Several top Texas Republicans shared their thoughts and prayers after a gunman opened fire inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, killing at least 19 children and two teachers. But GOP lawmakers refuse to support the prospect of any gun control measures as the country reels in the wake of the worst school shootings since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.
Instead, elected officials called for more armed teachers and even fortified schools to keep bad actors away from children, saying laws limiting access to firearms didn’t work. Do.
“Essentially when this kind of killing happens, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of people in the media whose immediate solution is to protect the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. Ted Cruz (R) told reporters on Tuesday as parents await news of their missing children, providing DNA swabs to police to help identify young victims. Was doing. “It doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime.”
He further said that the “most effective” tool for keeping children safe in schools is more armed law enforcement on campuses.
Police said the 18-year-old who attacked the school, identified as Salvador Ramos, was wearing body armor that made it difficult for him to stop after his car crashed through a barricade near Robb Elementary School . As The New York Times reports, at least two law enforcement officers tried to engage him and were injured in the shooting.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who won his GOP primary to maintain his position on Tuesday, also said he would support more armed civilians in schools protecting children rather than common-sense gun reform.
“People who are shooting people, those who are killing children, are not going to follow the murder laws. They are not going to follow the gun laws,” Paxton said during an interview with Newsmax. “I want to arm and train law-abiding citizens so that they can respond when something like this happens because it’s not going to be the last time.”
“We can’t stop bad people from doing bad things,” Paxton later said on Fox News. “We can potentially prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly. In my opinion, this is the best answer.”
President Joe Biden spoke to the nation hours after the attack, rebuking lawmakers for failing to act on gun control following ongoing nationwide shootings in recent days.
“As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name we stand in front of the gun lobby… do we all know what needs to be done in our stomachs?” Biden said from the White House. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep allowing this to happen? Where is our backbone in the name of God?”
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) dismissed those claims – who himself accused the president of “degrading the memory” of the children killed in the attack – saying instead that the massive But schools should be strengthened to keep shooters out.
“Obviously we have to do more. We have to toughen these targets so that no one can enter except one entrance. Maybe that will help. Maybe that will stop someone,” Patrick said Tuesday. It’s actually bigger than that, Tucker. We are a fat society. We are a society that hugs each other all the time. And we are better than that as a nation.”
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