Barack Obama, Kamala Harris react to deadly Minneapolis school shooting

The nation is reeling from yet one more mass capturing after the Annunciation Catholic Faculty neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was horrified by a lethal capturing throughout a church mass that left two younger college students lifeless and 17 others injured.

Political leaders reacted to the lethal capturing, together with some who known as for stricter gun reform as America approaches practically 300 mass shootings this 12 months.

President Donald Trump, who requested People to hitch him in “praying for everybody concerned,” ordered that flags be lowered to half-staff on the White Home, public buildings, and navy amenities in honor of the Minneapolis faculty capturing victims.

In an announcement on X, former President Barack Obama wrote, “We are able to’t permit ourselves to change into numb to mass shootings.” Obama known as the Minneapolis tragedy “heartbreaking,” including, “Michelle and I are praying for the mother and father who’ve misplaced a toddler or shall be sitting at their hospital bedside after yet one more act of unspeakable, pointless violence.”

Obama notably served as president when Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty in Newtown, Connecticut, was struck by a mass shooter in 2012, killing 20 youngsters and 6 adults. It’s the deadliest elementary faculty capturing in U.S. historical past–a day Obama would later describe as “the only darkest day of my presidency.”

President Obama fought again tears addressing the nation on the day of the Sandy Hook capturing, saying from the White Home press briefing room, “As a rustic, we now have been by way of this too many instances…we’re gonna have to come back collectively and take significant motion to stop extra tragedies like this, whatever the politics.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who labored alongside President Joe Biden to ascertain the White Home’s first-ever Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention, additionally reacted to the Annuciation faculty capturing.

“The start of a brand new faculty 12 months needs to be stuffed with pleasure and anticipation. However at the moment, it was marred by yet one more act of mindless gun violence,” Harris mentioned in an announcement. “The scholars, lecturers, and neighborhood of Annunciation Catholic Faculty in Minneapolis now share a traumatic expertise that has affected far too many People.”

Harris mentioned she spoke to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, whom she tapped as her vice presidential working mate within the 2024 presidential election, to “share Doug and my grief for the households impacted and our gratitude for the primary responders and regulation enforcement on the scene.”

Former Vice President Harris oversaw the Biden White Home Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention, which was primarily tasked with implementing the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was the primary federal complete gun reform regulation in 20 years. The regulation’s investments in neighborhood violence intervention have been credited for the decline in mass shootings in subsequent years.

Nevertheless, upon re-entering workplace, President Trump eradicated the Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention and slashed $800 million in federal funding for gun violence prevention.

In her assertion, Harris known as for leaders to take motion to stop the rollback of the progress already made in decreasing gun violence in America.

The previous presidential candidate added, “[Minneapolis] Mayor Jacob Frey mentioned it clearly: ‘Don’t simply say that is about ideas and prayers proper now. These children have been actually praying.’ We all know the options. Our leaders should have the braveness to behave to cease these tragedies.”