Kamala Harris, US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate, addressed the school shooting in Georgia. “It's just outrageous that every day in our country, parents have to send their children to school, worrying if they're going to come home alive,” she said. She called for action to reduce gun violence. President Joe Biden also spoke out on the issue.
A shooting occurred at a school in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday morning before noon local time. CNN reported that four people were dead. The sheriff's office said one person was arrested in the case.
Harris: This is a tragedy, we have to stop it
The US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate commented on the situation during a rally in New Hampshire Kamala Harris. She said what happened was a “senseless tragedy.”
She said her thoughts are with the students and teachers at the school. She called for action to curb gun violence. “It’s just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school, worrying whether they’re going to come home alive,” Harris said. “We have to stop this,” she said, adding that “it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Harris said school children should not waste their energy “worrying about whether a gunman is going to break into the classroom.”
Biden: Students Across the Nation Are Being Taught How to Hide and Conceal Instead of Reading and Writing, We Can't Accept This
US President Joe Biden issued a statement after the shooting. “What should have been a joyous return to school in Winder, Georgia, turned into another horrifying reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart. Students across the country are being taught to duck and hide instead of read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal,” the president said in a statement.
Biden called on Congress to act and pass an assault weapons ban. “After decades of inaction, Republicans in Congress must finally say enough is enough and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation,” the president added.
In the last two decades United States experienced hundreds of school shootings. The worst tragedy occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007, where more than 30 people died. These terrible events intensified the debate about access to guns in the United States and the validity of the Second Amendment.
SEE ON TVN24 GO: Uvalde Shooting: Behind the Scenes of Police Action
Main image source: PAP/EPA/ERIK S. LESSER