After Texas taking footage, a resigned White House throws its palms up in frustration | World News

Washington: Throughout the Brady briefing room of the White House, on Monday afternoon, when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began her press conference, she reeled off numbers.

“It’s the 128th day of 2023. And yesterday…we witnessed the 201st mass taking footage on this nation this 12 months. Which suggests we’re averaging a number of a day. Larger than 200 mass shootings in 128 days. Credible estimates current that better than 14,000 people have died this 12 months from gun violence.”

Jean-Pierre’s remarks have been triggered by the latest incident of mass taking footage in Texas, the place an Indian engineer, Aishwarya Thatikonda, was killed along with seven totally different people, along with children, in a mall in Dallas.

Once more in Washington DC, the mood was darkish. The flags at White House have been flying half mast. Questions on the press briefing have been all regarding the taking footage and what President Joe Biden was doing about it. And the White House’s response was best captured in a phrase that Jean-Pierre used repeatedly — we’re irritated.

“It's a catastrophe…We’re talking regarding the number-one killer of kids in America…Schools, procuring malls, church buildings, movie theatres, grocery outlets, temples — places that are a part of our regularly lives, that are necessary to our regularly lives — day after day are coming beneath assault from weapons of battle that haven’t anyplace on our streets.”

She candidly acknowledged that the US was the one nation on this planet that faces a catastrophe of this nature. “That's the one nation on this planet that has this occurring correct now. The one nation that has to maintain gun violence, mass shootings on this implies. That shouldn’t be.”

Nonetheless what subsequent? Claiming that the President had achieved all that he may — Biden has taken two dozen govt actions and carried out a big place in shepherding a restricted gun safety legal guidelines by the Congress closing 12 months — Jean-Pierre positioned the blame squarely on Republicans inside the Congress.

“Congress ought to cope with this catastrophe. Yesterday, the President as quickly as as soon as extra requested Congress to ship him a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, ending immunity for producers, requiring safe storage, enacting widespread background study. It’s merely frequent sense.”

Nonetheless it’s unlikely that there'll probably be any movement inside the Congress. Republicans keep devoted to an extreme interpretation of the Second Modification — the constitutional provision that allows People to bear arms. They’re in a majority inside the House of Representatives. And with a aggressive presidential election season approaching, observers see little scope for bipartisan cooperation on an issue as contentious as gun administration.

With tales that the Texas gunman was impressed by White Supremacism, Jean-Pierre talked about that Biden, on his first day in office, had begun creating what grew to turn out to be the nationwide method to counter residence terrorism. “We now have spoken out persistently regarding the relating to rise in hate-fuelled violence on this nation.”

Nonetheless what was clearest inside the White House press briefing on Monday was that confronted with a gun violence “epidemic”, among the many many strongest workplaces inside the office was publicly helpless, resigned and irritated, unable to maneuver the needle to make America even a tiny bit safer.