David Lammy's powerful report about US mass shootings on The Agenda

10 June 2022, 14:01 | Updated: 10 June 2022, 14:04

David Lammy's powerful words on US mass shootings after Uvalde horror

This is David Lammy's powerful monologue from Washington DC for The Agenda, following the Uvalde mass shooting.

Watch The Agenda exclusively on Global Player.

The massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde saw 21 people killed - 19 of them children.

Following the shooting, actor Matthew McConaughey - who was born in Uvalde, Texas - has pleaded with Congress to take action on gun control.

David said: "People are gripped right across America with another mass shooting - this time in Uvalde, Texas

"Each time is happens there is this tremendous outpouring of pain and concern and fret and despair at guns. Yet there is no action.

"No action because of the power of the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. No action because of the impasse of the Republican Party and the desperate inability of the Democrat Party to deliver reform.

READ MORE: ‘Enough, enough’ – President Biden pleads for Congress to act on gun control

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"And each time there is a debate about background checks, about better regulation, around mental health, around the ability to buy powerful magazines for semi-automatic weapons - and what should happen.

"And my reflection on this occasion is that perhaps to break this impasse we have to acknowledge that many Americans see the ability to bear arms to protect their family as essential.

"And so we must make a distinction between defensive weaponry that many feel is their right and offensive weaponry used in the incorrect and wrong way.

"And perhaps if we can make that distinction in America there's the ability to do something about those who would pick weapons up and use them offensively against innocent young people."

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