Washington, United States
The United States is experiencing an “epidemic” of gun violence, as described by President Joe Biden, after last month’s shootings, the latest this Sunday with six dead, with no clear solution in sight. due to the tight Democratic majority in the Senate.
The country rose this Sunday with the news of one attack in a bar in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Where three people lost their lives and two more were injured last morning.
Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department specify in a statement that the event took place at the bar Taverna Somers House about 00.42 local time (05.42 GMT time).
The perpetrator of the shooting, who has been identified as a black man, is being sought by authorities, who have described the incident as “specific and isolated”.
Hours later, shortly after noon, three more people were shot dead in the Austin City, Texas, USA
Austin Local Police indicated on Twitter that there was “an active shooting incident” in Great Hills Trail and Rain Creek Parkway, Without providing further details.
150 MASSIVE SHOOTING IN 2021
According to figures from Archive of Violence with Firearms (GVA), a non-profit project that follows gun violence in the US country, so far in 2021 there have been 150 mass shootings, which defines them as those in which at least four people die or are killed bullet wounds, except to the perpetrator of the attack.
Throughout 2020, there were a total of 610 such incidents in the US, compared to 417 in 2019, according to this source.
In the last month alone, there have been 45 “mass shootings” since March 16, the CNN television network.
Gun attacks in recent weeks have caused many voices among Democrats, including Biden himself, to demand a change in legislation so that there is greater control over such weapons.
This weekend, authorities reported that the perpetrator of the shooting in Indianapolis, Indiana, Brandon Hole, who shot dead eight people on Thursday, legally bought two assault rifles months before the shooting. ‘attack, even though he was being investigated by the FBI.
The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Administration has been tracking these two weapons and police have found out that Hole, 19, bought one of them last July and the other in September.
THE INDIANA ATTACKER BEING IN A PSYCHIATRIC CENTER
Months earlier Hole was temporarily held in a psychiatric detention center and a firearm was confiscated for him at the time, the FBI revealed Friday to CNN.
His mother told the agency in March 2020 that her son could attempt suicide by behaving in a threatening manner to cause security forces to shoot him down.
Hole was questioned a month later by the FBI, which did not see in him any “racially motivated violent extremism” nor did he find that he had committed any crime, although he did not return the weapon that had been confiscated from him.
According to the police version, the young man opened fire indiscriminately on Thursday night in a warehouse of the postal services company FedEx in Indianapolis, where he killed eight people and injured five, before committing suicide. of a shot.
On Friday, authorities finished identifying the deadly victims, four of whom were members of the Sikh community, a creed originally from the state of Punjab, India.
Hole’s family issued a statement on Saturday stating that they were trying to give him “the help he needed” and expressed their “most sincere and heartfelt” apologies to the victims, their relatives and neighbors. Indianapolis for “this nonsensical tragedy.”
“We are devastated by the loss of life caused by Brandon’s actions, through the love of his family, we tried to give him the help he needed,” they explained in the note.
On Friday, Biden called on the Senate to tighten control of firearms and stop “accepting” a type of violence that “has become too normal” and causes 106 fatalities a day in this country.
AN ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE LEGISLATIVE CHANGE
It is virtually impossible for legislative measures for greater control of such weapons to go ahead in the upper house, where Democrats – the president’s party – have such a narrow majority that they would need to convince at least ten Republicans to approve them.
Former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (2011-2015) told CNN on Sunday that he would like to see his party’s lawmakers reach an agreement with Democrats on such legislation. .
“We hope they find some point of coincidence because frankly it’s discouraging,” said Boehner, who added that the current situation is “shameful” for the country.
Boehner, led the Republican caucus during the administration of former President Barack Obama (2009-2017) and resisted taking steps to increase gun control.
However, “those in power now have to figure out what can be done. It’s not about what everyone wants, it’s a matter of doing it in a bipartisan way,” he said.