Bidens head to Texas Sunday to mourn school massacre victims
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Uvalde, Texas on Sunday to “grieve with the community” following Tuesday’s elementary school massacre, the White House announced Thursday.
Both the president and first lady confirmed they would be traveling to the Texas town on Wednesday, one day after a shooter killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School after shooting his grandmother.
“Jill and I will be traveling to Texas in the coming days to meet with the families and let them know we have a sense — just a sense of their pain and hopefully bring some little comfort to the community in shock and grief and trauma,” Biden said.
The president has called it “just wrong” that the suspected shooter, identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, was able to buy “weapons of war” just days before he shot up the school.
Officials have confirmed that Ramos legally purchased two AR-15-style semi-automatic weapons on his 18th birthday.
Confirmation of the Biden’s Texas trip comes only nine days after the first couple traveled to Buffalo to visit a local supermarket where 10 black people were killed in a racially-motivated mass shooting May 14.
During Thursday’s daily press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed her grief over the brutal murders.
“These were elementary school kids. They should be losing their first teeth, not losing their lives. They should be at Little League, softball and soccer practices this weekend,” she said. “These parents should be planning their kids’ summer, not their child’s funeral. As a parent, it is unfathomable to me that this happened.”
“School should be sanctuaries of learning, not battlefields,” Jean-Pierre added. “And teachers should be there to teach, nurture, prepare and prepare our children for the future. Not to be gunned down or asked to sacrifice their own lives for the kids they love.”
Jean-Pierre reiterated Biden’s push for gun control measures, insisting they “work, we know this.”
“As the President said this week it is time to turn this pain into action. It’s time for Congress to act,” she said.
When pressed further on specific bills the Senate could take up, the press secretary said the White House wants to see the chamber move forward and pass legislation but is leaving “the mechanics to Senator [Chuck] Schumer.”
Hours earlier, Schumer announced the Senate would not vote on a pair of House-passed bills expanding background checks for would-be gun buyers until early next month, saying negotiators from both parties needed time to put together a compromise bill.
