United States: Three children and three adults shot dead by a young woman in an elementary school

Europe 1 with AFP 20:14 p.m., March 27, 2023

Three children and three adults were killed Monday by a young woman who opened fire in an elementary school in Nashville, in the south of the United States, before being shot dead by police. Armed with at least two assault rifles and a pistol, she broke into the premises of a private Christian school in the morning, local police spokesman Don Aaron told a news conference.

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The assailant neutralized by the agents

Officers were quickly dispatched to the scene. After hearing gunfire upstairs, they "immediately" went there and "killed" the assailant, he said. The young woman "who looks less than 20 years old", fired many shots as she progressed through the establishment. "Three students were fatally wounded as well as three adults," but there were no other injuries, Aaron said.

The elementary school "The Covenant" has about 200 students and about forty employees. Several elected officials in the state of Tennessee immediately expressed their excitement on social networks. "I am devastated and heartbroken by the tragic news from Covenant School," tweeted Republican Senator Bill Hagerty.

Devastated and heartbroken about the tragic news at Covenant School. I'm grateful to law enforcement and first responders for their heroic actions. I am monitoring the situation closely, and my office is in contact with local officials & available to anyone needing assistance.

— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) March 27, 2023

400 million firearms in circulation in the United States

The United States, where about 400 million guns are in circulation, is frequently bereaved by deadly shootings, including in schools. The most striking tragedy was committed in 2012 by an unbalanced man at an elementary school in Connecticut, during which 20 children aged 6 and 7 were killed. One such traumatic event was repeated in May 2022 when an 18-year-old man shot dead 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Between these two tragedies, a massacre committed in a high school in Florida, on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, triggered a vast national movement, with youth at the spearhead, to demand a stricter regulation of individual weapons in the United States. Despite the mobilization of more than a million demonstrators, the United States Congress has not adopted an ambitious law, many elected officials being under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the first American gun lobby. In a country where the carrying of weapons is considered by millions of Americans as a constitutional right, the only recent legislative advances remain marginal, such as the generalization of criminal and psychiatric background checks before any purchase of weapons.