Colorado shooting prompts calls for tighter gun control

A deadly rampage allegedly carried out by a 21-year-old man at a supermarket in Colorado on Monday, the latest in a spate of mass murders in the United States, is renewing the debate about gun control in the country.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty on Tuesday identified the suspected gunman as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, a resident of Arvada.

Alissa, who was born in Syria in 1999, has lived most of his life in the US, Dougherty said.

The suspect, who was booked into jail Tuesday, is facing 10 counts of first-degree murder and one charge of attempted murder. Authorities believe Alissa acted alone and said a motive has not been established.

The 10 men and women killed at the Kings Soopers store ranged in age between 20 to 65. They included Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, a father of seven who responded to the attack, and grocery store workers and customers.

According to an affidavit released Tuesday, Alissa had "a green tactical vest, a rifle (possibly an AR-15) and a semiautomatic handgun".

The suspect purchased an assault weapon on March 16, investigators said in the affidavit. Alissa had a previous charge of third-degree assault in 2018 against a high school classmate.

On a Facebook page, Alissa reportedly wrote posts criticizing former President Donald Trump's response to immigration and refugees, including one saying, "Trump is such a d---."

Alissa was a kickboxing and wrestling enthusiast, and in a 2019 Facebook post said he needed a girlfriend.

Dayton Marvel, a former high school classmate, told the Denver Post how Alissa "would talk about him being Muslim and how if anybody tried anything, he would file a hate crime and say they were making it up".

"I just know he was a pretty cool kid until something made him mad, and then whatever made him mad, he went over the edge — way too far," Marvel said.

The shooting in Boulder, about 30 miles northwest of Denver and home to the main campus of the University of Colorado, came 10 days after a state district court judge blocked the city from enforcing its ban on assault weapons, an ordinance that was adopted in 2018.

On March 12, Boulder County District Court Judge Andrew Hartman ruled against the provisions that would allow the city to ban the possession, transfer or sale of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

The judge based his ruling on a Colorado law that prevented local governments from setting up their own restrictions on gun ownership.

The Boulder City Council adopted the two ordinances in 2018 in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed.

The latest incident followed multiple shootings on March 16 in the Atlanta area in which eight people, six of whom were Asian women, renewed a debate on gun violence in the US.

In an address delivered at the White House, President Joe Biden urged Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to act on two bills passed in the House. The legislation would expand background checks and close an existing loophole that allows firearms sales to proceed without a completed background check if three business days have passed.

"I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future," Biden said, adding that Congress should also ban assault weapons and high-capacity weapons "in this country once again".

In 1994, Congress passed legislation that prohibited the manufacture or sale for civilian use of certain semiautomatic weapons and "large capacity" ammunition magazines. The 10-year-ban expired on Sept 13, 2004, in accordance with its sunset provision.

"This should not be a partisan issue. This is an American issue. It will save lives, American lives, and we have to act," Biden said.

According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the White House is considering executive actions to address gun safety and violence in communities.

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, which was scheduled before the Boulder attack, took place Tuesday and highlighted a deep divide between Democrats and Republicans over the issue.

Democrats called for the enactment of legislation that would prevent such massacres from reoccurring.

"We are Senate leaders. What are we doing? What are we doing other than reflecting and praying? We're not going to agree on every proposal, but if we share a commitment to reduce gun deaths, some proposal will work," said Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator from Illinois.

Republicans, on the other hand, defended the constitutional right to bear arms and voiced concerns that the problem lies elsewhere, such as insufficient funding for police.

"We cannot reduce violence in our communities without a professional, well-trained and fully funded police force," said Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and a ranking member of the committee.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that has been keeping track of gun-related violence in the US since 2013, more than 41,000 people were killed in 2020 in gun violence.

The number, which included more than 23,000 people who died by suicide, is a record that experts attributed to the public health, economic and social fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.