Texas mall shooting prompts Biden to renew call for gun control

The Democratic president renewed calls for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as to enact universal background checks and end immunity for gun manufacturers. There is little chance the narrowly divided House and Senate would pass such legislation, although polls show most Americans support background checks.

Biden, who has made similar pleas before, said the assailant at Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, a northern suburb of Dallas, wore tactical gear and was armed with an AR-15-style assault weapon.

The gunman killed eight people, including children, and wounded at least seven, before a police officer killed him, police said on Saturday.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States, with at least 199 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.

As of Sunday morning, law enforcement had not released details about the suspect's identity or a possible motive. The identities of the victims had also not been released.

The tragedy in Allen, which happened just over a week after another deadly shooting in the Texas town of Cleveland, reignited the heated debate over gun control in the United States.

The US Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, and that issue is a hot-button one for many Republicans, who are backed by millions in donations from gun rights groups and manufacturers.

Texas mourns: "We are going to need prayer"

The Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen Texas was filled Sunday as members of the community gathered to offer comfort and prayer after a gunman shot and killed eight people and wounded at least seven others at a busy mall north of Dallas on Saturday.

"We are going to need prayer," Allen Mayor-elect Baine Brooks told the congregation. "So please, think about our families here in our community," he said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who had called the shooting an "unspeakable tragedy," in a statement, attended the service.

The gunman, whom authorities said they think acted alone and whose motive was not yet known, was killed by a police officer after he began firing outside of the Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas, the city's police chief Brian Harvey said at a press conference.

Allen fire department chief Jon Boyd told the same press conference that his department took at least nine victims with gunshot wounds to area hospitals.

Two of those people died at the hospital, Boyd said at a second press conference Saturday night. Three of the victims were in critical condition and four others were stable.

Medical City Healthcare, which runs 16 hospitals in the area, said in a statement that its trauma centres were treating eight of the wounded victims, who ranged in age from 5 to 61.

Allen, Texas, is a community of about 100,000 people.

Reuters