Biden vows to take action on his visit to Uvalde

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — President Joe Biden tried to comfort a city Sunday in mourning over the killing of 19 elementary school students and two teachers by a lone gunman in Texas. Hearing the crowd chant “do something!” On his way out of a mass before meeting privately with the families of the victims, Biden replied: “We will”

The visit to Uvalde was Biden’s second trip in as many weeks to comfort a community grieving tragic shooting deaths. On May 17, he traveled to Buffalo, New York, to meet with relatives of the victims and denounce white supremacy after an attacker inspired by the racist “replacement” theory murdered 10 black people in a supermarket.

At Robb Elementary School, Biden stopped at a makeshift memorial with 21 white crosses — one for each victim — and Jill Biden left a bouquet of white flowers in front of the school’s sign. They looked at each of the 21 individual memorials, and the first lady touched the children’s photos as the couple walked through the memorial.

Both shootings and their aftermath brought to the fore the country’s deep-seated divisions and inability to reach a consensus on actions to reduce gun violence.

“Evil came into that elementary school classroom in Texas, that grocery store in New York, too many places where innocents have died,” Biden said Saturday in a commencement address at the University of Delaware. “We have to stand firm. We must stand firm. We can’t outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer.”

After visiting the memorial, Biden attended Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where relatives of the victims often go. As she left for her private meeting with relatives, about 100 people began shouting, “Do something!” Before getting into his vehicle, Biden replied: “We will.” It was the only public comment from her during her visit of almost 7 hours in Uvalde.

At the moment it is unknown what the president was referring to specifically. He also met with emergency personnel before returning to his residence in Delaware. It is not known at this time if the meeting included agents involved in the immediate response to the attack.

Mckinzie Hinojosa, whose cousin Eliahana Torres was killed Tuesday, said she respected Biden’s decision to commiserate with the people of Uvalde.

“It’s more than a duel,” he said. “We want changes. We want actions. It’s still something that happens over and over and over again. A massacre occurs. It’s on the news. People cry. And then it’s in the past. Nobody cares. And then it happens again. And again”.

“If there’s one thing I could say to Joe Biden, it would be to respect our community while he’s here, and I’m sure he will,” she said. “But we need a change. We need to do something about it.”

Biden made his visit amid growing scrutiny of the police response to the shooting. Authorities revealed Friday that students and teachers repeatedly pleaded with 911 operators for help, and meanwhile in the corridor outside the classroom there were more than a dozen officers who did not enter because a police commander had ordered them to to wait there. According to officials, the commander believed the suspect was holed up inside an adjoining classroom and that he was no longer killing anyone.

The revelation caused more pain and raised new questions about whether lives were lost because police officers did not act quickly enough to apprehend the attacker, who was eventually shot dead by a Border Patrol tactical squad.

The Justice Department announced Sunday that it will review the police response and release its findings.

“It’s easy to make accusations now,” Uvalde County Commissioner Ronnie Garza told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” And he added: “Right now our community needs to focus on healing.”

Authorities have said the assailant legally acquired two weapons shortly before the attack: an AR-type rifle on May 17, and a second rifle three days later. He had just turned 18, so federal law allowed him to buy the guns.

Hours after the shooting, Biden delivered an impassioned speech demanding more gun control laws, asking, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to gun lobbyists? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?

Over the years, Biden has been closely involved in the most notable successes of the gun control movement, such as the 1994 ban on the sale of assault weapons, which expired in 2004, and with some of his worst setbacks, including the failure to pass new laws after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Since becoming president, Biden has attempted to combat gun violence through executive orders. He now has few new options open to him, but executive action may be the best he can do, given the sharp divisions in Washington over gun control bills.

In Congress, a bipartisan group of senators met over the weekend to see if they could reach even a modest agreement on a gun safety bill after a decade of failed efforts.

The meeting discussed pushing “alert” laws to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental health problems, and address school safety and mental health resources, said Sen. Chris Murphy, who is spearheading those efforts. to reach a consensus.

While there is insufficient support from Republicans in Congress for broader gun safety proposals that are popular with the public, including a new ban on the sale of assault weapons or a universal review of background before a person buys guns, Murphy told ABC’s “This Week” that the other ideas were “not insignificant.”

The group will meet again next week, and faces a 10-day deadline to reach an agreement.

“There are more Republicans interested in talking about how to find a way forward this time around than I’ve seen since Sandy Hook,” said Murphy, who represented the Newtown area in the legislature when that massacre occurred. “And while I might end up heartbroken in the end, right now I’m negotiating with Republicans and Democrats in a more meaningful way than ever before.”

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Darlene Superville in Washington and video journalist Robert Bumsted in Uvalde, Texas contributed to this report.

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