‘We know what works:’ Harris calls for an assault weapons ban

Washington, May 28 (EFE).- US Vice President Kamala Harris Saturday made an impassioned appeal for a ban on assault weapons in the wake of two mass shootings, including a carnage at a Texas school that killed 19 children and two teachers earlier this week.

Harris attended the funeral of a victim of the May 14 shooting in Buffalo in a racist attack by a white supremacist at a supermarket.

“We are not sitting around, waiting to figure out what the solution looks like,” said Harris, speaking at the funeral for Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim of the Buffalo shooting.

“We know what works on this. It includes – let us have an assault weapons ban.”

She pointed out that assault weapons were designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly. “(It) is a weapon of war with no place in a civil society.”

The Buffalo shooter, 18, had legally bought the AR-15-style weapon that he used to kill ten people at the supermarket.

The shooting came just ten days before an 18-year-old gunman went on a rampage at an elementary school in Uvalde, shooting at children and teachers indiscriminately with his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.

“Why should anyone be able to buy a weapon that can kill other human beings without at least knowing, ‘Hey, has that person committed a violent crime before? Are they a threat against themselves or others? That is just reasonable,” Harris said, urging stricter gun control laws.

A few hours earlier, President Joe Biden said it was possible to work to make the US safer.

“In the face of such destructive forces, we have to stand stronger. We must stand stronger. We cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer,” Biden said in a speech at the University of Delaware.

He said the country could do what needed to to “protect the lives of our people and our children,” a veiled reference to increasing control on firearms, possession of which is a constitutional right in the US.

“In the face of such a destructive force, we must remain strong. I ask all Americans to join hands and be heard to make this nation what it can and should be,” said the president.

The mass shootings have reignited the debate on gun control in the US.

Democratic politicians generally support measures that restrict access to guns. But Republicans and the powerful lobby group the National Rifle Association oppose any such a measure.

Biden will travel to Uvalde on Sunday to meet the families of the deceased in the school shooting. EFE

arc/ssk