Mass shootings roil US politics anew

Democrats call for emergency session on gun control after two violent attacks

The issue of gun violence was thrust again into the US political arena, as authorities attempted to explain two mass shootings over the weekend in which 29 people were killed in Texas and Ohio.

Democratic leaders urged Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold an emergency session to debate gun control legislation, although lawmakers left Washington a few days ago for a five-week recess. Republicans and some moderate Democrats have resisted placing additional restrictions on gun ownership.

Nine people were killed by a gunman on Sunday in Dayton, Ohio, while 20 were killed at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday morning.

In El Paso, the suspected gunman, Patrick Crusius, 21, a white man from Allen, Texas, near Dallas, was in police custody. The police are reviewing a "manifesto" in connection with the shooting. A prosecutor said on Sunday the state will seek the death penalty for Crusius.

The US attorney for the Western District of Texas, John Bash, said federal authorities were treating the El Paso massacre as a case of domestic terrorism.

"And we're going to do what we do to terrorists in this country, which is to deliver swift and certain justice," Bash told reporters on Sunday.

In the Dayton shooting, 24-year-old gunman Connor Betts, a white male from Bellbrook, Ohio, was killed by police after a one-minute rampage. His sister Megan, 22, was among the dead. Twenty-seven others were injured in the shooting in the popular night life district.

Several Democratic presidential candidates sought on Sunday to link US President Donald Trump's rhetoric to the spate of shootings and to white nationalism.

"It gives me no pleasure to say this, but I think all of the evidence out there suggests that we have a president who is a racist, who is a xenophobe who appeals, and is trying to appeal, to white nationalism," Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, said on CNN.

"Clearly, Donald Trump does not want anybody shooting down innocent people," Sanders said, but added that talk about invasions and labeling migrants criminals risks leading unstable people to take up arms.

Trump called the El Paso shooting a "hateful act" and "an act of cowardice". He ordered flags at half-staff and said he would speak on the shootings at 10 am on Monday in Washington.

Democratic candidate Julian Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, said on ABC that Trump's "spoken about immigrants as being invaders. He's given license for this toxic brew of white supremacy to fester more and more in this country".

A hallmark of Trump's presidency has been his determination to curb illegal immigration.

"There's no benefit here in trying to make this a political issue; this is a social issue, and we need to address it as that," Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday on ABC TV's This Week program.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Sunday that Mexico will take legal actions to protect its citizens in the United States. Three Mexicans were killed and nine injured in the El Paso shooting.

"The president has instructed me to ensure that Mexico's indignation translates into ... efficient, prompt, expeditious and forceful legal actions for Mexico to take a role and demand that conditions are established that protect ... Mexicans in the United States," Ebrard said in a video on Twitter.

Reuters contributed to this story.

hengweili@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 08/06/2019 page12)