Texas school shooting sparks fiery debate over guns between left and right
The country’s latest mass school shooting at a Texas elementary school has, once again, sparked an impassioned debate between the left and right regarding gun laws and violence in America.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) took to the Senate floor just hours after a teenage gunman killed 21 people, including 18 children, at a school in the small town of Uvalde.
In a stirring speech, Murphy criticized his fellow lawmakers for their failure to keep Americans safe.
“What are we doing?” Murphy asked his colleagues — a question he’d emphatically repeat throughout his remarks. “What are we doing? Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African American patrons we have another Sandy Hook on our hands.”
“What are we doing? There have been more mass shootings than days of the year. Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?”
“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate?” Murphy continued. Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority? If your answer is that as this slaughter increases as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing — what are we doing? Why are you here, if not to solve a problem as existential as this?”
Murphy, who was elected to the Senate one month before 26 people were killed at a school shooting in Newtown in his home state, has been one of the most vocal voices in Congress for gun law reform.
“I’m here on this floor to beg, and literally get down on my hands and knees and beg with my colleagues: find a path forward here,” he said, placing his hands together. “Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely. I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree with everything I support, but there is a common denominator that we can find. There is a place we can achieve agreements.”
However, Texas Senator Ted Cruz told CNN reporter Jessica Dean that restrictive gun laws don’t work.
“Inevitably when there’s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens,” said Cruz, who’s reportedly scheduled to attend a National Rifle Association conference with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump on Friday.
Instead, Cruz suggested mass murders could be curbed by adding “far more law enforcement resources to stopping violent criminals preventing these kinds of absolute acts of evil.”
“Just to be clear f–k you @tedcruz you f—ing baby killer,” Arizona congressman and Iraq War veteran Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) shot back in response.
Salvador Ramos, 18, allegedly shot his grandmother before entering Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a possible handgun and rifle around noon local time Tuesday when he opened fire on young students and staff. Texas Governor Greg Abbot said Ramos was dead after committing the horrific attack and is believed to have been killed by responding law enforcement officers.
In addition to the 21 killed, many more were wounded and taken to the local hospital, officials said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he was “Horrified and heartbroken by reports of the disgusting violence directed at innocent schoolkids in Uvalde, Texas,” in a tweet on Tuesday evening. “The entire country is praying for the children, families, teachers, and staff and the first responders on the scene,” he added.
President Joe Bident has ordered that all flags be flown at half-mast until May 28 to honor the victims. He’s expected to speak to reporters about the shooting later Tuesday night.
Democrats quickly pointed fingers at the GOP and its stances on guns.
“I wish I could look at my 3 small kids & promise I’ll always protect them. That’d be a lie,” Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) tweeted. “America arms the most dangerous people to the teeth, leaving every child vulnerable to being shot in their class. This is not a policy defect. It is by GOP design.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams blamed the deadly school shooting on “America’s toxic gun culture,” citing the recent random killing on the Q train in broad daylight on Sunday and the race-fueled attack on black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo 10 days ago.
“The response is not meeting the threat,” Adams tweeted. “Law enforcement is getting guns and killers off the street. They need the power to keep them off.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul insisted that, “You should be able to go to school, and to church, and to the grocery store without needing to worry that you’re not going to come home.”
“It’s past time to put an end to these needless tragedies,” she added.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he was moving forward to vote on the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act in the Senate later this week to combat domestic terrorism. He challenged his colleagues across the aisle to vote in favor of the Democrat-sponsored bill.
“We will see whether Senate Republicans stand with us or stand with MAGA Republicans,” he wrote.
Progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed “pro-life” Republicans in the wake of the shooting, claiming “there is no such thing as being ‘pro-life’ while supporting laws that let children be shot in their schools, elders in grocery stores, worshippers in their houses of faith, survivors by abusers, or anyone in a crowded place.”
Craig Nason, who survived the Columbine High School Shooting in Colorado more than 20 years ago, said it seems like “there is no end in sight” to the rampant gun violence.
“My oldest son just finished his first year of college. This is America. There is no end in sight for the steady cadence of mass gun violence we seem unwilling to ever address. A reality my peers could not have imagined on our worst day in April 1999,” he said.
David Hogg, an activist and survivor of the Parkland High School shooting in Florida that left 17 dead in 2018, called for immediate “bipartisan action.”
“We need to do something. We know what we disagree on we need to focus on what we can and do it even if small,” he said. “No more debate or thoughts and prayers. We need bipartisan action.”
