They want gun control. Gathered at the foot of the American Congress, survivors of the recent shootings that have bereaved America and parents of young victims implored, on Wednesday July 13, elected officials to ban the sale of assault rifles, weapons used during these massacres. .
“Our country has a problem, a huge problem”, launched Abby Brosio, who survived the massacre in Highland Park, near Chicago, when a 21-year-old man opened fire on a National Day parade on July 4. In 1994, Congress passed a law banning for ten years assault rifles, designed to cause maximum casualties, and certain high-capacity magazines. It expired in 2004 and sales have since soared, especially among young people.
“I want you to imagine my face when my husband and I read our daughter’s death certificate”added in tears Kimberly Rubio, the mother of Lexi, a girl killed by a bullet in the head during the attack on the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. “There is a question that should dwell” each elected representative of the American Congress, she assured: “What if the killer never had access to an assault rifle?”
After the Uvalde tragedy, President Joe Biden pleaded for a ban on assault rifles, or at least to raise the legal age to 21 to obtain one. But the Republican opposition, very protective of the right of Americans to bear arms, refused to give the necessary votes for the adoption of this measure in Congress.
Nearly excruciating video of the shooting released Tuesday, showing the gunman almost nonchalantly entering the elementary school, pointing his gun at a room, opening fire, and not being bothered by police until 74 minutes later, has also reignited the anger of the parents of the victims. “It’s a shame to see how they acted”denounced to AFP Javier Cazares, father of Jackie, who also fell under the bullets. “You see guys washing their hands (…), the whole planet saw how cowardly they were for not coming home.”