Amok attack in Nashville: passer-by interrupts the press conference with an emotional speech

International

Heartbreaking scenes unfold Monday outside Covenant Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee. frightened Kinder leave the school building, which has become the scene of the crime, in long rows, holding hands. On their faces: fear, horror, bewilderment.

From their teachers and the police they are escorted to buses that are supposed to take them to a safe place. Because theirs School is no longer a safe place: A heavily armed woman has six here shortly before People shot dead, including three children aged eight and nine. She used to go to school here herself.

The desperation after the fact is great.Image: AP / John Bazemore

The police were called to the scene of the crime around 10 a.m. (local time) on Monday morning. “When officers got to the second floor, they saw a gunman, a woman, shooting,” said Don Aaron of the Nashville Police Department. “We know she was armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun.”

The 28-year-old was then shot dead by the emergency services. This prevented worse things from happening, Nashville Police Chief John Drake later made clear in a press conference. A passer-by also uses the stage of this conference. Ashbey Beasley hijacks the microphone and addresses the viewers in front of the TV sets with an emotional message.

Passer-by survived rampage herself

“Aren’t you tired of covering these killing sprees?” Beasley asked the attending press. She said she is currently on vacation with her son at her family’s home in Nashville. Last July she herself became the victim of a killing spree.

She says, “I’ve been lobbying in Washington DC since we survived a mass shooting in July. I’ve met with over 130 lawmakers. How can something like this still happen?” Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and young people in the United States, which Beasley cannot understand. These mass shootings, she clarifies, could easily be avoided by lawmakers. By driving stricter gun laws.

Gun lobby has been preventing stricter laws in the USA for years

After the new attack, US President Joe Biden immediately called for tightening of gun laws in the country – once more. But his predecessors repeatedly failed in attempts to persuade the parliament, which was riddled with party-political rifts, to ban assault rifles and other effective protective measures.

Biden is no different. That’s why he makes do with minor interventions, for which he is not dependent on Congress. Without a substantial reform of the gun law, however, experts see no chance of real change. In order to implement this, Biden and his Democrats would have to depend on the willingness of the Republicans in Congress to cooperate – but that is not in sight on this topic.

Meanwhile, US journalist Brian Tyler Cohen shared Twitter a Facebook post by Congressman Andy Ogles. The Republican represents Tennessee’s 5th District, which includes parts of Nashville. On Facebook Ogles shared a family picture in front of the Christmas tree. Striking: Except for the youngest, all family members carry guns.

Efforts to introduce stricter gun laws have been in vain for many years – mainly because Republicans are opposed. And because the gun lobby, led by the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), vehemently opposes any attempt to regulate gun ownership more closely. The devastating rampages at primary schools have not changed that.

(With material from the dpa)