Massacre in Chesapeake: more than 600 mass shootings so far this year in the US and what Biden has done

Once again, a shooting has mourned USA. Once again, dire gun violence figures are circulating in the press and on social media as a reminder that there is no real progress on one of the biggest problems facing that nation. The last massacre occurred on the night of Tuesday the 22nd in a Walmart supermarket in Chesapeakein Virginia, and, according to statistics, it will not be the last.

According to law enforcement authorities, a supermarket manager opened fire on co-workers in a break room at the store, killing six people, before shooting himself.

LOOK: Shooting at Walmart supermarket in Chesapeake, Virginia, leaves at least 7 dead

“He didn’t say a word, he didn’t say anything, he just showed up and started shooting.”Briana Tyler, an employee at the store, told ABC, who assured that the shooter was not aiming at anyone in particular.

Until now, the motive for the crime, which left four people in the hospital, is unknown. The store had a large number of customers at the time of the attack as many were shopping for Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on Thursday the 24th.

It is a familiar story in America. Last weekend a man fatally shot five people and wounded 17 at a Colorado gay nightclub. The Gun Violence Archive organization reports that seven mass shootings (with four injured or dead) have been recorded in the country in the last seven days.

The figures collected so far this year are just as shocking: 607 mass shootings have claimed the lives of almost 40,000 people as of November 23, 2022.

A few days ago, the same organization announced that, according to its data, this is the third consecutive year and only the third time in history that the country has reached more than 600 incidents with more than 4 shots and/or deaths.

Police work at the scene of a mass shooting at the Walmart Supercenter in Chesapeake, Virginia, United States, November 23, 2022. (EFE/EPA/SHAWN THEW). (SHAWN THEW/)

insufficient measures

Citizens fed up with the violence and activists in favor of greater gun control have been seeking change for years. In June, Congress approved increasing control over firearms, after a minimum pact between Democrats and Republicans. The tepid advance came after the nation was shocked in May by the deaths of 19 children and two teachers in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and by a racially motivated attack in Buffalo, New York.

The new law, signed by President Biden, includes a review of the gun purchase process for those under 21 years of age and extends the so-called “danger alert” throughout the country, which allows for the activation of a legal procedure to confiscate weapons from fire of those who represent a danger to third parties or to themselves.

“Gun violence is a very serious problem in the United States. Almost daily, we hear of incidents of gun violence affecting our communities.”, Samuel Vilchez, an activist for greater gun regulation in Florida, told El Comercio.

He says that while the bipartisan Safer Communities Act is the first on this issue in 30 years and prevents people with a history of domestic violence from getting a gun, it’s not enough to end a massive problem in the country.

The international analyst Brenda Estefan affirms that it is paradoxical that the approval of the law occurred the same week that the Supreme Court of Justice presented a legal precedent by ruling in favor of citizens in New York being able to carry weapons outside their homes. “In the same week there is a step forward, which, although it was insufficient, was the greatest advance in decades, and an important step backwards is also taken by setting in stone the right to bear arms in public”, he points out to this newspaper.

This Wednesday the 23rd, Biden affirmed that more actions must be taken to control firearms in the country. This year he signed “The most significant gun reform in a generation, but it’s clearly not enough.”

Biden will face greater difficulties now that the Republicans will control the House of Representatives.

steep path

Biden came to the White House with several promises on this issue. However, all the wishes about greater gun control that he had expressed in his campaign and that he repeats every time there is a new shooting have found a brake.

“In judicial terms, this occurs because the Supreme Court is controlled by a majority of conservative justices who were placed there in the Donald Trump administration, and, in the legislature, by the reluctant Republican opposition and also by some Democrats who have been against the legislation proposed by the Biden administration”says Stephan.

For the expert, if these reforms did not advance in the first two years of the government, much less will they now that the Republicans still control the Lower House. “It is very unlikely that in the next two years there will be substantial progress on this agenda, and that has a lot to do with the fact that the National Rifle Association finances many of the political campaigns in the United States, particularly the Republican Party, and many of the campaigns of legislators who currently hold a seat on Capitol Hill,” aim.

Vilchez emphasizes that gun violence in the United States is a structural problem. “Unfortunately a part of the Republican Party is in the pockets of the National Rifle Association. This prevents them from voting in favor of laws that seek to limit the purchase and sale of weapons of war such as the AR-15.he concludes.

Source: Elcomercio