US President Joe Biden has condemned the Sunday shooting in Sacramento, California and called on Congress to do more to prevent future tragedy. He stated that "another community [was] devastated by gun violence" and argued that its survivors were left with "wounds both visible and invisible".
POTUS particularly urged Congress to pass laws banning "ghost guns", as well as assault weapons and high-capacity magazines on a federal level, introducing comprehensive background checks for all purchases of a weapon and ending the immunity from liability that the gun manufacturers at present enjoy. Biden also called on Congress to pass the budget proposed by his administration and include funding for the police and the crime prevention and intervention strategies across the US.
"These are just a few of the steps Congress urgently needs to take to save lives," he said in a statement.
Biden also boasted that the executive action of his administration aimed at reducing gun crime in the US via gun-trafficking strike forces and help for the American cities aimed at broadening "community violence interventions", as well as for hiring more police officers.
Six people were killed and a dozen more injured in a shooting that took place at around 2am on 3 April outside London Club, and El Santo Restaurant & Ultralounge in 10th street in Sacramento. The details of the incident remain sketchy. One of the videos from the site suggested that a melee erupted outside the restaurant right before the shooting started.
Local media cited witnesses as claiming that an automatic gun was fired from one of the passing cars and that a screeching sound of a speeding vehicle was heard once the shots stopped.
Police said that the investigation into the incident is "preliminary" and the reasons for the shooting remain unclear. They believe that there were at least two gunmen, who remain at large. One stolen handgun was found at the scene after the shooting.
An anonymous police source told 'Los Angeles Times' that gang involvement hasn't been ruled out as a cause of the massacre, and that this was already the third shooting this year in the US to leave at least six dead.
During his campaign, Joe Biden put making gun laws stricter as one of his priorities for his presidency, but has so far failed to achieve anything meaningful because of opposition in Congress, especially from members of the GOP. The prospects of gun control laws look even dimmer in the context of the Democrat Party's looming losses in the forthcoming mid-terms. Citing the president's low ratings, a number of political experts warned that the Democrats might lose their slim majorities in Congress if they don't do something to avert it.
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