The murders of at least 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school have led to more demands for a coherent approach to gun and mental health reforms in the United States. Shortly after his 18th birthday this month, the school shooter bought two assault rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition, according to a Texas state senator. One of the rifles was found with the gunman Tuesday after he was killed in a classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a town of 16,000 people 80 miles west of San Antonio. It was the 212th mass shooting in the U.S. this year involving four or more victims, injured or dead, and the 27th shooting at a U.S. school. It came 10 days after the racist mass killing of 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” President Joe Biden said Tuesday night, hours after the Texas shooting. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?”
Jack McDevitt, a Northeastern professor who helped drive a new package of gun laws in Massachusetts, says a starting point for overhauling U.S. firearm laws should include mandatory licenses for guns, much the same as driver’s licenses are demanded of anyone who operates a motor vehicle.
