PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

"I hoped when I became president I would not have to do this, again," Biden said, decrying the death of "beautiful, innocent" second, third and fourth graders in "another massacre".

Their parents "will never see their child again, never have them jump in bed and cuddle with them," he said.

"As a nation, we have to ask, 'When in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?'."

"We have to act."

FIRST LADY JILL BIDEN

"Lord, enough. Little children and their teacher. Stunned. Angry. Heartbroken."

CONNECTICUT DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY

"Spare me the bulls**t about mental illness ... We don't have any more mental illness than any other country in the world. You cannot explain this through a prism of mental illness because we're not an outlier on mental illness. We're an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their arms on firearms. That's what makes America different."

UTAH REPUBLICAN SENATOR MITT ROMNEY

"Grief overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Lives extinguished. Parents' hearts wrenched. Incomprehensible. We must find answers."

PETE BUTTIGIEG, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

"How many more lives? How many more children? And how much longer before we reject the choices that have made ours the one country where this happens routinely? It is not inevitable, it is horrific. It must end."

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL

"Horrified and heartbroken by reports of the disgusting violence directed at innocent schoolkids in Uvalde, Texas."

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS NBA COACH STEVE KERR TO REPORTERS

Addressing McConnell, he said: "I ask you, are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of our children? Because that's what it looks like."

FORMER US PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

"Nearly 10 years after Sandy Hook - and 10 days after Buffalo - our country is paralysed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies. It's long past time for action, any kind of action. And it's another tragedy - a quieter but no less tragic one - for families to wait another day."

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS

"Enough is enough ... As a nation, we have to have the courage to take action and ... to ensure something like this never happens again."

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

"Our elected leaders at the local, state and federal levels, regardless of party, must find common-sense ways to keep our children and communities safe. They can do so without touching the right to hunt, sport shoot, and keep guns for self-defence. Propaganda and paranoia have kept us from helping each other on this for too long. We can do - and be - better. The time to act is now."

Australian Associated Press