At the end of the morning, a person entered a Nashville elementary school and opened fire with multiple guns, killing six people, including three children.
Three children and three adults were shot dead Monday at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, in the southern United States, a tragedy that has reignited debate about the country’s gun-related devastation.
According to local police chief John Drake, the bloodbath was committed by Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old transgender person who was promptly killed by police. His services later clarified to local newspaper The Tennessean that he was a transgender man (born female but identifies as male).
• Three children and three adults
Armed with “at least two assault rifles and a pistol,” the person entered the grounds of a private Christian school that morning, local police spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference.
The attacker entered through a side door and fired numerous shots as he walked through The Covenant School, which has about 200 students and about 40 employees. The shooting did not take place in a classroom, according to News Channel 5 Nashville.
“Three children and three adults were fatally injured,” added Don Aaron, adding that there were no other casualties.
The three adults killed worked at school, said the US media broadcaster CBS.
According to firefighters, relayed by CNN, teams were quickly on the scene trying to rescue the victims, who still showed “signs of life.”
• A 28-year-old former student
Officers were dispatched to the scene of the crime. After hearing gunshots above, they “immediately” went there and “killed” the attacker, who was pronounced dead at 10:27 a.m. local time, Don Aaron said.
His services then clarified on Twitter that the attacker had been identified and that he was a 28-year-old Nashville resident. According to the police, the attacker is a former student of the establishment.
“According to our preliminary investigation, eventually [il] was a student at that school, but we’re not sure of the year,” Nashville Police Chief John Drake told US television.
Shortly thereafter, law enforcement revealed that the attacker had left a manifest along with a detailed map of the crime scene.
The discovered manifest indicates that other locations were listed as potential targets. The document “shows that there would be a homicide in several places, and the school was one of them,” Nashville Police Chief John Drake said on American television.
• “Enough is enough” for Democrats
The drama reignited calls from the White House to ban assault rifles as a proposal to do so is blocked by opposition lawmakers.
“How many more children have to be killed before Republicans in Congress (…) pass an assault rifle ban?” responded Presidential spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. “Enough is enough,” she said again.
President Joe Biden called the shooting “heartbreaking,” “a family’s worst nightmare.”
Tennessee state elected officials also expressed their emotions on social media. “I am devastated and heartbroken by the tragic news of Covenant School,” Republican Senator Bill Hagerty tweeted, without raising the sensitive issue of gun control.
• Painful precedents
The United States, where approximately 400 million firearms are in circulation, is plagued by fatal shootings, including in schools. The most notable tragedy occurred in 2012 at a Connecticut elementary school, where 20 children, ages 6 and 7, were killed.
One such traumatic event repeated itself in May 2022, when an 18-year-old man shot dead 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Between those two tragedies, a massacre committed at a Florida high school in Parkland on February 14, 2018 sparked a major national movement led by young people to call for stricter individual gun control in the United States .
Despite the mobilization of more than a million protesters, the United States Congress has failed to pass ambitious legislation as many elected officials are under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), America’s first gun lobby.