Highland Park shooting: Biden vows to end gun violence 'epidemic'

Washignton, Jul 5: US President Joe Biden vowed to keep fighting to end the "epidemic" of gun violence in America after a deadly mass shooting that killed at least six people and injured more than 30 during an Independence Day Parade on Monday.

Addressing a July 4 barbeque for military families at the White House, Biden said he and his wife Jill were "shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day."

"I'm not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence," he said, noting he had signed the first significant gun control measures in decades into law in late June, but that "much more work" remains.

"In recent days, there has been reason to think that this country is moving backward, that freedom has been reduced, that rights we assumed were protected are no longer," he was quoted saying by news agency AFP.

Biden was referring to a rapid succession of Supreme Court rulings that overturned the 50-year-old federal right to abortion, expanded gun rights for people wishing to bear them in public, and limited the government's ability to fight climate change.

A gunman on a rooftop opened fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday, killing at least six people, wounding at least 30, and sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers, and children on bicycles fleeing in terror.

The July 4 shooting was just the latest to shatter the rituals of American life. Schools, churches, grocery stores, and now community parades have all become killing grounds in recent months. This time, the bloodshed came as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together.