Biden after 14-year-old boy kills four people in Georgia school shooting – India TV

Washington:Tragedy struck a school in the US state of Georgia when a 14-year-old boy opened fire at Apalachee High School on Wednesday, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others in the first mass shooting on a campus since the start of the US school year. The suspect was arrested shortly after the shooting, according to investigators.

The shooter was identified as 14-year-old Colt Gray and will be charged and tried as an adult, said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Authorities said he was armed with an “AR-style platform weapon” and was quickly confronted by officers, after which he got on the ground and surrendered.

Responding to the incident, US President Joe Biden said he and his wife mourned the deaths of the four people who died due to “senseless gun violence” and that the incident was another reminder of how “gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.” Authorities identified the dead as two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.

“We can no longer accept this as normal”

In a statement, Biden said students across the country are learning to duck and cover instead of reading and writing. “We can no longer accept this as normal. We are coordinating closely with officials at the federal, state, and local levels, and we are grateful to the first responders who apprehended the suspect and prevented further loss of life,” he said.

“Ending this epidemic of gun violence is personal to me. That’s why I signed into law the bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the most significant gun safety bill in decades — and have announced dozens of executive actions on gun safety. I also established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Harris. We’ve made significant progress, but this crisis requires even more,” Biden added.

The US president called on Republicans in Congress to say “enough is enough” and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation. “We must again ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, wrote on social media: “Our hearts go out to the victims and the loved ones of those affected by the tragic events in Winder, Georgia. These precious children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”

Last year, the FBI questioned the shooter

ABC News cited one witness, student Sergio Caldera, who said he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots. Caldera, 17, told ABC that his teacher opened the door and another teacher ran in to tell him to close the door “because there’s an active shooter.” As students and teachers huddled in the classroom, someone banged on his classroom door and yelled several times for it to be opened. When the banging stopped, Caldera heard more gunshots and screams.

Most interestingly, last year the suspect and his father were questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for online threats about committing a school shooting. “The father stated that he had hunting weapons in the home, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them. The subject denied making the online threats. Jackson County alerted local schools to continue monitoring the subject,” the FBI said.

Over the past two decades, the United States has seen hundreds of school and college shootings, with the deadliest resulting in more than 30 deaths at Virginia Tech in 2007. The massacre has sparked an intense debate over U.S. gun laws and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which enshrines the right “to keep and bear arms.”

(with contributions from Reuters)

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