Joe Biden Ripped Into Gun Makers Over The Texas School Shooting & Said 'We Have To Act'

"When in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?"

U.S. President Joe Biden addressing the nation.

U.S. President Joe Biden addressing the nation.

Global Staff Writer

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U.S. President Joe Biden went after gun culture in an emotional speech on Tuesday evening, after a mass shooting left over a dozen children dead in Uvalde, Texas.

An 18-year-old walked into Robb Elementary School and opened fire on Tuesday, killing 19 children and two adults. He also died during the incident.

While the president sent the victims and their families the strength to endure the "darkness they feel right now," he also called for gun control and pointed to how other countries simply don't have to deal with this many mass shootings.

"As a nation we have to ask, 'When in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?'" said Biden. He also recalled devastating school shootings of the past, including the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in 2018.

"The list goes on and on. The list grows," said Biden. "I am sick and tired of it. We have to act."

Biden then went into discussing gun laws and what can be done to prevent mass shootings.

"When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down," he said. "When the law expired, mass shootings tripled."

The president also reiterated a part of his speech on Twitter, where he compared the U.S. to the rest of the world on gun deaths.

"These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen elsewhere in the world. Why are we willing to live with this carnage?" he wrote in the tweet.

"Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God's name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it? It's time to turn this pain into action."

Biden and the last Democrat president, Barack Obama, have tried to push through gun control laws. However, they haven't been able to get them past Congress, where Republicans would have to sign off on any change.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, conveyed frustration while discussing the latest shooting with the Associated Press.

"We're just pushing on people who just won't budge on anything," said Manchin, who sponsored gun legislation after Sandy Hook that failed to pass.

"It makes no sense at all why we can't do commonsense things and try to prevent some of this from happening."

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, offered his prayers to the victims on Twitter Tuesday, without mentioning guns specifically.

"We've seen too many of these shootings," he tweeted. "We need to come together, as one nation, and support Uvalde as they try to heal from this devastating loss."

  • Cata Balzano (she/her) was a Staff Writer for the Narcity Global Desk. With a Communications degree from Florida International University, she has worked with the Miami Herald, Billboard, Variety, and Telemundo within other media names, covering pop culture, fashion, entertainment and travel. Originally from South Florida, Cata grew up in a Colombian-Italian household, where she grasped a sense of a multicultural lifestyle from an early age. Cata speaks four languages, proudly owns three passports, and she has lived in Bogotá, New York City, Miami, London and the French Riviera before relocating to Rome in 2022. When she's not away exploring a new city, she is spending time around Italy with her French bulldog, Bentley.

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