In the small American town of Uvalde, an 18-year-old killed 21 people at a school. The perpetrator himself was shot. The killing spree fueled the discussion about lax gun laws in the United States.
Crosses with the names of the victims were placed in front of the school where the massacre took place.
On Tuesday, an 18-year-old in the small town of Uvalde, Texas 21 people shot dead at Robb Elementary School. The victims are 19 students from the same fourth grade and two teachers; another 15 children were injured. The incident happened at 11:30 a.m. local time. The perpetrator was shot.
His killing spree began with a shot at his grandmother
The killing spree began when the young man shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face at her home. Despite the serious injuries, she managed to drag herself to the house next door, where the police were notified. The woman is in the hospital. The young man then drove to the school in his grandmother’s pick-up, but ended up in a ditch. As bystanders approached, he began firing.
Armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a body armor, he walked to Robb Elementary School, where he broke into a fourth grader’s room and shot himself. At around 1 p.m., a border guard shot dead the gunman who had barricaded himself. The officer himself and two other police officers were injured during the operation.
In Uvalde will Criticism of the hesitant behavior of the police officers according to. Apparently, the first uniformed officers in the vicinity of the school were already informed about what was happening at 11:30 a.m., and the question arises as to why it took an hour and a half before he was overpowered.
The Robb Elementary School is mainly attended by Latinos. Uvalde is about an hour’s drive from the Mexican border. The perpetrator, an American citizen from the town of about 15,000, was a student at another secondary school in Uvalde.
He informed two girls he did not know
So far, nothing is known about the shooter’s motive and why he chose this primary school of all places for his killing spree. He had no criminal record and has never received psychological or psychiatric treatment. Apparently he often quarreled with his mother and then went to his grandparents for a few days. He was considered taciturn. Classmates said he had few friends, was often absent from school, and had no chance of completing the school year with good grades. The crime took place shortly before the schools’ graduation ceremonies. He was also teased because of a speech impediment and because of his clothes.
According to the “Washington Post” on May 12, he asked a teenager in California to upload photos of his guns to Instagram. The two had never known each other before. He got in touch with her again Tuesday morning and said he wanted to share a secret with her, after which she cut him off. He has also been sending messages to a 15-year-old in Germany since the beginning of May. On Tuesday morning he told her he had shot his grandmother in the face and was going to a school where he would shoot.
Again debate about gun laws
Texas has loose gun laws. It is possible to buy a weapon there from the age of 18. The perpetrator bought two guns a few days after his 18th birthday. It is not yet known where the ammunition came from. The killing spree sparked a heated debate about gun laws in the United States – as always after such massacres. However, the call for tightening of the regulations regularly fails due to the resistance of the Republicans in Congress.
President Biden had the flags flown at half-staff on all federal buildings. “In God’s name, we must have the courage to fight back against this industry,” he said, referring to the gun lobby organization National Rifle Association (NRA). It is holding its annual meeting in Texas this Friday. Former President Donald Trump will also appear there.
the governor of texas, Greg Abbott, however, said at a press conference after the massacre that such acts were not due to easy access to weapons but to an increase in mental illness. He also praised the police, noting, “The reality is – as horrific as what happened is – it could have been worse.” Abbott is an advocate of relaxed gun laws. After such shootings, Republicans often call for the teachers to be armed.
Perpetrators are almost always white from the rural middle class
No other country in the world has as many school shootings as the United States. In the past year alone, the FBI counted 61 such shootings. What is striking is that such incidents especially in rural and small-town areas occurrence. The perpetrators are almost always male, white, middle-class people. Apparently, the imitation effect plays an important role. The massacre in Columbine, Colorado, in April 1999 with 15 dead, was often cited as a model for later gunmen. In 2012, a gunman killed 20 students and 6 teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. In February 2018, a high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, claimed 17 lives.