Analysis by Greg Milam, US correspondent
Joe Biden gave voice to a nation’s anger, grief and exasperation, a country in disbelief that such unspeakable horror could have happened again.
The taking of so many young lives at the Robb Elementary School has forced America to relive so many of these tragedies. Sandy Hook, Columbine, Parkland, now Uvalde.
The personal grief of families in Texas is unimaginable but the country is once again facing questions of why it is unable to stop such barbarity.
Biden, who lost a young child himself, was flanked by a first lady who is a working teacher. At a time of national mourning, he implored Americans to stand up to the gun lobby and demand gun control measures.
But he knows better than most how even an appalling tragedy like this doesn’t guarantee political action.
As vice-president he presided over the Senate chamber in 2013 when even quite modest changes to background checks post-Sandy Hook failed to win sufficient support. Barack Obama called it a “shameful” day for Washington.
What chance now then, with America even more polarised?
The names and faces of those children at Robb Elementary will live on for their families.
Will their deaths, like so many before them, be in vain?
