May 31, 2022: -On Sunday, President Joe Biden will travel to Uvalde, Texas, to console the families of the victims of Tuesday’s mass shooting when a lone gunman shot 19 children and two teachers to death at an elementary school.

The White House said that the president and first lady Jill Biden “will travel to Uvalde, Texas to grieve with the community that lost twenty-one lives in the horrific elementary school shooting.”

Shortly after the travel announcement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden is scheduled to meet with religious and neighborhood leaders and mourn with the families whose children were killed.

“The president and the first lady believe it is important to show their support for the community during this devastating time and be there for the victims’ families,” Jean-Pierre said. “We cannot become numb to this. We will not accept this.”

On Tuesday, hours after the shooting, Biden addressed the nation and implored Democrats and Republicans to pass tighter gun control laws.

“We as a nation have to ask when we will stand up to the gun lobby in God’s name. When in God’s name do we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?” Biden asked at the time.

The Uvalde massacre was the second mass shooting to rock the U.S. in 10 days, after one teenage gunman killed ten patrons in a racist rampage at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 14.

Leading congressional Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, repeat the latest mass shootings to demonstrate that lawmakers need to pass gun-safety regulations to quell firearm-related and racially motivated violence.

But Democrats faced a setback after Senate Republicans blocked a domestic terrorism bill to curb racist attacks. The House gave the measure this year.

That legislation would have created three offices in the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to track and examine white supremacy and neo-Nazi ideology in the U.S.

On Thursday, despite the defeat of the domestic terrorism bill, a group of bipartisan senators, including Democrats Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republicans Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Susan Collins of Maine, met to kick off informal talks on gun-safety legislation.

While the chances that the Senate passes gun legislation remain low, given broad opposition from Republicans, the bipartisan group tries to find familiar ground on strengthened background checks and red flag laws.