2023-07-05 02:14:45
“It’s a weekend of celebrations, fireworks, hot dogs, parades and parties, but once more this year it’s been covered in blood.”, writes the US correspondent of the Spanish newspaper The country. On Tuesday, July 4, US National Day, Joe Biden urged lawmakers to act following a series of shootings in several major cities killed at least ten people.
In a press release, the American president called on elected Republicans to join him in proposing “common sense reforms”including an assault rifle ban, universal background checks and the end of legal immunity for gun manufacturers.
“In the past few days, our nation has once once more suffered a wave of tragic and senseless shootings in cities across America – from Philadelphia to Fort Worth, from Baltimore to Lansing, from Wichita to Chicago”he said, referring to a “epidemic of gun violence tearing our communities apart”, as the news site reports Axios.
Almost 350 mass killings since the beginning of the year
This wave of shootings began on Friday, as the United States entered a long holiday weekend, and culminated on Tuesday with Independence Day. On Friday night in Chicago, Illinois, one person was killed and three others injured in a sidewalk shooting. Then, very early Sunday morning, two more mass shootings erupted: one at a club in Wichita, Kansas, which left nine injured and another at a block party in Baltimore, Maryland, which left two dead and 28 injured.
But it was Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that paid the heaviest price on Monday, with a shooting that killed five people and injured two children. “Shortly following 8 p.m. the day before the 4th, in a Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, someone wearing a ski mask and body armor opened fire on a street in the neighborhood, ending to any festive feeling”, relate le New York Times. The alleged shooter was identified by police as a 40-year-old town resident, according to Philadelphia Inquirerbut no motive has yet been determined and police believe he has “drawn at random”.
Another shooting in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday evening left three people dead following a block party. And in the early hours of Tuesday, an altercation at a party in Lansing, Michigan, resulted in a shooting that left five people injured. There have been 345 mass shootings since the start of the year, according to statistics from the Gun Violence Archive.
Political deadlock
In his Tuesday statement, Joe Biden also paid tribute to the victims of Highland Park, when a gunman opened fire during the parade on July 4, 2022. Seven people died. The president praised Illinois for successfully banning assault rifles, but acknowledged that if “this success will save lives” in the future, “she won’t erase (the) chagrin” bereaved families, reports the British newspaper The Guardian.
These appeals from Biden to the opposition risk going unheeded anyway, observe Al-Jazeera“conservative lawmakers (having) largely resisted gun access restrictions”always referring “the right to bear arms under the second amendment of the American constitution”.
The Qatari news channel cites several recent examples that show the Republicans are unwilling to make concessions. Thus, in Florida, a law came into effect on July 1 “allowing residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, repealing previously required training and licensing”. In addition, conservative Supreme Court justices have “questioned restrictions on gun licenses in left-leaning states like New York, deeming them unconstitutional”.
Certainly, in June 2022, Congress passed bipartisan gun safety legislation, which included provisions on sale to those convicted of domestic violence. However, even though Biden called this bill a “monumental”, he admitted that he did not solve the thorniest problems. The stalemate remains.
1688540058
#bloody #holiday #weekend #Biden #urges #lawmakers #regulate #gun #sales
