United States: after Boulder massacre, Biden calls for ban on assault rifles

US President Joe Biden comments on the mass shooting in Colorado from the White House in Washington, March 23, 2021. REUTERS - JONATHAN ERNST

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5 mins

We must ban assault rifles 

" is Joe Biden's plea after the new massacre in the United States.

At least ten people were killed in a supermarket in the city of Boulder, Colorado.

The US president urges US parliamentarians to take strong decisions to save lives.

But are Joe Biden's good intentions likely to lead to anything concrete? 

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President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for a ban on assault rifles after the new killings that reignited the debate on the proliferation of guns in the United States and whose alleged perpetrator, a young man, 21, has been charged.

The

massacre Monday,

which left 10 people dead including a police officer at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, came less than a week after a man shot dead eight people at

Asian massage parlors in Atlanta

, Georgia.

A repetition that sparked urgent calls for the Democratic administration and elected officials to act.

Identified as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the suspect was hospitalized, he is in stable condition, said the Boulder police chief.

He was charged with ten murders, 

" she said.

The motives of this man, described by relatives as "asocial" and "paranoid", are not yet known, according to the authorities, who discovered that he had acquired a semi-automatic Ruger AR-weapon. 556 less than a week before the shooting.

"

 I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense action that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,

 " Joe Biden said.

We must also ban assault rifles

 ," he added.

The spokesperson for the White House later referred to various "levers" to strengthen gun control and more generally respond to " 

violence in the population

 ".

According to her, this could include "

executive actions

", and not just a legislative procedure.

Shootings of this type, especially in schools, shopping malls or places of worship, are a recurring evil of the United States that successive governments have been powerless to stem.

Barack Obama called in a statement to "

 overcome opposition from cowardly politicians and pressure from the gun lobby 

."

"

 We must act now to prevent this scourge from continuing to ravage our population,"

 said the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, for his part denounced

"a continuous epidemic of violence by firearms which steals innocent lives with alarming regularity 

".

But the hypothesis of a tightening of the laws on weapons remains improbable given the opposition of the Republicans.

And once again, the good intentions of Joe Biden are very unlikely to lead to anything concrete, underlines the political scientist and specialist of the United States, Didier Combeau.

These draft regulations for assault rifles have been discussed for a very long time [...] But we must not forget that 90% of people who are shot dead are not killed by assault rifles, but with a handgun.

Didier Combeau, political scientist, specialist in the United States

Vincent Souriau

Colorado has already seen two of the worst killings in American history.

The city of Boulder had imposed a ban on assault rifle-type weapons and high-capacity magazines after a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida (17 dead) in 2018. But according to the

Denver Post

newspaper

, a judge suspended the ban last week, a move hailed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the premier gun lobby.

(

With AFP

)

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