Joe Biden was visibly shaken as he addressed Americans on Tuesday night.

"Another massacre," said the President.

"A primary school.

Beautiful, innocent second, third, and fourth graders.

And how many little children who had to watch their friends die - like on the battlefield, for God's sake killed.

Before that, he is said to have shot his grandmother, about whose condition there were different statements in the evening.

According to the police, he himself is dead, but there are still no statements about his motive.

Sofia Dreisbach

North American political correspondent based in Washington.

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"What on earth do you need an assault rifle for, other than to kill someone?" Biden said in his speech.

The perpetrator, who lived in Uvalde, is said to have bought two assault rifles on his 18th birthday.

He posted a selfie on a now-deleted Instagram profile attributed to him: A pale young man, gray hooded jacket, chin-length black hair.

In one photo he holds a gun magazine in his lap, in another two assault rifles can be seen, probably his new acquisitions.

Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez called the gunman "obviously very disturbed" on Tuesday night.

However, he still had no problems getting hold of these weapons.

The state of Texas has long had one of the most lax gun laws in the United States.

More than a million of Texas' approximately 29 million residents own a gun.

Almost a year ago, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that would allow Texans to carry a gun without a permit - for their own protection, as the reasoning went.

Since September 2021, anyone who is at least 21 years old and is not subject to an express ban has been allowed to carry a weapon in public.

Abbott tweeted at the time that it was "the strongest Second Amendment legislation in Texas history."

The so-called Second Amendment of 1791 represents the basis for the right to bear arms in the United States and is hotly disputed between Republicans and Democrats.

Perpetrator struck down by police at the scene

How exactly the attack on the elementary school unfolded was initially unknown.

At a brief press conference in the evening, Uvalde's chief of police, Pete Arredondo, referred to the ongoing investigation and asked for patience.

The gunman was a lone gunman and was killed.

According to Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the young man arrived at the school around noon and parked his car in the parking lot.

A video later circulated on Facebook shows a person dressed all in black and armed entering the school building.

He shot around in some classrooms and was then struck down by the police, Estrada told CNN.

The injured include a Border Patrol officer who was reportedly the first to arrive and was shot in the head.

According to media reports, some families were still waiting for news about the fate of their children that evening, more than twelve hours after the crime.

During the day, investigators had taken DNA samples to help with identification.

Such scenes are reminiscent of the worst school massacre in recent history.

At that time, a 20-year-old man shot dead 26 people, including 20 children between the ages of six and seven, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

He had previously killed his mother at home.

At that time, the parents also waited together for news, until at the end there were only those left whose children had been killed.

How often such massacres take place in America is also shown by the large number of survivors,