On May 24, 2022 local time, the number of deaths in the shootings at Rob Elementary School in Uwald City, Texas, USA has risen to 18, and another 3 adults have died.

The shooting at Rob Elementary School in Uwald, Texas, USA on May 24 once again caused panic and uneasiness in American society. Many doubts were also raised: Nearly ten years have passed since the last deadliest campus shooting. Why is the United States' gun control operation still stopping?

Local time on May 24, 2022, the number of deaths in the shootings at Rob Elementary School in Uwald City, Texas, USA has risen to 18, and another 3 adults have died. Visual China Picture

According to U.S. Department of Public Safety officials, the number of deaths in campus shootings in Texas has reached 21, including 19 children and 2 adults. Texas Governor Abbott said that the suspect in the shooting was named El Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old high school student. He was shot dead by police after the shooting.

CNN CNN statistics show that the shooting in Texas primary schools is at least the 30th shooting incident on campus in 2022 (from preschool education to high school education, K-12).

" New York Times " commented that this is also the deadliest campus shooting in the United States in the past decade since the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.

It is worth noting that when the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred in 2012, Biden was serving as vice president and a key figure in the Obama administration in promoting gun safety legislation. However, ten years have passed, and the process of gun control legislation has been repeatedly set and no progress has been made.

"Nearly 10 years after the Sandy Hook incident, ten days after the incident in Buffalo, our country is paralyzed, not because of fear, but because no gun lobby and political party has shown any willingness to take any potential that could help stop these tragedies." Former President Obama said indignantly.

Biden also made a statement: "We must take action." As president, Biden, now, can he push the two parties to take action this time and introduce a more stringent gun control bill?

The identity of the suspect and the details of the case

Since the shooting of Texas primary school, although the motive for the suspect Ramos is still unclear, his identity and many details of the case have surfaced.

Texas Public Safety Department police officer Estrada told CNN that two cases involving Ramos occurred before the Texas primary school shooting.

Before going to the primary school, Ramos first shot his grandmother. Texas Senator Gutierrez said, "The young man shot his grandmother and then fled the scene." At present, his grandmother has been sent to a hospital in Texas' second largest city in San Antonio for rescue. After attacking grandmother, Ramos also crashed a car outside the primary school where the incident occurred. Witnesses said that Ramos was seen wearing a "gun and backpack" and wearing an body armor .

At the same time, two people who know Ramos also provided relevant information. CNN reported that Ramos worked in a restaurant. The owner of the restaurant said that Ramos has always been taciturn and rarely communicated with other employees.

Another classmate who was closer to Ramos said that a few days before the incident, Ramos sent him photos of guns and ammunition, and said, "I look completely different now. You won't recognize me." According to this classmate, during school, some people once laughed at Ramos's clothing and family financial situation. Later, he rarely came to school and slowly dropped out of school.

According to the US " New York Post ", a few hours before the incident, the suspect sent a text message to a stranger, saying, "I'm going..." The content posted by the account "salv8dor" on Instagram.

In addition, traces of the suspects have also been found on social platforms.Several classmates confirmed that Ramos had an account called "salv8dor" on the social platform Instagram. Three days before the incident, the account posted photos of the AR-15 rifle, and the introduction of his TikTok account page reads: "Children will be scared in real life." Since the Columbine High School shooting in April 1999, " Washington Post " has been continuously tracking how many children have encountered gun violence during school. According to the Washington Post, 311,000 students in more than 331 schools have been affected by gun violence, including not only 185 victims in related cases and 369 injured, but also hundreds of thousands of children who have suffered mental trauma after witnessing violence.

It is worth noting that the Washington Post pointed out that although campus shootings are still relatively rare, there were more campus shootings in 2021 than in any year since 1999.

Biden is "inaction" in promoting gun control legislation?

Around 20:00 on May 24 (Around 8:00 on Beijing time on May 25), Biden, who had just finished his trip to Asia, flew back to Washington on , White House , and spoke on this shooting that shocked the whole of the United States.

On May 24, 2022, local time, in Washington, DC, USA, U.S. President Biden delivered a speech on the shooting in Texas. Visual China Picture

"When will we stand up against gun lobby?" Biden questioned in his speech, "For every parent and every citizen of this country, it is time to turn pain into action. We must make it clear to every member of this country: it is time to take action." The shooting in Texas elementary school today is reminiscent of the deadliest campus shooting that happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School ten years ago. That year, the shooting killed 28 people, including 20 children.

It was also after this shooting that Obama began to let then Vice President Biden take the lead in forming the White House cross-departmental gun control task force. "Gun control" has thus become an important political agenda that has accompanied Biden so far.

Decades have passed and Biden doesn't seem to have achieved any breakthrough in dealing with this tricky agenda. Whether during the vice president's term or now becoming president, Biden has not yet cooperated with the two parties to launch a binding gun control bill. However, through the "review" of previous failure experiences, we may understand the current dilemma of the Biden administration's gun control operation from another perspective.

It is undeniable that after the shooting of Sandy Hook Elementary School, Obama signed more than 20 executive orders on gun control proposed by a working group led by Vice President Biden. However, Biden seems a little overwhelmed in promoting more influential Congress legislation.

At that time, Democratic Senator Manchin and Republican Senator Patrick Toumi tried to jointly promote an important bill to conduct background checks on gun buyers. Unfortunately, despite the wide public support of the bill, it failed to get enough votes in the Senate.

According to the Washington Post, relevant people who participated in the discussion on gun control legislation at that time said that Biden is quite far from the "Manchin-Tumi" bill in the tortuous process of Congress.

"I don't remember Biden's involvement at all." Brian Fallon, who was then aide to Senator Schumer, believed that the gun control issue was similar to the immigration issue. Obama and Biden's conventional approach was, "Let the lawmakers do it and see what bill they proposed."

Biden's allies explained that Biden's attitude towards the gun control bill at that time was intentional because the White House was worried that Obama or Biden's excessive involvement in Congress would arouse dissatisfaction among Republicans.

Despite this, many people are still disappointed with Biden's "inaction". "Biden's role (on the issue of gun control) is a joke." An unnamed former Democratic senator aide commented that Biden achieved nothing in this matter, and Manchin and Toumi are the people who promote the progress of the gun control bill.

Can the two parties join forces this time?

It is worth mentioning that after the Texas primary school shooting, Democratic lawmakers have called on Republicans to jointly introduce gun control bills, which adds some hope to the cooperation between the two parties.

According to ABC (ABC), after the shooting, U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy gave a speech in the Senate. He asked emotionally: "What are we doing? What are we doing?" Murphy said that this kind of thing will only happen in the United States and not elsewhere. Nowhere will children go to school and think that they might be shot today.

Murphy also called on fellow Republicans to put political differences aside and introduce stricter gun control bills to jointly prevent such mass shootings from happening again.

U.S. House Speaker Pelosi also regarded the shooting as a "crisis about life and death", and tweeted senators from both parties to vote for a life-saving bill proposed by both parties.

Previously, the House of Representatives passed two bills in March 2021 to strengthen background checks on gun sales and transfers. But the two bills ended up being stranded due to obstruction by Senate Republicans.

In fact, even if shootings occur frequently in recent times, it may be difficult for Democratic lawmakers to send out cooperation signals, or it may be difficult to change the position of Republican lawmakers. In their opinion, the introduction of the gun control bill has limited effect and cannot reduce the occurrence of large-scale shootings, and will also violate the right to carry weapons granted to the people by the US Constitution.

After the shooting of Texas elementary school, Republican Senator Tom Tillis warned Democrats not to have a "reflexive reaction" and attempted to pass a bill to violate the rights of guns granted to the people by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

In April 2013, after the "Manchin-Tumi" gun control bill encountered obstacles in the Senate, according to the Washington Post, Biden comforted Democratic lawmaker Gabery Givers , and failed to pass the gun control bill would anger the American people and prompt them to take action to organize gun violence. It is worth noting that in 2011, Givers was hit by a gunman in the head and was seriously injured and rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

"This will actually help you launch a campaign against gun violence." Biden said in 2013.

However, nearly ten years later, Biden is no longer as full of hope as before. Before ending its trip to Asia and arriving in Washington, Biden once said, "This (gun control) will be very difficult. But I will not give up on my efforts."

Source: Pengpai News reporter Wang Lu