It is not given to every US President to bare his angst in the immediate aftermath of such horrendous expressions of man’s inhumanity to man. The tragedy happened soon after the shootings in Buffalo, near New York. The present occupant of the White House has called for new restrictions on firearms after a 19-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults in an elementary school. The menace has assumed proportions no less mortal than the recurrent mayhem over the colour of the skin. “When in God’s name are we going to stand up against the gun lobby?” was Mr Biden’s remarkably pertinent query to which America does not have an answer quite yet. This is the grim tragedy of the country today, not to forget the killings during the regimes of George Bush and Donald Trump. Officials said the shooter was killed on the scene by law enforcement officials. This was by any reckoning an incredibly hideous act of calculated malevolence. 

After barricading himself inside a classroom of the Robb Elementary School in Texas, the gunman “started shooting children and teachers inside the classroom, having no regard for human life,” Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CBS News on Wednesday. “Just a complete tragedy. An evil person going into the school and killing children for no reason whatsoever,” he said. The killer, who was wearing body armour, exchanged fire with law enforcement officials and multiple officers were shot, the official said. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the shooter was an 18-year-old man who resided in Uvalde, which is about an hour and a half west of San Antonio. The man, identified as Salvador Ramos, abandoned his vehicle, then entered the school with a handgun and possibly a rifle and “horrifically, incomprehensibly” opened fire. He had begun his rampage by shooting his 66-year-old grandmother at home. The Texas school shooting has been the deadliest ever since 20 children and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, 10 years ago. 

The tragedy has swiftly reignited a national debate over America’s gun laws. President Biden may be sick and tired of such incidents, but it surely is time to turn this pain into action. His virulent swipe at gun manufacturers and their representatives was at the core of his presentation. He urged politicians to stand up to the power these lobbies wield. Markedly, however, he made no specific gun control proposals. Nor for that matter did he urge Congress to vote immediately on legislation. Unwittingly or otherwise, his prime time presentation evaded the primary issue. The only discernible reason for this is that the President knows just how futile it is to press for gun control in a nation that is determined not to allow this.