Washington: Within the Brady briefing room of the White Home, on Monday afternoon, when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre started her press convention, she reeled off numbers.

“It’s the 128th day of 2023. And yesterday…we witnessed the 201st mass taking pictures on this nation this 12 months. Which means we’re averaging multiple a day. Greater than 200 mass shootings in 128 days. Credible estimates present that greater than 14,000 individuals have died this 12 months from gun violence.”

Jean-Pierre’s remarks have been triggered by the most recent incident of mass taking pictures in Texas, the place an Indian engineer, Aishwarya Thatikonda, was killed together with seven different individuals, together with kids, in a mall in Dallas.

Again in Washington DC, the temper was darkish. The flags at White Home have been flying half mast. Questions on the press briefing have been all in regards to the taking pictures and what President Joe Biden was doing about it. And the White Home’s response was greatest captured in a phrase that Jean-Pierre used repeatedly — we’re annoyed.

“It is a disaster…We’re speaking in regards to the number-one killer of children in America…Faculties, procuring malls, church buildings, film theatres, grocery shops, temples — locations which are part of our on a regular basis lives, which are important to our on a regular basis lives — day after day are coming beneath assault from weapons of struggle that haven’t any place on our streets.”

She candidly acknowledged that the US was the one nation on this planet that faces a disaster of this nature. “That is the one nation on this planet that has this occurring proper now. The one nation that has to take care of gun violence, mass shootings on this means. That shouldn’t be.”

However what subsequent? Claiming that the President had achieved all that he might — Biden has taken two dozen govt actions and performed a significant position in shepherding a restricted gun security laws by the Congress final 12 months — Jean-Pierre positioned the blame squarely on Republicans within the Congress.

“Congress should deal with this disaster. Yesterday, the President as soon as once more requested Congress to ship him a invoice banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, ending immunity for producers, requiring secure storage, enacting common background examine. It’s simply frequent sense.”

However it’s unlikely that there will likely be any motion within the Congress. Republicans stay dedicated to an excessive interpretation of the Second Modification — the constitutional provision that enables Individuals to bear arms. They’re in a majority within the Home of Representatives. And with a aggressive presidential election season approaching, observers see little scope for bipartisan cooperation on a problem as contentious as gun management.

With stories that the Texas gunman was impressed by White Supremacism, Jean-Pierre mentioned that Biden, on his first day in workplace, had begun creating what grew to become the nationwide technique to counter home terrorism. “We now have spoken out persistently in regards to the regarding rise in hate-fuelled violence on this nation.”

However what was clearest within the White Home press briefing on Monday was that confronted with a gun violence “epidemic”, among the many strongest workplaces within the workplace was publicly helpless, resigned and annoyed, unable to maneuver the needle to make America even a tiny bit safer.