Three children and three adults were killed Monday by a young woman who opened fire in an elementary school in Nashville, in the south of the United States, before being shot dead by the police. Armed with at least two assault rifles and a pistol, she broke into the premises of a private Christian school in the morning, local police spokesman Don Aaron said during the incident. ‘a press conference.
Gun violence ‘rips at the very soul of our nation’, says Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden called Monday’s shooting at a Nashville school “repulsive”, adding that the gun violence was tearing the “very soul” of the United States. “It’s just disgusting,” the US president said from the White House. It “rips at the very soul of our nation,” he said, praising police responsiveness and again calling on Congress to ban assault rifles.
The assailant neutralized by the agents
Officers were quickly dispatched to the scene. After hearing shots upstairs, they “immediately” went there and “killed” the assailant, he said. The young woman “who looks to be under 20”, fired many shots as she progressed through the establishment. “Three students were fatally injured along with three adults,” but there were no other injuries, Don Aaron said.
The elementary school “The Covenant” has about 200 students and about 40 employees. Several elected officials from the State of Tennessee immediately expressed their emotion on social networks. “I am devastated and heartbroken at the tragic news from the Covenant School,” tweeted Republican Senator Bill Hagerty.
Devastated and heartbroken about the tragic news at Covenant School. I’m grateful to law enforcement and first responders for their heroic actions. I am monitoring the situation closely, and my office is in contact with local officials & available to anyone needing assistance.
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) March 27, 2023
400 million firearms in circulation in the United States
The United States, where approximately 400 million firearms are in circulation, are frequently bereaved by deadly shootings, including in schools. The most striking tragedy was committed in 2012 by a madman in a Connecticut elementary school, during which 20 children aged 6 and 7 were killed. Such a traumatic event repeated itself in May 2022 when an 18-year-old man shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Between these two tragedies, a massacre committed in a high school in Florida, on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, triggered a vast national movement, spearheaded by young people, to demand stricter supervision of individual weapons in the United States. Despite the mobilization of more than a million demonstrators, the United States Congress has not adopted ambitious legislation, many elected officials being under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the first American lobby weapons. In a country where carrying a gun is considered by millions of Americans to be a constitutional right, the only recent legislative advances remain marginal, such as the generalization of criminal and psychiatric background checks before any gun purchase.