President Biden addressed the nation from the White House on Tuesday, opening his remarks by saying, "I had hoped, when I became President, I would not have to do this, again."

He called today's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, "another massacre" in the US.

"Beautiful, innocent, second, third, fourth graders. And how many scores of little children who witness what happened, see their friends die, as if they're on a battlefield for God's sake," Biden said.

The President said, "To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away." He said the feeling is "suffocating."

The President called on the nation to pray for the victims and "stand up to the gun lobby" in the wake of today's events.

"So tonight, I ask the nation to pray for them, to give the parents and siblings the strength in the darkness they feel now. As a nation, we have to ask when in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God's name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?"