TEXAS: Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman, who allegedly shot and killed at least 21 people, including several children and two adults, at a Texas elementary school, had posted a picture of 2 assault rifles on Instagram before the massacre.


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He even tagged a young woman, messaging her, "Be grateful I tagged you." Texas school shooter cryptically wrote to her, "I got a little secret." When she asked him what he meant, he only said, "before 11." On her own Instagram account, she said she fell asleep before she could answer him.


Ramos, 18, allegedly shot and killed his grandmother before heading to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with two assault rifles around 11:32 AM local time, according to the US officials.


The 18-year-old gunman, who was identified as the suspect in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday, was killed by police after the shooting.


Tuesday’s shooting was one of the worst school massacres in US history — in 2012, 20 first-graders and six educators were killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The gunman in that case, Adam Lanza, gunned down his mother in bed before opening fire at the school. Thirty-two people died in a shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007.


Biden calls for stricter gun-control legislation in US


 


Expressing shock over the tragic incident, US President Joe Biden asked Americans to stand up to the gun lobby and urged the members of the Congress for an immediate gun control legislation as he highlighted that the `sensible gun laws` need to be passed in the wake of Texas school shooting.


"When we passed the Assault Weapons Ban (in 1994), mass shootings went down. When the law expired [in 2004], mass shootings tripled. The idea that an 18-year old kid can walk into a gun store and buy assault weapons, it`s just wrong." US President said hours after the deadliest school shooting in Texas.


Suggesting reinstating the assault weapons ban and other "common-sense gun laws, Biden said, "We have to act." 


He said pointing to Congress members, "It`s time for those who have struck or delayed or blocked the common-sense gun laws, we need to let you know that we will not forget." Biden drew on his own experience with grief, having lost his first wife and young daughter in a car accident in 1972 and an adult son to cancer in 2015.


"To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away," he said. "There`s a hollowness in your chest you feel like you`re being sucked into it ... you`re never quite the same". US President asked the nation to pray for them and "give the parents and siblings strength in the darkness they feel right now as a nation."


US President mentioned the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, and said, "Since then they have been over 900 incidents of gun fires reported on school grounds." 


He spoke of the shooting in Buffalo ten days ago and lamented that in both incidents an 18-year-old was able to purchase a gun and commit such heinous crimes. Biden was briefed about the shooting aboard Air Force One as soon as he returned from a trip to Asia, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter. 


He called Texas Governor Greg Abbott to offer any assistance needed."His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event," Jean-Pierre said. In a statement issued before he landed, Biden ordered the flags at the White House and at US federal and public buildings to be flown at half-mast until Saturday.