A look back at the deadliest mass school shooting in the U.S. as Biden set to call for action on guns

Record ID: 1675277

  • Title: A look back at the deadliest mass school shooting in the U.S. as Biden set to call for action on guns
  • Date: 2nd June 2022
  • Summary: UVALDE, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (MAY 24, 2022) (REUTERS) FAMILY GRIEVING IN THE AFTERMATH OF SHOOTING VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GRIEVING, EMBRACING OUTSIDE CIVIC CENTER
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2022 19:50
  • Keywords: Columbine Gun laws Robb Elementary School Sandy Hook School shootings United States gun control
  • Location: VARIOUS, UNITED STATES
  • City: VARIOUS, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA007240902062022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS VIDEO WAS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS 0600-TEXAS SHOOTING/HISTORY-SCHOOLS ON MAY 25, 2022
    U.S. President Joe Biden is due to deliver a rare primetime address on tackling gun violence on Thursday (June 2) after a string of mass shootings led to renewed calls for action on gun safety in the United States.
    His speech follows high-profile mass shootings in recent weeks at a grocery store in New York, an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a medical building in Oklahoma.
    Gun safety advocates are pushing Biden to take stronger measures on his own to curb gun violence, but the White House has largely put the responsibility on Congress to pass laws that have more impact.
    A U.S. House of Representatives committee is working on a bill aimed at toughening national gun laws, though the measure has little chance of passing the Senate.
    Biden's address is aimed at putting further pressure on lawmakers to pass legislation and keeping the issue at the forefront of voters' minds. A broad majority of American voters, both Republicans, and Democrats favor stronger gun control laws, but Republicans in Congress and some moderate Democrats have blocked such legislation for years.
    Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to reinstall a ban on assault weapons and pass measures to require universal background checks for those who purchase guns.
    The school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas reminded Americans of other shocking murders that happened across the country.
    The attack on May 24th was the deadliest since a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012.
    In 2007, a gunman slaughtered 32 people and killed himself at Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia.
    In 2018, 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz shot dead 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He was an expelled student at the time of the mass murder.
    In November 2021, four students were killed and seven other people were wounded after a teenager opened fire at a high school in Oxford, Michigan.
    In April 1999, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, armed with guns and homemade bombs, killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and injured 24 others at Columbine High School in Colorado in a long-planned spree.
    In August 1966, Charles Whitman went to the top of a tower at the University of Texas and opened fire. He killed 15 people, including his mother and wife the night before, and wounded 31 others.
    Firearms became the leading cause of death for U.S. children and adolescents starting in 2020, surpassing motor vehicle accidents, according to a University of Michigan research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month.
    In the aftermath of the Texas shooting, Biden urged the country to take on the powerful pro-gun lobby that backs politicians who oppose such legislation.
    The Senate is split, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, and the law must have 60 votes to overcome a maneuver known as the filibuster, which means any law would need rare bipartisan support.
    (Production: Paul Warren, Liliana Ciobanu, Toyin Amusan)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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