‘Too much fear, too much grief’: Biden visits Uvalde amid scrutiny of police response to shooting

Kamala Harris calls for ban on assault weapons after attending last funeral of those killed in Buffalo attack

Joe Biden lamented “too much violence, too much fear, too much grief” after the latest US mass shooting as he prepared to visit Uvalde, where police face intensifying scrutiny for waiting outside the classroom where a teenage gunman with an assault rifle killed 19 children and two teachers.

The US president and first lady, Jill Biden, arrived in Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday morning, both dressed in black. They visited the informal memorial of flowers and notes that has accumulated outside Robb elementary school, where the carnage took place last Tuesday.

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Kamala Harris calls for assault weapons ban: ‘We are not sitting around waiting’

Vice-president demands action after speaking at funeral for Ruth Whitfield, oldest person killed in Buffalo shooting

Kamala Harris called for a ban on assault weapons in the US and the passage of much-delayed gun control legislation after speaking on Saturday at a funeral for the oldest victim of the Buffalo mass shooting earlier this month.

After giving remarks at the service for Ruth Whitfield, the oldest person killed during the grocery store shooting two weeks ago, Harris called upon lawmakers to pass an assault weapons ban, while speaking with reporters.

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School shooting strengthens case for guns, Donald Trump tells NRA

Speaking at the gun lobby’s convention, the former US president repeated his call to arm teachers

Donald Trump has said the recent US school shooting is a reason to arm law-abiding citizens not disarm them.

The former US president was a guest speaker at the National Rifle Association, which held its annual convention in Houston on Friday.

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Jacinda Ardern wows Harvard with New Zealand’s lesson on gun control and democracy

In commencement address New Zealand PM warns against the ‘scourge of online disinformation’, and wins standing ovation for crackdown on weapons

Jacinda Ardern has spoken out against the online “scourge of disinformation” in an address at Harvard University, in which she also won standing ovations for her government’s gun control laws, diversity and decriminalisation of abortion.

The New Zealand prime minister was honoured by the American university , making the annual commencement address to more than a thousand students on Thursday from the same stage as figures such as Winston Churchill, Angela Merkel, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey.

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Texas officials deflect questions on ‘missing hour’ when gunman was in school – as it happened

Chris Murphy, the Democratic Connecticut senator who delivered a powerful “What are we doing?” gun law plea to the chamber in the immediate aftermath of the Texas shooting, will address the media a little later this morning with progress report on bipartisan talks.

Murphy is leading his party’s efforts to get enough Republican senators on board to pass some kind of firearms control measures, and met last night with Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as well as a group of fellow Democrats, Politico reports.

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Texas school shooting: gunman was inside for 40 minutes, officials say – updates as they happened

This blog is now closed. Click here for full coverage of the shooting at the Robb elementary school in Uvalde

As the US begins to reflect on the events of yesterday as it begins to wake up, several politicians have made calls to action or asked pressing questions. Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic party presidential nominations in 2020, said:

We grieve for the 21 who were killed in Texas today. But grieving is not enough—we could have, and must now, take commonsense actions to prevent these tragedies, like establishing single points of entry into schools, armed guards, trained staff, mental health services & more.

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New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern responds to Texas school shooting

Prime minister says after 2019 Christchurch massacre, country made a ‘pragmatic’ decision to get guns off streets: ‘We saw something that wasn’t right and we acted’

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern says her country’s swift change to gun laws after the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch was a “pragmatic” response, where “we saw something that wasn’t right and we acted on it”.

The prime minister was speaking as her visit to the United States coincided with the mass killing of 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

Ardern appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was filmed shortly after the Uvalde shooting. “When I watch from afar and see events such as this today, it’s not as a politician. I see them just as a mother,” an emotional Ardern said. “I’m so sorry for what has happened here.”

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Sandy Hook families speak out after Uvalde school shooting

Bereaved say it is ‘beyond time to take action’ on gun control in the wake of the killing of 19 children in Texas

The families of people killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting have pleaded for action on gun control in the wake of the killings at Robb elementary school in Texas.

Erica Leslie Lafferty, whose mother was killed in the massacre in Connecticut in 2012, said that it was “beyond time to take action” in the wake of the attack in Uvalde which has left at least 19 children and two adults dead.

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Buffalo shooting: gunman ‘plotted attack for months’

Online posts apparently by 18-year-old suspect Payton Gendron indicate previous visit to site where 10 Black people were killed

The white gunman accused of the massacre of 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket wrote as far back as November about staging a livestreamed attack on African Americans. He also practised shooting from his car and travelled hours from his home to scout out the store in March, according to detailed diary entries he appears to have posted online.

The author of the diary posted hand-drawn maps of the grocery store along with tallies of the number of Black people he counted there, and recounted how a Black security guard at the supermarket confronted him that day to ask what he was up to. A Black security guard was among the dead in Saturday’s rampage.

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US gun violence over weekend puts focus on easy access to weapons

Violence includes Buffalo shooting that left 10 people dead, as well as two dead in Houston, one in Los Angeles and five in Chicago

America on Monday was picking up the pieces from a weekend of gun violence that – outside the cost of lives – has refocused the country’s leadership on the toxic interplay of political ideology and easy access to handguns and battlefield weapons.

In the most recent case, two people were killed Sunday and at least three others hospitalized after a shooting at a large Houston, Texas, flea market. In California, also on Sunday, at least one person died and five were wounded – including four listed in critical condition – after a shooting at a church with a predominantly Taiwanese congregation in Orange county, south of Los Angeles.

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Police arrest man accused of killing Georgia coroner’s parents and son

Jacob Christian Muse, arrested Friday night, faces charges of malice murder for killing three people at a local gun range

Police in Georgia have arrested a man accused of killing a local coroner’s parents and son during a robbery at the family’s gun range earlier this month, according to officials.

Jacob Christian Muse, 21, faces three counts of malice murder in the 7 April shooting deaths of Luke Hawk, 19; Tommy Hawk, 75; and Evelyn Hawk, 75, which rattled their rural community about 50 miles south-west of Atlanta.

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Biden vows to crack down on ghost guns – ‘weapons of choice for many criminals’

President promises to tackle gun violence and vows prosecution for those who use untraceable guns assembled from kits

Joe Biden has announced a crackdown on “ghost guns”, untraceable firearms assembled from kits that have been used in a rising number of shooting crimes.

The US president, who promised to tackle gun violence across America, said the new rule would make it easier for law enforcement officials to track and catch those who use illegal firearms.

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Suspect arrested in Sacramento shooting that left six dead

Police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and have executed three search warrants

Police in the California state capital have made an arrest in connection with Sunday’s mass shooting that left six people dead and at least a dozen others injured. In the hours after the bloodshed, police say they have received more than 100 videos or photos from the scene and executed search warrants on three homes.

They identified a 26-year-old man as one of the individuals arrested in connection to the shooting, in a press release. He has been charged with assault and illegal firearm possession offenses.

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Ammunition company owner’s run for state education board sparks outcry

Jordan Mollenhour is backed by Tennessee’s Republican governor despite his company having supplied ammo to mass shooters

The owner of a US company that has sold ammunition online to numerous mass shooters has prompted outcry as he pursues a permanent position on Tennessee’s education board.

Jordan Mollenhour, who was backed by the state’s Republican governor, was confirmed by the state’s Republican-led senate on Thursday morning by 26-6. He is the owner of Lucky Gunners, an online Knoxville-based ammunition company that he co-founded in 2009.

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Massie’s gun collection: ‘They shouldn’t be in the hands of civilians’

Analysis: furore continues over ‘Christmas card’ by US Congressman of group holding military weapons

It is the Christmas card that has sent shockwaves across the world – and provided a chilling reminder of the size and type of weapons that are perfectly legal to own and carry in large parts of the US.

An analysis by the Guardian indicates the guns in the photograph published by the Republican congressman Thomas Massie are military grade and – in some cases – similar to those used in recent notorious deadly incidents.

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‘Every parent’s worst nightmare’: Michigan school shooting leaves three students dead – video

A 15-year-old boy killed three fellow pupils and wounded eight others after opening fire with a semi-automatic handgun at a school in Oxford, Michigan. Those killed were a 16-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl. The suspect was believed to have acted alone and was arrested without resistance after firing 15 to 20 shots. The suspect has declined to speak to police. Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, offered condolences at the scene, saying: 'I think this is every parent's worst nightmare.'

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How the US fails to take away guns from domestic abusers: ‘These deaths are preventable’

Every 16 hours, a woman is fatally shot by a current or former intimate partner. Many of the offenders were legally prohibited from having guns

Editor’s note: This story was produced by the non-profit newsroom Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Get its investigations emailed directly to you.

Paige Mitchell and Bradley Gray forged a bond over tragedy. Late one Sunday in October 2009, Mitchell’s husband borrowed a motorcycle from a neighbor on a whim, rumbled down a back road in rural Moundville, Alabama, and careened to his death. Almost exactly a year later, at almost precisely the same time of night, Gray’s wife died on the same county byway when her car crashed into a tree. Fate seemed to push Mitchell and Gray together, making their relationship hard to sever even as it descended into dysfunction.

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Parkland shooting suspect to plead guilty to 17 counts of murder

  • Nikolas Cruz, 23, to enter guilty pleas over 2018 school shooting
  • Florida attack sparked nationwide movement for gun control

The gunman who killed 14 students and three staff members at a Parkland, Florida, high school will plead guilty to their murders, his attorneys said Friday, bringing some closure to a south Florida community more than three years after an attack that sparked a nationwide movement for gun control.

The guilty plea would set up a penalty phase where Nikolas Cruz, 23, would be fighting against the death penalty and hoping for life without parole.

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Utah company halts sales of Lego handgun case kits after cease and desist

Culper Precision said on Instagram of the kits: ‘We wanted the second amendment to simply be too painful to tread on’

A Utah company has stopped selling a kit that encases Glock handguns in Lego blocks, amid uproar and after the Danish toymaker demanded it cease and desist.

Marketing the “Block19” as a “a childhood dream come to life”, Culper Precision introduced it on Instagram, saying: “We wanted the second amendment to simply be too painful to tread on, so there was only one logical solution.”

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‘Disgusting slap in the face’: California governor slams judge as assault rifles ban overturned

Gavin Newsom responds after Judge Roger Benitez compares AR-15s to Swiss army knives ‘good for both home and battle’

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, slammed a federal judge’s decision to overturn his state’s three-decade-old ban on assault rifles as “a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians”.

Related: America’s gun obsession is rooted in slavery | Carol Anderson

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