19 Children Killed In Texas School Shooting

The killing in Uvalde, Texas, a little town about an hour from the Mexican border, was the bloodiest school shooting in the United States in years, and it was the latest in a string of horrific gun violence across the country.

"It's time to turn this pain into action for every parent, every citizen of this country," Biden said, his voice heavy with emotion.

"It's time for those who obstruct or delay or block commonsense gun laws -- we need to let you know that we will not forget," he said.

"As a nation, we have to ask when in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God's name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?"

At a previous press conference, Texas Governor Greg Abbott identified the suspect as Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old resident and US citizen.

"He shot and killed, horrifically and incomprehensibly," Abbott said.

Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN that the gunman shot his grandmother before abandoning his truck and entering Robb Elementary School at midday. He was armed with a handgun and a rifle and wearing body armour.

Officials stated the gunman was slain by responding officers and that two adults were also murdered in the attack.

Small groups of children were seen weaving around parked cars and yellow buses, some holding hands, as they escaped the school, which teaches students aged seven to ten years old, under police supervision.

It was the bloodiest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Connecticut, which murdered 20 children and six adults.

The White House ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims, whose deaths shocked a nation still reeling from the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

Robb Elementary, which serves over 500 predominantly Hispanic and economically poor pupils, advised parents not to rush in to pick up their children in the aftermath of the attack.

"You will be notified to pick up students once all are accounted for," the school said on its website soon after the attack.

Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas who supports gun rights, tweeted that he and his wife were "raising up in prayer the children and families affected by the awful massacre in Uvalde."

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy occurred, made an emotional plea for decisive action to prevent further violence.

"This isn't inevitable, these kids weren't unlucky. This only happens in this country and nowhere else. Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day," Murphy said on the Senate floor in Washington.

"I'm here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely."

The massacre in Texas comes after a string of mass shootings across the United States this month.

On May 14, an 18-year-old man opened fire in a Buffalo, New York grocery store, killing ten people.

The self-declared white nationalist, wearing full body armour and holding an AR-15 rifle, live-streamed his attack, purportedly targeting the store because of the substantial African American population in the area.

The next day, a man barricaded the door of a church in Laguna Woods, California, and opened fire on the congregation's Taiwanese-American members, killing one and injuring five others.

Despite repeated mass shootings, several attempts in Congress to modify gun laws have failed, leaving states and local governments to enhance — or decrease — thein restrictions.

The National Rifle Association has been a vocal opponent of tougher gun legislation in the United States. Abbott and Cruz are scheduled to appear at a prominent lobbying conference in Houston, Texas, later this week.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 19,350 firearm homicides in the United States in 2020, up nearly 35% from 2019.