Washington: US President Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass gun control bills in the wake of yet another mass shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, at a Texas mall on Saturday.
The Democratic president renewed calls for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as to enact universal background checks and end immunity for gun manufacturers. There is little chance the narrowly divided House and Senate would pass such legislation, although polls show most Americans support background checks.
Police have released minimal details about the gunman who killed eight people and wounded at least seven shortly on Saturday afternoon at Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, a northern suburb of Dallas. In his statement, Biden said the assailant was wearing tactical gear and wielding an AR-15 rifle.
Allen Police said three injured victims were hospitalized in critical condition on Sunday, and at least three were hospitalized in fair condition, including one at a children’s hospital. The assailant fatally shot eight people, including at least one child, before a police officer killed him, police said on Saturday.
By Sunday evening, law enforcement had not released details about a possible motive or the identities of the victims. A family member identified one of the slain victims on social media as Christian LaCour, a security guard.
“We watched this sweet young boy turn into a very sweet gentleman,” Kellie Smith wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, identifying LaCour as the brother of her son-in-law. “Words can not even begin to describe the devastation that our family feels.”
A graphic 10-second video was circulating on Twitter on Saturday, showing several dead bodies slumped against a planter and white wall bearing the sign of retailer H&M.
At least one of the individuals, lifeless and bloody, appears to be a young child. Reuters was able to verify the video was taken at the mall where the shooting took place.
In past shootings, social media sites worked to take down links to such graphic images. An emailed request for comment to Twitter, which no longer has a communications team, returned an automated reply with a poop emoji.
At least 199 mass shootings have occurred in the United States so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.
Agencies

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