Salvador Ramos, author of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, acquired two assault rifles known as AR-15s, just one day after turning 18 years old.
Salvador opened fire in a primary school, leaving 21 people dead so far. For this, he used this popular semi-automatic rifle which has variants used militarily such as the M-16.
Experts assure that there is no big difference between this rifle for “domestic” use and those used on battlefields, that is, there is unlimited access by American society to weapons for military use.
While the AR-15 fires one bullet for every pull of the trigger, the M-16 is automatic and can hit 100 rounds per minute. American users say that with a slight and inexpensive modification you can modify the AR-15 to convert it into a fully automatic rifle.
According to figures from the National Rifle Association (NRA) the AR-15 it is the best-selling rifle in the US territory. It is estimated that at least 10 million units are in circulation among civilians and had already been used in other massacres of similar characteristics.
The AR-15 was the flagship weapon of perpetrators of massacres such as those at Sandy Hook in 2012 or the massacre at a movie theater in Colorado the same year. Once again, it was used in San Bernardino, California in 2015. In 2017, Steven Paddock carried out the worst massacre in the history of the United States, 58 people lost their lives as a result of bullet impacts fired by a AR-15. And, that same year in Parkland, Florida, 17 people lost their lives at a high school when a student decided to open fire with this very assault rifle.
With the appearance of a new shooter who, for no apparent reasonsnatches innocent lives again, they reopen old wounds and old debates on access to weapons in the neighboring country to the north.
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While Joe Biden condemned the events and called for action to intervene in this “carnage”, the state attorney Ken Paxton assured that it is necessary to train teachers in the use of weapons to react appropriately to a shooting. Two visions historically opposed in American society whose conflict is not close to being resolved.
With information from Agence France-Presse
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