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A US senator who came to Congress to represent Sandy Hook has pleaded with his colleagues to take action against gun violence following an elementary school shooting in Texas.
In an impassioned speech, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy called on his colleagues to pass legislation to address gun violence in the United States, after a 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Texas elementary school killing 19 children and two adults.
Salvador Ramos walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 80 miles west of San Antonio, with a handgun moving from class to class.
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The massacre of young children was another horrifying moment for a country marked by an almost relentless series of massacres in churches, schools and shops.
Democrat Mr. Murphy represented the Newtown area when a gunman killed 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut nearly a decade ago.
In a speech to Congress, Mr Murphy said “we have another Sandy Hook on our hands” and asked: “What do we do?
“I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on all fours and beg my colleagues. Find a way forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”
Photo: AP
He continued: “Nowhere else do little children go to school thinking they might be shot that day.
“Sandy Hook will never be the same and this community in Texas will never be the same,” he added.
Mr Murphy expressed hope that a compromise on gun control measures was possible, adding that “there is a common denominator that we can find” among colleagues.
The American President Joe Biden echoed calls to stand up to the gun lobby and pressure Congress to pass sensible gun laws.
He asked, “As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?”
Biden has suggested reinstating the ban on assault weapons and other “common sense gun laws.”
Tuesday’s attack in Texas was the deadliest shooting at a US elementary school since Sandy Hook.
In 2012, a 19-year-old man killed his mother in their Newtown home, then drove to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first graders and six educators; he committed suicide.
In May 2018 in Texas, a 17-year-old opened fire at Santa Fe High School, killing 10 people, most of them students, authorities said.
The shooting also comes shortly after a gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 black shoppers and workers in what officials described as a hate crime.
US officials, members of Congress and other prominent US figures, including former President Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris, have expressed outrage over the attack.
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