Flags at the White House and all other federal buildings will be flown at half-staff in honor of the Nashville shooting victims through Friday, under a new order from President Biden.
The declaration came Monday after the commander-in-chief lamented the massacre that claimed the lives of three young children and three adults at the Covenant School. The shooter was killed by police.
The mass shooting was “a family’s worst nightmare,” Biden told reporters.
“We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart,” he said. “It’s ripping at the very soul of the nation. We have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons.”
The president also renewed calls for a ban on assault weapons like the ones used in Monday’s massacre.
Leaders throughout the country mourned the latest mass shooting.
“Another community terrorized by gun violence,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted. “My heart breaks with the parents, classmates and loved ones of these innocent children and the Nashville community.
“We must keep our children safe and put an end to these needless tragedies.”
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