Need nothing less to keep streets safe: Biden renews arms control call after Texas Mall Shooting

Washington: US President Joe Biden has called for a national assault-weapons ban and other gun safety measures in the wake of yet another mass shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, at a Texas mall on Saturday.

“Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers,” Biden said in a statement.

“I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe,” he added.

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.

“Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables,” he went on. “Republican members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough.”

The video footage circulating online showed the shooter exiting a sedan in an outlet mall parking lot Saturday and firing with a semi-automatic rifle on people walking nearby.

An officer on an unrelated call nearby quickly responded and "neutralized" the shooter at the large facility in Allen, police said.

Seven people were pronounced dead at the scene, in addition to the shooter. Two other victims died in the hospital while "three are in critical surgery, and four are stable," Allen fire chief Jonathan Boyd said Saturday.

Biden ordered US flags lowered to half-staff "as a mark of respect for the victims" and repeated his call for lawmakers to take action against a gun "epidemic."

He also demanded lawmakers require universal background checks for gun purchases and end legal immunity for manufacturers' whose weapons are used in attacks.

The US media, all citing unnamed law enforcement sources, identified the shooter on Sunday as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the US, with at least 199 episodes of gun violence so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since at least 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Barely a week earlier, a man shot and killed five neighbors in Cleveland, Texas after one of them asked him to stop firing his rifle in his yard at night while a baby slept.

Several other people have also been gunned down in recent weeks over petty disputes or common mistakes, such as knocking on the wrong door or getting into the wrong car.