounds,” he said. “I am sick and tired of it.”
“To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There is a hollowness in your chest and you feel like you’re being sucked in to it, suffocating. It is never quite the same,” the president stated.
“As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what we know needs to be done?” Biden said.
Mass shootings have gone down since the assault weapons ban was passed, but tripled when the law expired, he said, adding that it is “just wrong” that an 18-year old was able to buy two assault weapons. “What in God’s name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone?” the president said.
“These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world, why?”
Biden stated that other countries have mental health problems, domestic disputes, and other issues but “these kinds of mass shootings never happen at the kind of frequency that they happen in America. Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God's name is our backbone?”
“It’s time to turn this pain into action,” he said.
He concluded by offering his prayers and help to the parents and family members of those who lost their loved ones during this massacre.
“May God bless the loss of innocent life on this sad day. May the Lord be near the broken hearted and save those who are crushed in spirit, because they’re going to need a lot of our help, and a lot of our prayers.”