US President Joe Biden Sunday renewed his call for Congress to ban semi-automatic rifles like the one used in a weekend shooting that left eight victims dead in Texas, news agency AFP reported.
"Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage," The US President said in a statement. "We need nothing less to keep our streets safe," the President added.
“Yesterday, an assailant in tactical gear armed with an AR-15 style assault weapon gunned down innocent people in a shopping mall, and not for the first time, Biden said in a Tweet. “Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar”, he added.
“We need more action, faster to save lives'”
"Once again, Congress must send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers, Biden twitted.
“I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe,” he added.
The President also ordered US flags flown at half staff at federal buildings, military posts and American embassies until sunset, May 11, “as a mark of respect for the victims.”
A heavily-armed man on Saturday stormed a shopping mall innorth of Dallas, murdering eight people and wounding several others, of which three are in critical condition, before he was killed by police.The gunfire at Allen Premium Outlets, 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Dallas, began around 3:30 pm (2030 GMT), when it was busy with weekend shoppers,Texas police said.
The officer in the mall "heard gunshots, went to the gunshots, engaged the suspect and neutralized the suspect," said Allen police chief.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, calling the shooting an "unspeakable tragedy," said in a statement that the state was prepared to offer any assistance local authorities may need.
The attack was the latest in a shocking spate of deadly gun violence to convulse the US. Barely a week earlier, a man shot and killed five neighbours in Cleveland, Texas after one of them asked him to stop firing his rifle in his yard at night while a baby slept.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database of shootings in the US, there have been 199 "mass shootings," which it defines as the shooting of at least four people, in 2023. There was a particularly deadly spate of large-scale shootings this past week.
