WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) — As many families in the United States prepare for Christmas, relatives of Justin Powell are planning his funeral this week.
Powell, a 16-year-old teenager, died nearly a week ago in a shooting at an apartment complex in Atlanta, Georgia.
“I can’t live without my son. I don’t know what to do,” Powell’s mother, Natasha Hinton, sobbed to a local news outlet, trying to contain herself.
According to another family member, Powell had “an infectious smile” and loved basketball and music. He also had plans for the future, but these will never come true.
According to Atlanta police sources, the groups of minors had differences on social networks, but the violence escalated when armed confronted each other in the apartment complex.
As a result of the dispute, not only Powell died but also 14-year-old Malik Grover, and three other teenagers were injured.
“With a week to Christmas, families should be preparing to celebrate… Instead, we have parents in Atlanta doing what no parent should have to do: bury their children,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
The official emphasized the problem of gun violence in the United States, which has claimed the lives of more than 43,000 people so far this year, including nearly 1,600 children and adolescents.
On May 24, a gunman broke into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers with a rifle.
Faith Mata, a 21-year-old college student, lost her little sister Tess in the second deadliest school shooting in US history.
“Our life has changed forever, it has darkened because our light has gone,” Mata said during a hearing on Capitol Hill, the seat of the US Congress, earlier this month.
“Tess will never be able to experience the life we had prayed for her to live, she will never graduate high school, fall in love, or be at my wedding. We also won’t know how scared she was in that classroom during her last moments,” Mata continued.
In June, a group of activists installed a temporary monument made of 45,000 white and orange flowers on the National Mall in Washington, DC, dedicated to victims of gun violence in the country.
Former US congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived a shooting in 2011, tweeted that when she looks at the flowers, she imagines “45,000 full lives cut short by gun violence. That’s 45,000 empty seats at the kitchen table, 45,000 dreams never achieved.”
Last month, just before Thanksgiving, the US suffered several mass shootings in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Chesapeake, Virginia, resulting in 11 deaths and dozens injured.
“Too many families will have an empty seat at their tables over Thanksgiving and Christmas due to our epidemic of gun violence,” Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas wrote on Facebook, calling for more action to “stop this violence.”
US President Joe Biden signed into law what was called a gun safety bill in late June, but critics and gun control advocates have argued that the measure falls short of eradicating gun violence from the country. .
This December also marked the tenth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 26 dead, including 20 children ages six to seven.
Last week, Biden issued a statement saying he is “determined” to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like those used in the Sandy Hook school attack and other mass shootings.
“Enough is enough. Our obligation is clear. We must eliminate these weapons that have no other purpose than to kill people in large numbers,” the president said.
However, Congress is unlikely to pass an assault weapons ban motion as Republicans, who advocate the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, will take control. of the House of Representatives the next term.
