By Ashlee Banks
Special to the AFRO
President Joe Biden marked the two-year anniversary of the Buffalo, New York supermarket shooting that claimed the lives of several Black Americans.
On Tuesday, Biden penned a letter to the survivors and victims’ families of the shooting. An excerpt from the letter read, “Jill and I join the people of Buffalo in honoring the memories of the 10 souls who were stolen from us in an unconscionable act of racial hatred against the Black community.”
President Joe Biden reflects on the loss of life that led to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed in June of 2022. The legislation was spurred by the brutal killing of ten African Americans inside of a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. on May 14, 2022. (Photo: AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“After the tragedy in Buffalo, many of you turned your pain into purpose and demanded that Congress do something. And they did,” the president continued. “I then signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act –the most significant gun safety legislation in almost 30 years.”
On May 14, 2022 Payton Gendron, a White supremacist, opened fire at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in a Buffalo, N.Y. neighborhood, killing 10 Black Americans and injuring three others.
Gendron is currently serving a life sentence in prison without the chance of parole.
U.S. Senate Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took to the Senate floor on May 14 to address the hatred behind the tragic incident.
“Racism is America’s original sin, and our work is never done until we do everything to rid our society of this vicious evil,” said Schumer.
“We will never be able to fully heal the harms unleashed by gun violence, but we can honor those we lost by continuing the work to make mass shootings a thing of the past,” he added.
Gregory Jackson, White House deputy director of Gun Violence Prevention, met with survivors and victims’ families in Buffalo on the tragic anniversary to deliver the president’s letter and remember the lives lost.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held a press briefing on the anniversary and reiterated that the incident was the “the result of unacceptable racial hatred and senseless gun violence.”
The press secretary took the time to thank law enforcement “who responded quickly and who risked their lives every day to protect and serve their communities.”
She also assured reporters that Biden, “will continue to use every tool at his disposal to end the epidemic of gun violence affecting Buffalo and communities nationwide.”
