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US Pres. grieves over recurrent school shootings

WASHINGON, March 27 (KUNA) -- US President Joe Biden stressed the need of scaling up the efforts to stop gun violence hours after a deadly shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, the capital of Tennessee state.
"We're still gathering the facts of what happened and why, and we do know that as of now there are a number of people who did not make it, including children. It's heartbreaking. A family's worst nightmare," Biden said at the White House during the Women's Business Summit on Monday. "I want to commend the police who responded incredibly swiftly, within minutes in the danger.
"We're monitoring the situation really closely, Ben (Stephen Benjamin - a senior advisor and director of the Office of Public Engagement), as you know, and we have to do more to stop gun violence. It's ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation. "And we have to do more to protect our schools, so they aren't turned into prisons. "The shooter in this situation reportedly had two assault weapons and a pistol, two AK-47. So I call on Congress again to pass my assault weapons ban," President Biden stressed.
"It's about time that we begin to make some more progress. But there's more to learn. But I just wanted to send my concern and hearts out to so many parents out there. "I've been to so many of these sites as Ben knows, virtually every one. And one of the things you folks should -- I know you do know, but you should focus on, just like when in the military, when my son was in Iraq for a year, other places, there's so many members of the military coming back with post-traumatic stress after witnessing the violence and participating in it.
"Well these children, these teachers should be focusing on their mental health as well," he added.
Earlier today, authorities said a female shooter wielding two "assault-style" rifles and a pistol killed three students and three adults at the Covenant School. (end) rsr.gb