The March for Our Lives rallies come after mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York
Rallies for gun reform were held in Washington, New York, other US cities and around the world on Saturday, seeking to increase pressure on Congress to act following a spate of mass shootings.
In Washington, the son of an 86-year-old victim in the Buffalo supermarket shooting said: “Enough is enough. We will not go quietly into the night.”
Continue reading...Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10, was among the 19 children killed in the 24 May shooting at Robb elementary school
Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, a victim of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was remembered at her funeral on Saturday as opinionated like her mother and athletic like her father.
The funeral took place on the same day as nationwide protests for meaningful gun reform. Her family asked mourners to wear bright colors to the funeral at First Baptist Church in Uvalde, because Lexi loved them.
Continue reading...Pete Arredondo says he intentionally left behind radios before entering school, as two more funerals are held for victims of the attack
The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in US history said in his first extensive comments that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else was.
Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, also told the Texas Tribune in an interview published on Thursday that he intentionally left behind both his police and campus radios before entering Robb elementary school.
Continue reading...Miah Cerrillo recounts at gun violence hearing how she watched as her teacher and friends were shot and acted quickly to save herself
An 11-year-old survivor of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas testified before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers continued to try to reach a compromise on gun control legislation after a series of devastating mass shootings.
The House hearing came two weeks after an 18-year-old opened fire at Robb elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers, and three weeks after 10 people were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
Continue reading...In recorded testimony, fourth-grader Miah Cerrillo described how the Uvalde killer shot her teacher in the head then opened fire on her classmates, including a friend right next to her.
“I thought he was gonna come back into the room, so I grabbed the blood and I put it all over me,” Cerillo said in a recorded video. Speaking with little emotion, Cerillo, described how she grabbed her teacher’s phone and called 911. An unidentified voice on the video then asked Cerillo if she felt safe at school, to which she responded by shaking her head. When asked if she thinks such a shooting could happen again, she nodded.
Continue reading...The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has defended his veto of $35m in funding for a potential spring training site for the Tampa Bay Rays, after the Major League Baseball team used social media to raise awareness about gun violence after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.
“I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums,” DeSantis said on Friday, when asked about the veto of the sports complex funding.
Continue reading...Pete Arredondo, focus of anger over allegations he delayed sending officers, tells CNN he’s been speaking regularly with investigators
The school district police chief who served as on-site commander during the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has said he is talking daily with investigators, contradicting claims from state law enforcement that he has stopped cooperating.
In a brief interview, Pete Arredondo told CNN he was speaking regularly with Texas state investigators.
Continue reading...Service for Amerie Jo Garza took place in afternoon and a second scheduled for the evening as 11 funerals planned for this week
The first funeral of a victim of the Uvalde elementary school shooting took place in the small Texas town on Tuesday.
The service, before a second scheduled for the evening, came a week after an 18-year-old gunman who was eventually killed by law enforcement murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb elementary school.
Continue reading...Massacre in Uvalde began on Tuesday 24 May with a single shot
The mass shooting at Robb elementary school in the small city of Uvalde, south Texas, began on Tuesday 24 May with a single shot.
An 18-year-old local man, who just a few weeks before had reached the age where he could legally buy a military-style assault rifle, sent ominous social media messages pre-dawn, including telling someone he was going to shoot his grandmother.
Continue reading...President returns to White House after visiting small south Texas city and says he will continue to push for gun control
The first memorial services for the 19 children and two teachers killed in a mass shooting at their elementary school in Uvalde began on Monday, a day after Joe Biden visited the small south Texas city and was urged by residents to take action on gun safety laws.
Returning to Washington on Monday morning, the US president, wearing a black suit, talked about the “palpable” pain in Uvalde.
Continue reading...Inquiry comes amid anger over why officers waited over an hour outside the classroom where the gunman killed 21 people
The US government on Sunday announced a federal investigation into the police response to the mass shooting at a Texas school five days ago as anger mounted over why armed officers waited more than one hour in the hall outside the classroom where the gunman killed 19 children and two teachers and wounded others.
The US Department of Justice said it will conduct a “critical incident review” of the law enforcement action in the small south Texas city of Uvalde last Tuesday.
Continue reading...President and first lady seek to comfort community as DoJ launches investigation into police response to school shooting
Joe Biden on Sunday visited Uvalde, Texas, seeking to comfort a community devastated by the latest American mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 19 elementary school children and two teachers.
The visit marked the second presidential visit related to a massacre within two weeks following a racist attack in Buffalo, New York, as Democrats in Washington offered tentative hope of bipartisan gun reform legislation in Congress.
Continue reading...New York governor seeks to ban people under 21 from buying assault rifles, while California governor intends to sign restrictions, including the right to sue gun manufacturers
With Republicans stonewalling for years on any significant federal gun safety legislation, some states are now rushing to take steps themselves following large-scale shootings in New York and Texas this month.
Democrats in some blue states are making fresh efforts to reinvigorate proposals toward what gun control advocates call “evidence-based policy interventions”.
Continue reading...More details have emerged about those who were killed on Tuesday when a gunman attacked Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas
As the United States lamented the nation’s latest mass school shooting, in which a gunman killed 19 children and two adults after storming into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, more details emerged of those who died.
A law enforcement official said all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Teenager displayed worrying behavior in the months before the Uvalde attack, schoolmates tell news outlets
Warning signs were reportedly mounting in the months before the 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas, opened fire on a classroom of young children and their teachers four days ago in what would become America’s deadliest school shooting in a decade.
The teenager had used the social media app Yubo to threaten school shootings and rape, as well as to show off a rifle he had bought, CNN reported on Saturday.
Continue reading...Local law enforcement under scrutiny over delay in entering Uvalde classroom
New details on the apparent failure of local law enforcement to respond swiftly to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, are increasingly raising questions about police procedures introduced after the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado and how they were followed, or not.
After three days of contradictory accounts of the police response tothe attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead in the small south Texas city, it emerged that the decision by police to wait outside the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman was barricaded appears to contravene federal and state guidelines, developed over two decades, that prioritize police disabling the gunman.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Timeline suggests about 78 minutes passed from when the gunman entered school to when officers breached the classroom
Joe Biden lamented “too much violence, too much fear, too much grief” in the latest US mass shooting as he prepared to visit Uvalde, where authorities said police had made “the wrong decision” not to storm a classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.
The US president and first lady, Jill Biden, will travel to the small southern Texas city on Sunday, five days after it was plunged into horror when an 18-year-old with a military-style rifle attacked an elementary school.
Continue reading...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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