After the emotion, the debates? Joe Biden absorbed the pain of Uvalde, a traumatized Texas town, on Sunday, five days after the shooting in an elementary school, to bring all his empathy to the loved ones bereaved by this shooting which shocked America, but he cannot promise much -thing in terms of gun regulation.
At the exit of the church where the democratic president, practicing Catholic, and his wife Jill Biden had just attended a mass, several voices chanted: “Do something”! ” We will do it. We will do it, ”replied the president, climbing on the step of his car, turning to the people who were calling out to him. The couple had begun their visit to Robb Elementary School, the site of one of the worst school massacres in the United States.
Emotion
Nineteen children and two teachers died on Tuesday in the Robb school in Uvalde under the bullets of Salvador Ramos, barely 18, in one of the worst shootings in recent years in the country.
Joe and Jill Biden laid a bouquet in front of crosses bearing the names of the victims, almost submerged in flowers, with a stuffed animal here and there. Then the couple, aching faces behind their dark glasses, reviewed a row of large photos showing the faces of the broke children, aged 9 to 11.
The Bidens later spent nearly three hours with families of victims, away from cameras and view. Uvalde’s images bore a grim resemblance to the visit by the US president and his wife a few days ago to Buffalo, in the northeast of the country, the site of a racist massacre.
“Losing a child is like having a part of your soul ripped out of you”
The 79-year-old Democrat, who himself lost two of his children – his still baby daughter in a car accident, and an adult son following cancer – spoke of his own suffering shortly after the killings. “Losing a child is like having a part of your soul ripped out of you,” he said on Tuesday. “Nothing is ever the same again. »
Joe Biden may have, during his long interview with them, managed to comfort the families a little. But the 79-year-old Democrat can’t do much more, in a country where there are more guns in circulation than people.
Ricardo Garcia, 47, an employee at Uvalde hospital, was working there on the day of the tragedy. “I saw terrible things. Little dead children. I can’t get my head off the screaming of moms being told the bad news,” he says. “I’m glad that (the president) is here. We are honored. But we have to stop selling weapons, period. In Texas today you can’t buy tobacco at 18, but you can have guns. This is not normal,” he adds.
Fight the gun lobby?
Joe Biden would like to break this sinister routine of America, upset at regular intervals by shootings without significant reforms following.
“I feel a different state of mind,” wanted to believe Dick Durbin, Democratic senator, interviewed Sunday by CNN.
The Democrats must convince some Republicans to obtain the necessary qualified majority in the Senate, and legislate at least on access to semi-automatic weapons. The task will be difficult. On Friday, tenors from the conservative camp, including former President Donald Trump, marched to the convention of the powerful pro-gun lobby NRA, rallying to the organization’s leader’s mantra.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Wayne LaPierre.
What tracks could certain elected officials agree on?
Compromises will have to be found. The elected representatives of the narrow Democratic parliamentary majority must convince a few Republicans to bring together the necessary qualified majority. It is a question of seeing if the Republicans will “show political courage”, indicated Dick Durbin.
Among the avenues mentioned is a generalization of the examination of the psychiatric and judicial histories of arms buyers. Improving this examination is a solution “on which we could agree”, affirmed a Republican elected representative from Texas in the House of Representatives, Dan Crenshaw on CNN, while seeming skeptical about its usefulness.
Another option cited is a law allowing the temporary removal of weapons from a person whose behavior has been reported as dangerous. The elected officials are also discussing the possibility of raising the age to buy a weapon. The Uvalde shooter was barely 18, like many perpetrators of massacres. “Raise the age necessary to buy a weapon to 21 seems obvious,” said another Republican elected to the House of Representatives Adam Kinzinger on ABC, in favor of a stricter framework.
Eyes are also turning to Florida, which had tightened its restrictions on weapons after a massacre at a high school in Parkland in 2018. The state had also “invested more in mental health and school safety”, praised Chris Murphy, putting forward ideas more popular in the conservative camp.
A ban on assault rifles, the type of weapon used in Uvalde, seems more difficult to impose. “We have to be realistic about what we can do,” said Dick Durbin, recalling that more than 20 million AR-15 rifles were already in circulation in the United States.
A nightmare
The first testimonies of the students who came out of the school alive gave a glimpse of the nightmare. Upon entering the room, the shooter told the children, “You’re all going to die,” before opening fire, 10-year-old Samuel Salinas told ABC.
Miah Cerrillo, 11, tried to evade the attention of Salvador Ramos by covering herself in the blood of a comrade, whose body was next to her, and pretending to be dead, it was said. she explained to CNN. She had just seen the teenager kill his teacher, after saying “good night” to her.
The emotion was also tinged with anger, about the police response which only ended the massacre after an hour. This despite numerous pleas from people in the affected classrooms, including a child pleading: “Please send the police now”. The US Department of Justice announced on Sunday that it would review this police response.