The White House has blamed Republicans’ opposition to gun reform for the latest school shooting in Tennessee that left seven dead, including three children.
Nashville police said a 28-year-old woman entered the private Covenant School where she was a former pupil on Monday morning, killing three students and three staffers before police shot her dead.
The woman was reportedly equipped with at least two assault rifles and a handgun, with the White House saying that the shooting could’ve been avoided if the GOP joined efforts to ban assault weapons.
“While we don’t know yet all of the details in this latest tragic shooting, we know that too often our schools and communities are being devastated by gun violence,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in her daily briefing. “Schools should be safe spaces for kids to grow and learn and for our educators to teach.
“How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress will step up and act to pass the assault weapons ban, to close loopholes in our background check system or to require the safe storage of guns,” she added. “We need to do something.”
Speaking at a Small Business Administration event this afternoon, President Joe Biden said he had been briefed on the situation and called the shooting “heartbreaking.”
“We have to do more to stop gun violence,” Biden said. “It’s ripping our communities apart. It’s ripping at the soul of this nation.”
The president said he remains committed to gun reform efforts and called on Congress to pass his proposed assault weapons ban.
Jean-Pierre added: “President Biden has taken more action than any president in history on gun safety — from nearly two dozen actions including the executive order he just signed… to the bipartisan safer communities act legislation he signed into law after the [shooting] tragedies in Uvalde and Buffalo.
“He also believes it’s not enough. We must do more. And he wants Congress to act because enough is enough.”
Speaking at the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference in Washington, D.C., First Lady Jill Biden said she was “without words” over the tragic shooting.
“Our children deserve better,” she said. “All of us, we stand with Nashville in prayer.”
Police said they received a call at 10:13 a.m. about an active shooter at the private Christian elementary school, with police rushing to the scene to clear the halls.
At the scene, police heard gunshots on the second floor and rushed to a lobby-type area where they came across the shooter who they shot dead at 10:27 a.m.
Police have yet to publicly identify the shooter or the victims.
Officials noted the only other person hurt at the scene was an officer who cut his hand on broken glass.
