WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday addressed the nation after Monday's mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. The suspect killed 10 people, including a police officer, authorities said.
The shooting Monday at the King Soopers sent shoppers and workers scrambling for safety and stunned a state and a nation that has grieved several mass killings.
Biden said Tuesday, "the United States Senate should immediately pass, I hope some are listening, should immediately pass the two House passed bills that close loopholes in the background check system," as he called for tougher gun control laws and to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
Police Chief Maris Herold said police engaged in a shootout with the suspect inside the supermarket and that is when Officer Eric Talley was killed.
Investigators don’t know yet why the suspect opened fire inside the grocery store, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. He said the investigation is in the early stages but that detectives believe the suspect was the only shooter, Dougherty said.
On Tuesday, Biden ordered all U.S. flags to be lowered to half staff in honor of the victims of the shooting and urged lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass gun legislation.
The attack in Boulder, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado, stunned a state that has seen several mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting.
Monday's midafternoon attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
It follows a lull in mass killings during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which had the smallest number of such attacks in eight years, according to the database, which tracks mass killings defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter.