Father of victim heckles Biden at gun bill event

WASHINGTON－A man whose son was killed in the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, interrupted US President Joe Biden's remarks at the White House on Monday during an event to herald the passage of the first major federal gun safety law in three decades.

Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was murdered in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, shouted "we've already gone through this for years and years" at the event.

"We have to do more than that," Oliver said before being escorted out of the event, which the White House held to "celebrate" the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, less than two months after 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

"The word CELEBRATION has no space in a society that saw 19 kids massacred just a month ago," Oliver tweeted before attending the event. "Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years. Not me, not Joaquin."

Biden signed into law what has been described as a gun safety bill late last month amid nationwide demonstrations against gun violence and political inaction.

Advocates for stronger gun safety laws want him to do more to stop the stream of gun-related deaths that have become part of daily life in the United States.

The US Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, and the issue is a divisive one in US politics, and the gun lobby has a powerful influence on many Republican lawmakers.

The bipartisan bill came together just weeks after mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo that killed more than 30 people.

Biden, who is looking to improve sagging public approval ratings ahead of the Nov 8 midterm elections for control of Congress, made securing victories on gun control part of his campaign pitch to voters.

7-Eleven shootings

On the same day of the White House event, two people were killed and three wounded in robberies before dawn at six 7-Eleven stores in Southern California. Authorities said they were seeking the same lone gunman in at least three of the crimes.

The string of violence occurred within a timespan of about five hours on July 11, the day when the brand celebrates its anniversary. This is its 95th year and on Monday stores gave out free Slurpee drinks.

It wasn't immediately clear to investigators what prompted the violence in the cities of Ontario, Upland, Riverside, Santa Ana, Brea and La Habra. Authorities have not disclosed the victims' conditions.

There have been more than 23,200 deaths from gun violence and 331 mass shootings across the US over the past six months or so, according to the latest data from the Gun Violence Archive.

The rising number of gun deaths in the US extends beyond high-profile shooting attacks, emerging nearly every day inside homes, outside bars and on the streets of many cities, reported The Washington Post last week citing federal data.

The surge in gun violence comes as firearm purchases rose to record levels in 2020 and 2021, with more than 43 million guns estimated to have been purchased during that period, according to the Post's analysis of federal data on gun background checks.

Agencies - Xinhua