Buffalo Massacre: Joe Biden calls attack an act of “domestic terrorism”

President Joe Biden traveled Tuesday to Buffalo, New York state, to pay tribute to the victims of the racist attack that left 10 dead on Saturday, which he described as acts of “domestic terrorism”. He even condemned white supremacy, calling it “a poison running into the politics of the body” of the United States.

Biden, who is with his wife Jill, put a bouquet of white flowerss at the temporary altar of flowers, candles and messages of condolence outside the Tops supermarket, where on Saturday a young white man armed with an assault rifle attacked black people in the most brutal manhunt in the United States since sitting down the Democrat.

The Bidens met privately with the victim’s families, first responders and local officials before the president issued a public statement and public statement in which he planned to call for stricter gun laws and urge Americans to reject racism and embrace the diversity of the country.

“What happened here was plain and simple terrorism. Domestic terrorism,” Biden said. He also called the white supremacist ideology that inspired the Buffalo attack “poison.”

“White supremacy is poison. that crosses our body politic “, which” it infects before our eyes “, affirmed the president.

the massacre

The perpetrator of the massacre, Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old who broadcast his massacre live, shared a message shortly before the attack that endorsed the “substitution theory” a racist ideology according to which white people and their influence are “replaced” by people of color. Once typical of white nationalism, the theory has found an echo in some lawmakers on the far right of Republicans.

That is why Biden also condemned “those who spread their lies in the pursuit of power, profit and political gain.”

Biden was emphatic in the message he wanted to convey: “In America, evil will not succeed, I promise you. Hatred will not win. And white supremacy will not have the last word. “

The president called on Congress to act “getting guns on the streets”a phenomenon that has grown exponentially in recent times.

In this sense, he said he would work for “weapons of attack” (capable of firing both in automatic and semi-automatic mode) to take control again, within other measures proposed in the Democratic Party environment such as the reluctance of people with a criminal record or severe mental illness to buy guns.

Guns and shotguns

So far this year has nearly 200 hunt in the country and the United States ended 2021 with 693 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

A report released on Tuesday mentioned that 11.3 million guns were legally produced in 2020a 187% increase over the number they made in 2000, according to a new federal report.

The report, released Tuesday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, represents the first volume of the government’s first comprehensive analysis of arms trafficking in the United States in more than two decades. The effort is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to crack down against illegal weapons amid escalating violence.

Homicide guns in 2020 rose to their highest level in 26 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increase continued into 2021, according to preliminary data.

But in addition, the report revealed that a growing number of so -called ghost guns, weapons made from parts purchased online or made with 3D printers, are being used in crime. The police recovered 19,344 ghost guns in criminal investigations in 2021, compared to only 1,758 in 2016, according to the report.

Police say such guns attract criminals because they cannot be traced in criminal investigations and because they can be purchased without a background check.

PB