Credit: AP News
President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to pass an “assault wepaons” ban following a shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas that killed eight people and wounded at least seven more on Saturday.
“Yesterday, an assailant in tactical gear armed with an AR-15 style assault weapon gunned down innocent people in a shopping mall, and not for the first time. Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House on Sunday.
“Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables. Republican Members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough,” the president continued.
“Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe.”
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott attended a vigil for the victims on Sunday and dismissed calls for further attempts at gun control.
“We’ve seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws as well as shootings in states with very strict gun laws,” Abbott told Fox News.
The shooting happened just hours after a very heated discussion on gun control happened in the State House in Austin, Texas.
“Children are dying and we need to protect them and stop with this partisan BS because we’re not doing anything. We’re hurting every Texan when we don’t legislate properly,” Democratic Representative Jarvis Johnson said during an impassioned speech.
“Because you’re booing me off because I don’t have an R by my name. It is time to legislate! Children have died in this state and you guys are sitting here and joking and thinking this is a joke! This is not a joke – this is real. Children every day are dying,” Johnson shouted.
This latest shooting comes a week after Fransisco Oropesa, an illegal immigrant who had been deported several times, shot and killed five of his neighbors in Cleveland, Texas. He did this after neighbors asked him to stop firing his gun in his yard.
National Review reported:
The suspect was in the country illegally at the time of the shooting and had previously reentered the country illegally multiple times following his deportations, an ICE source told Fox News.
Oropesa, 38, was approached by one of his neighbors because he was firing rounds in his yard. The suspect was asked to stop firing as the noise was disturbing an infant sleeping next door.
The suspect responded that it was his property and later walked up to his neighbor’s front door with a rifle and started shooting, moving from room to room. The five victims were Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.
Police reported that the killings had been carried out “execution-style” and two female victims were discovered in the bedroom lying on top of two surviving children. The suspect was reportedly under the influence of alcohol.
