2024-02-15 09:01:17
This content was published on February 15, 2024 – 10:01
(Keystone-ATS) Shooting during the parade celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory in Kansas City in the central United States left at least one dead and 21 injured on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden spoke of a “tragedy”.
Mr. Biden once more called on Congress to legislate to stem gun violence in the country. Eight life-threatening patients were taken to hospital within 10 minutes of the shooting, Kansas City Fire Chief Ross Grundyson said earlier at a news conference.
Stacey Graves, the police chief of the city, located in the state of Missouri, said that three people in total had been arrested in connection with the shootings. Children’s Mercy Hospital said it was treating 12 injured people from the gathering, including 11 children ages 6 to 15.
Tens of thousands of people celebrated the Chiefs, who paraded through the streets of Kansas City to celebrate their victory on Sunday in the Super Bowl, the annual high mass of American football. The traditional convoy of double-decker buses traveled up Grand Boulevard towards Union Station. The shooting took place near the station parking lot as the parade was drawing to a close.
“Senseless epidemic”
“I thought it was fireworks,” John O’Connor told The Kansas City Star, explaining that he heard “between 15 and 20 shots in a short period of time.” In a statement, the Kansas City Chiefs said they were “saddened” and condemned a “senseless act of violence,” specifying that all their players, coaches and staff members, as well as their families were safe.
Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs’ star quarterback, said “pray for Kansas City” in a post on X. Travis Kelce, another Chiefs player and companion of megastar Taylor Swift, said he was “heartbroken by the tragedy.” The singer, who will be in concert Friday in Melbourne, Australia, was not present for the parade.
In the evening, Joe Biden said he prayed with his wife Jill “for those killed and injured today in Kansas City”, but also “for our country so that it finds the determination to put an end to this senseless epidemic of violence by gun that tears us apart,” according to a White House statement. The United States is indeed paying a very heavy price for the spread of firearms on its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them.
“Anger”
The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one adult in three owns at least one weapon and nearly one adult in two lives in a home where there is a weapon. The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, incomparable to that of other developed countries.
Around 49,000 people died by gunfire in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides. However, it is the mass shootings that stand out the most, while illustrating the ideological divide separating conservatives and progressives on the question of how to prevent such tragedies.
The United States Congress has not adopted an ambitious law for a long time, with many elected officials being under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the leading American arms lobby. The mayor of Kansas City, who was present with his family during the parade, said he was “angry”.
A parade to celebrate a Super Bowl victory, “it’s a day that many people hope to remember for the rest of their lives; and what they shouldn’t have to remember is the threat posed by gun violence,” Quinton Lucas said at a news conference.
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