Texas: Gunman kills 14 children in elementary school

14 children have been killed in a shooting at an elementary school in the US state of Texas. According to the governor, a teacher was also killed. The alleged perpetrator was shot dead by police officers.

14 children and a teacher have been killed in a Texas elementary school shooting. This was announced by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after the attack in the small town of Uvalde near San Antonio. The shooter was also dead. According to initial findings, the attacker was an 18-year-old young man who had been killed by officials. Police say he acted alone.

There was initially no information about the number of injuries, but the police chief responsible for the school district spoke of “several injuries”. A local hospital previously reported that 13 children had been admitted. From another clinic it was said that a 66-year-old was in critical condition.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said US President Joe Biden had been briefed on the attack. “He is praying for the families affected by this terrible event.” The President wants to make a speech to the nation on Tuesday evening (local time) after his return from his trip to Asia in Washington.

Biden immediately ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast on all public buildings in the United States up to and including Saturday in view of the devastating attack.

Shooting sprees, including in schools, occur with sad regularity in the United States. A massacre at an elementary school ten years ago was particularly shocking: In December 2012, a 20-year-old with severe mental health problems in Newtown, Connecticut, first shot his mother. He then went to his elementary school, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and killed 20 school children and six teachers there. He then killed himself. At the time, the act caused a shock across the country and also caused horror beyond the borders of the USA.

Senator: “Why are we here?”

The US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, reacted in horror to the massacre at the school in Texas and addressed moving words to his Senate colleagues. “What are we doing?” asked the Democrat in the US Congress. “Why do you spend so much time running for the United States Senate? Why bother trying to get that job (…) when your answer is that while this carnage increases and our children are running for their lives,” he asked, visibly struggling to keep his composure. “Why are we here?”

US Vice President Kamala Harris called for new political measures. “Enough is enough,” Harris said. “As a nation, we must have the courage to act”. Measures must be taken to ensure that such crimes don’t happen again, Harris said – without getting specific. “Our hearts keep getting broken”. A number of Democrats are calling for stricter gun laws after the bloodbath in the small town of Uvalde.

The number of killing sprees in the USA is increasing significantly

Just over a week ago, a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others. He was arrested at the scene of the crime. According to investigators, the act was racially motivated – 11 of the 13 victims were black. Buffalo has a mostly black population.

Last year, the FBI counted 61 gun shootings in the United States. The FBI announced on Monday evening that this was more than 50 percent more than in the previous year. The number has doubled since 2017. In 2021, 103 people were killed and 140 injured in rampages. That, too, is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2020. According to the information, 60 of the 61 shooters were men. The FBI uses a strict definition for the count: it only includes cases in which a perpetrator shoots at people in public in order to kill them.