English subtitles for clip: File:President-Biden-Delivers-Remarks-on-the-Horrific-Elementary-School-Shooting-in-Uvalde -Texas.webm
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1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,001 >> The President: Good evening, fellow Americans. 2 00:00:05,405 --> 00:00:09,342 I had hoped, when I became President, 3 00:00:09,409 --> 00:00:11,644 I would not have to do this again. 4 00:00:13,913 --> 00:00:15,515 Another massacre. 5 00:00:16,349 --> 00:00:21,521 Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. 6 00:00:23,623 --> 00:00:29,229 Beautiful, innocent second, third, fourth graders. 7 00:00:32,098 --> 00:00:34,100 And how many scores of little children 8 00:00:35,635 --> 00:00:40,473 who witnessed what happened see their friends die 9 00:00:41,207 --> 00:00:43,543 as if they're on a battlefield, for God's sake. 10 00:00:47,847 --> 00:00:50,417 They'll live with it the rest of their lives. 11 00:00:52,352 --> 00:00:55,755 There's a lot we don't know yet, but there's a lot we do know. 12 00:00:57,991 --> 00:01:01,227 There are parents who will never see their child again, 13 00:01:03,630 --> 00:01:06,099 never have them jump in bed and cuddle with them. 14 00:01:09,969 --> 00:01:11,704 Parents who will never be the same. 15 00:01:14,140 --> 00:01:19,779 To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. 16 00:01:24,551 --> 00:01:26,052 There's a hollowness in your chest, 17 00:01:26,119 --> 00:01:28,354 and you feel like you're being sucked into it 18 00:01:29,789 --> 00:01:31,691 and never going to be able to get out. 19 00:01:32,292 --> 00:01:37,597 It's suffocating. And it's never quite the same. 20 00:01:37,664 --> 00:01:41,968 And it's a feeling shared by the siblings, 21 00:01:42,035 --> 00:01:44,070 and the grandparents, and their family members, 22 00:01:44,137 --> 00:01:46,005 and the community that's left behind. 23 00:01:47,707 --> 00:01:51,344 Scripture says -- Jill and I have talked about this 24 00:01:51,411 --> 00:01:54,047 in different contexts, in other contexts: 25 00:01:55,515 --> 00:01:59,185 "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted 26 00:02:00,487 --> 00:02:02,255 and saves the crushed in spirit." 27 00:02:04,624 --> 00:02:06,226 So many crushed spirits. 28 00:02:08,828 --> 00:02:12,332 So, tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them, 29 00:02:13,733 --> 00:02:16,169 to give the parents and siblings the strength 30 00:02:17,403 --> 00:02:19,205 in the darkness they feel right now. 31 00:02:20,707 --> 00:02:22,141 As a nation, we have to ask: 32 00:02:22,208 --> 00:02:27,280 When in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? 33 00:02:28,281 --> 00:02:31,150 When in God's name will we do 34 00:02:31,217 --> 00:02:33,486 what we all know in our gut needs to be done? 35 00:02:35,622 --> 00:02:40,593 It's been 340- -- 3,448 days -- 36 00:02:41,461 --> 00:02:44,564 10 years since I stood up at a high school 37 00:02:45,098 --> 00:02:47,500 in Connecticut -- a grade school in Connecticut, 38 00:02:48,034 --> 00:02:50,904 where another gunman massacred 26 people, 39 00:02:50,970 --> 00:02:54,307 including 20 first graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 40 00:02:55,942 --> 00:03:01,114 Since then, there have been over 900 incidents of gunfires 41 00:03:01,180 --> 00:03:02,782 reported on school grounds. 42 00:03:04,017 --> 00:03:07,020 Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 43 00:03:08,421 --> 00:03:10,056 Santa Fe High School in Texas. 44 00:03:11,124 --> 00:03:14,360 Oxford High School in Michigan. The list goes on and on. 45 00:03:14,427 --> 00:03:18,298 And the list grows when it includes mass shootings 46 00:03:18,364 --> 00:03:20,800 at places like movie theaters, houses of worship, 47 00:03:21,467 --> 00:03:23,670 and, as we saw just 10 days ago, 48 00:03:23,736 --> 00:03:25,805 at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. 49 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,644 I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. 50 00:03:33,246 --> 00:03:37,183 And don't tell me we can't have an impact on this carnage. 51 00:03:39,185 --> 00:03:40,920 I spent my career as a senator 52 00:03:40,987 --> 00:03:45,959 and as Vice President working to pass commonsense gun laws. 53 00:03:47,393 --> 00:03:49,862 We can't and won't prevent every tragedy. 54 00:03:49,929 --> 00:03:52,932 But we know they work and have a positive impact. 55 00:03:52,999 --> 00:03:55,301 When we passed the assault weapons ban, 56 00:03:55,368 --> 00:03:56,970 mass shootings went down. 57 00:03:57,804 --> 00:04:00,506 When the law expired, mass shootings tripled. 58 00:04:02,108 --> 00:04:06,713 The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store 59 00:04:06,779 --> 00:04:10,116 and buy two assault weapons is just wrong. 60 00:04:11,985 --> 00:04:14,220 What in God's name do you need an assault weapon 61 00:04:14,287 --> 00:04:15,888 for except to kill someone? 62 00:04:17,724 --> 00:04:21,260 Deer aren't running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, 63 00:04:21,327 --> 00:04:24,530 for God's sake. It's just sick. 64 00:04:27,166 --> 00:04:28,801 And the gun manufacturers have spent 65 00:04:28,868 --> 00:04:31,371 two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons 66 00:04:31,437 --> 00:04:33,640 which make them the most and largest profit. 67 00:04:35,341 --> 00:04:36,909 For God's sake, we have to have the courage 68 00:04:36,976 --> 00:04:38,578 to stand up to the industry. 69 00:04:41,814 --> 00:04:42,982 Here's what else I know: Most Americans support 70 00:04:43,049 --> 00:04:46,085 commonsense laws -- commonsense gun laws. 71 00:04:47,687 --> 00:04:50,623 I just got off my trip from Asia, 72 00:04:50,690 --> 00:04:53,359 meeting with Asian leaders, 73 00:04:55,662 --> 00:04:57,664 and I learned of this while I was on the aircraft. 74 00:04:57,730 --> 00:05:04,137 And what struck me on that 17-hour flight -- 75 00:05:05,505 --> 00:05:09,442 what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings 76 00:05:09,509 --> 00:05:11,544 rarely happen anywhere else in the world. 77 00:05:15,615 --> 00:05:20,186 Why? They have mental health problems. 78 00:05:21,387 --> 00:05:23,723 They have domestic disputes in other countries. 79 00:05:25,792 --> 00:05:27,660 They have people who are lost. 80 00:05:28,528 --> 00:05:29,862 But these kinds of mass shootings 81 00:05:29,929 --> 00:05:32,331 never happen with the kind of frequency 82 00:05:32,398 --> 00:05:34,300 that they happen in America. Why? 83 00:05:35,401 --> 00:05:37,870 Why are we willing to live with this carnage? 84 00:05:39,072 --> 00:05:40,840 Why do we keep letting this happen? 85 00:05:42,842 --> 00:05:47,280 Where in God's name is our backbone to have the courage 86 00:05:47,346 --> 00:05:49,549 to deal with it and stand up to the lobbies? 87 00:05:50,616 --> 00:05:52,919 It's time to turn this pain into action. 88 00:05:52,985 --> 00:05:55,688 For every parent, for every citizen in this country, 89 00:05:55,755 --> 00:05:57,790 we have to make it clear to every elected official 90 00:05:57,857 --> 00:06:00,093 in this country: It's time to act. 91 00:06:03,429 --> 00:06:05,998 It's time -- for those who obstruct or delay 92 00:06:06,632 --> 00:06:08,434 or block the commonsense gun laws, 93 00:06:08,501 --> 00:06:11,738 we need to let you know that we will not forget. 94 00:06:13,139 --> 00:06:16,576 We can do so much more. We have to do more. 95 00:06:18,911 --> 00:06:22,215 Our prayer tonight is for those parents, 96 00:06:25,918 --> 00:06:27,820 lying in bed and trying to figure out, 97 00:06:32,325 --> 00:06:33,926 "Will I be able to sleep again? 98 00:06:35,828 --> 00:06:37,563 What do I say to my other children? 99 00:06:39,098 --> 00:06:40,700 What happens tomorrow?" 100 00:06:45,605 --> 00:06:48,608 May God bless the loss of innocent life on this sad day. 101 00:06:51,110 --> 00:06:53,780 And may the Lord be near the brokenhearted 102 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:56,849 and save those crushed in spirit, 103 00:06:58,184 --> 00:07:00,219 because they're going to need a lot of help 104 00:07:00,286 --> 00:07:01,888 and a lot of our prayers. 105 00:07:03,289 --> 00:07:09,862 God love you.