19 children, two adults killed in school shooting in US state of Texas

A teenage gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in the US state of Texas on Tuesday, the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.

Salvador Ramos, 18, began his massacre when he shot his grandmother, then crashed his car while fleeing near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Officers saw the gunman, clad in body armor, emerge from the crashed vehicle carrying a rifle. He then entered the building and opened fire, authorities said.

All told, the teenager fatally shot at least 21 people before police apparently shot and killed him. His grandmother survived. Ramos acted alone, and his motive was unclear, authorities said.

The mass shooting prompted US President Joe Biden to urge Americans to confront America’s gun lobby and pressure Congress to tighten gun laws.

The shocking murders came 10 days after an avowed white supremacist shot 13 people at a supermarket in a mostly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.

The rampage was the latest in a series of mass shootings that periodically reignite a fierce debate between advocates of tighter gun controls.

Mass shootings in the United States have frequently led to public protests and calls to end or limit gun sales common in other countries, but such measures repeatedly fail due strong opposition from Republicans and the powerful gun lobby.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution protects the right of Americans to keep and bear arms.

The Texas rampage stands as the deadliest school shooting since a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012.

Firearms became the leading cause of death for U.S. children and adolescents starting in 2020, surpassing motor vehicle accidents, according to a University of Michigan research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month.

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