President Joe Biden sent on Friday a letter to the families of victims of the Uvalde school shooting on its second anniversary, saying that more needs to be done to address mass shootings and that he will continue advocating for gun control.
"To the families of the victims: know that, even after years have passed, there are days it feels like you just got the news yesterday. While there are no words that will ease the pain you continue to feel, I pray you find comfort in reflecting on their memories and all that they meant," reads a passage of the letter.
The president added that during his visit to the families after the shooting, "they had the same message we hear in the aftermath of all too many mass shootings: Do something." "In the 2 years since, they have made their voices heard — and our country has listened," he said.
On that note, he recalled that during his tenure Congress passed the Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun legislation in almost 30 years. The law increased background checks for people under 21 and, as per Axios, gave incentives for states to implement "red flag" laws and limits on the "boyfriend loophole."
The families of 19 victims announced this week that they reached a settlement with the city but at the same time sued over 90 state police officers who were part of the force's botched response to the situation.
The settlement amounts to $2 million and also includes the promise of higher standards and better training for local police.
As for the lawsuit, families said they seek accountability for the response to the shooting, in which 21 people, including 19 fourth-graders and two teachers, were killed by a teenage gunman.
Close to 400 federal, state and local officers were at some point at the scene, but they waited over an hour to enter the school. The lawsuit alleges state troopers did not follow their training and responsibility to engage with the shooters despite students and teachers did.
"The protocols trap teachers and students inside, leaving them fully reliant on law enforcement to respond quickly and effectively," the families and their attorneys said in a statement. Footage that surfaced in the following months showed police waiting in the hallway while the shooter, 19-year-old Salvador Ramos, was inside the classroom.
The images caused generalized uproar as it showed police refusing to engage for about an hour. Ramos was killed 84 minutes after arriving at the school.
The lawsuit comes months after the Department of Justice released a damning report that found "cascading failures" in law enforcement's response to the situation.
Five officers lost their jobs, including two Department of Public Safety officers and Uvalde's school police chief, Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander during the attack. Arredondo is among the defendants of the families' lawsuit. Another one filed in December 2022 against local and state police, the city and other school and law enforcement seeks at least $27 billion and class-action status for survivors.
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