President Joe Biden met with families in Uvalde, Texas yesterday after the deadliest school shooting in America in a decade. Biden’s visit to Uvalde comes as federal officials announced they would review local law enforcement’s slow response to the school shooting.
Anger has been mounting across the nation, as well as internationally, about the school shooting.
There has specifically been anger over the decision by law enforcement agencies in the town to allow the shooter to remain active, in a classroom, for almost a full hour, while police officers waited in the hallway. During this time, children made panicked, horrifying calls to 911 for help, still trapped inside classrooms.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed.
Biden and the first lady Jill Biden visited memorials at the school, the Robb Elementary School. They attended a mass at the local Sacred Heart Catholic Church. As they were leaving the service, people chanted: “Do something.”
Biden answered: “We will.”
Gun control has shot back into the public focus and public outrage. Gun reform is now at the top of the U.S. political agenda, months ahead of this year’s midterm elections in November.
Accompanying Biden on his visit to the school included Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who not only opposes gun restrictions, but who actively brought In much looser gun laws to the state where this mass shooting occurred.
Some in the crowd yelled at Abbott “We need help” and “Shame on you.”
The Biden’s also met privately with families of the victims, as well as survivors of the attack, for several hours, before then meeting with first responders behind closed doors.
How the police responded to the shooting remains under debate, especially whether it was remotely fast enough for professional law enforcement. The U.S. Department of Justice said it will be reviewing the local law enforcement response at the request of the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin.
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