Three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. The suspected shooter was shot dead by police, Nashville police said. "We know she was armed with at least two assault rifles and one handgun," police officer Don Aaron said at a news conference. The police later said it was a woman who had once been a student at this school.
The investigators then evaluated material that could provide information about the motive of the shooter. "We have a manifesto, we have some writings that relate to this day, to this incident, that we are evaluating," police officer John Drake said at a news conference in Nashville. Maps of the school were also found, on which, among other things, surveillance cameras and entrances were drawn.
The perpetrator is said to be a 28-year-old woman from Nashville who identifies as transgender. Transgender people are people who do not - or not only - identify with the sex that was documented at birth. Everything else about the personal history and whether there was a connection to the crime was initially unknown. "There's a theory at the moment that we might be able to talk about later, but it's unconfirmed," said Drake. According to police, the woman had legally acquired her weapons, two assault rifles and a handgun.
School is a private Christian institution
The police were called to the school around 10:00 a.m. in the morning (local time). "When officers got to the second floor, they saw a gunman, a woman, shooting," Aaron said. The officers shot them. According to initial findings, she gained access to the school via a side entrance. A vehicle parked near the scene of the crime gave the police clues as to who the woman was. According to the police, the three adults killed are school employees.
The school is said to be a private Christian institution. According to the website, children are taught there from the first to the sixth grade. There is also a kindergarten there. According to the local newspaper The Tennessean, around 200 children go there. A mother told US television that her daughter wrote to her saying that she and her classmates hid in the closet during the incident. Nashville is the capital of the state of Tennessee - there live almost 700,000 people.
US President Biden: "It's sick"
US President Joe Biden once again called for a ban on assault rifles after the school massacre. Biden called on the US Congress to pass a tightening of gun laws he had proposed. "We must do more to stop gun violence," warned Biden. Gun violence is tearing apart the communities in the country and the soul of the nation. "It's sick," said the Democrat. Losing a child is a family's "worst nightmare," Biden said. The First Lady, who is a teacher herself, was also dismayed. "I'm really at a loss for words. Our children deserve better," said Jill Biden.
Amok runs and shootings are part of the sad everyday life in the USA - the perpetrators are predominantly men. In recent years there have only been isolated cases of female shooters who caused bloodbaths. There are more guns in circulation in the United States than anywhere else in the world. According to the latest data from the CDC, around 20,000 people were shot dead in the United States in 2020 - more than 50 a day. For the first time in 2020, gun injuries were the number one killer of children and adolescents in the United States, ahead of traffic accidents. In May, an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, before being shot dead by police.
"How many more children must be murdered?"
US President Biden repeatedly calls for stricter gun laws and has repeatedly tightened regulations slightly in the past. Without substantial changes in the law, however, experts see no chance of real change. In order to implement this, however, Biden and his Democrats would have to rely on the willingness of the Republicans in Congress to cooperate - and that is not in sight on this topic.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre also made an urgent appeal to Congress. "How many more children have to be murdered before the Republicans in Congress stand up and act?" she said in Washington on Monday. "Enough is enough," she warned. "We must do more." Biden has done more than any other president to tackle gun violence in the country. But now Congress must act urgently. "Our children should be able to feel safe and secure at school," said Jean-Pierre. Attacks like those in Nashville are "devastating" and "heartbreaking".
