Texas Governor Greg Abbott was surrounded by mourners during a visit to a Texas school on Sunday where 19 children and two teachers were killed.
“Abbott is Ab-H’s son,” said 59-year-old Arceli Villalpando of Fort Worth.
“It’s terrible — he’s doing nothing about gun laws and wants everyone to have a gun,” she said. “Many people love guns, and that’s fine, but how can you sell a military rifle to the public?”
Salvador Ramos, 18, entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday carrying an AR-15-style assault rifle and killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers.
Villalpando said US gun laws must be changed now – and that politicians “can’t play around for months and years.”
Abbott, a Republican, visited as President Biden outside the school’s temporary memorial, and First Lady Jill Biden also paid his respects there.
The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the police waited 90 minutes after being called to the scene to enter the school – even though the children were calling 911 for help as shots were fired .
Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Peter Arredondo has come under fire from all sides for his handling of the bloody disaster.
“I am very angry with Pete Arredondo. If the police had acted swiftly, so many children would not have been taken away,” said Uvalde resident Rita Ortiz outside the school on Sunday.
Ortiz, 53, whose children and grandchildren have all attended Rob Elementary, said his 6-year-old granddaughter will not go to school next year as planned because the family cannot rely on district police to keep students safe.
“If they couldn’t save those kids, why should I trust them to protect my granddaughter?” he said. “I don’t know what we’ll do [granddaughter] Scarlett, home-schooled, maybe. ,
Diane Martinez, 48, said the most “devastating part” is the police officers waiting outside the classroom instead of going inside to “help the kids”.
