Biden: School Shooting ‘a Family’s Worst Nightmare’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden responded to the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, Monday that left three children and three adults dead, saying it is “a family’s worst nightmare” and calling on Congress to do more to address gun violence.
“Gun violence … is ripping our communities apart, it’s ripping our communities apart,” the president said ahead of the start of a Small Business Administration Women’s Business Summit in the East Room of the White House.
“We have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons,” he continued, adding, “it’s heartbreaking.”
According to authorities in Nashville, a woman opened fire at Covenant School, a private Christian grade school in the city’s Green Hills neighborhood, early Monday, killing six, including three children, before being fatally shot herself by police on the second floor of the building.
The same officials said the 28-year-old assailant was carrying two assault-style rifles and a handgun at the time of her death.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake declined to release the names of the victims Monday afternoon, but told reporters the three children had all been identified and their families had been contacted.
“Right now I will refrain from saying the ages, other than to say, I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building,” Drake said.
Drake said a preliminary investigation suggests the assailant was at one time a student at the school, though he did not know exactly when she may have attended.
During his brief remarks this afternoon, Biden made note of the fact an assault weapon appeared to have been used in the attack, and restated his call for Congress to ban such weapons.
“It’s about time that we begin to make some more progress,” he said.
Earlier, at the start of her daily briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We need to do something. Once again, the president calls on Congress to do something before another child is senselessly killed in a preventable act of gun violence. Again, we need to do something.”
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