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Weeks after the midterm elections, national concern and discussions for gun reform have risen after multiple shootings have occurred across the country.
Two days before Thanksgiving, Tuesday, Nov. 22, six people were killed and six were injured after a Walmart manager opened fire against his co-workers before a routine employee meeting in Chesapeake, Virginia. Around 50 customers were inside the store at the time of the shooting.
The gunman, Andre Bing, 31, later shot himself to death and left a note claiming his co-workers were mocking him.
The Walmart shooting happened nine days after another shooting where three football players were killed and two people were injured. It occurred after a fellow student and former football player opened fire when the group of students returned to the University of Virginia (UVA) campus from a field trip.
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, has been arrested for the UVA shooting as of Nov. 13, but his motives are still unknown.
President Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill June 25, the first major gun safety legislation passed by Congress in three decades.
The bill includes stricter background checks for buyers between 18 and 21, funding for mental health programs and states purview to implement red flag laws and ban people convicted of domestic abuse from owning a firearm.
Despite the significant gun reform, Biden announced that his administration would continue to take greater action and address gun control amid the recent shootings.
“Jill (Biden) and I grieve for those families, for the Chesapeake community, and for the Commonwealth of Virginia, which just suffered a terrible shooting at the University of Virginia this month,” said Biden in a statement.
Saturday, Nov. 19, five people were killed and at least 25 were injured in Colorado Springs, Colorado after a gunman opened fire inside an LGBTQ+ nightclub.
According to AP News, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, has been arrested for the shooting at Club Q and is being held without bond. The suspect had been previously arrested in connection to a bomb threat.
Biden responded in a statement and called this attack a “horrific hate violence” and promised to fight for the protection of the LGBTQ+ community as he remembered the similar shooting in Orlando, Florida, six years ago.
“Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence,” Biden said. “Yet it happens far too often. We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate.”
Despite the recent shootings, a survey conducted by Gallup shows 57 percent of adults support stricter gun laws, a decrease from 66 percent in June.
Victoria Rivas is a guest contributor and may be reached at [email protected]; @VicRivas_18 on Twitter.
