Declaring “Enough, enough”! US President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other gun control measures to address a string of mass shootings that have struck the US.
Speaking from the White House, in a speech broadcast live in prime time, Biden asked a country stunned by the recent shootings at a school in Texas, a grocery store in New York and a medical building in Oklahoma, how many more lives it would take to change gun laws in America.
“For God’s sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?” Biden asked.
Biden described visiting Uvalde, Texas, where the school shooting took place. “I couldn’t help but think there are too many other schools, too many other everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields, here in America.”
The President, a Democrat, called for a number of measures opposed by Republicans in Congress, including banning the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, or, if that were not possible, raising the minimum age to buy those weapons to 21 from 18.
He also pressed for repealing the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers from being sued for violence perpetrated by people carrying their guns.
“We can’t fail the American people again,” Biden said, pressing Republicans particularly in the US Senate to allow bills with gun control measures to come up for a vote.
Biden said if Congress did not act, he believed Americans would make the issue central when they vote in November mid-term elections.
The National Rifle Association gun lobby said Biden’s proposals would infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. “This isn’t a real solution, it isn’t true leadership, and it isn’t what America needs,” it said.
Saudi visit likely
Biden publicly acknowledged on Friday that he may travel to Saudi Arabia soon, a trip that multiple sources say is expected and could include talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Biden said he does not yet have direct plans to make a trip to Saudi Arabia. Sources familiar with the process say Biden is planning a trip to Saudi Arabia in conjunction with a trip to Europe and Israel in late June.
Four killed as German train derails
Four people were killed and 30 injured when a busy regional train derailed near a popular ski resort and hiking destination in southern Germany on Friday, police said.
Fifteen of the injured were receiving hospital treatment, a police spokesperson said, adding that 60 people had been on board at the time of the crash, which occurred north of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria.
Prosecutors and police have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident, the official said.
No information was given on the indentities of the dead or whether the driver was among the casualties.
A spokesperson in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district office had previously reported that 60 people were hurt in the accident. There were many school students on board the train, the regional Muenchener Merkur newspaper reported.
Reuters
