Texas School Shooting: Uvalde massacre leaves gun reform advocates seething
HOUSTON - Just beyond an elementary school, in the heart of her State House District, Representative Ann Johnson unloaded her anger.
"It's kids - kids! It's elementary school kids, slaughtered kids," she said. "When did we in Texas become comfortable with the idea that that elementary school is a target of a mass shooting and the solution is to come up with a way to harden that target."
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And then Johnson reloaded with outrage.
"I don't want your guns, nobody wants your guns. I just want to know you are a responsible person who can have a gun. Who lets an 18-year-old boy come in and buy body armor and weapons of war?" said Johnson.
In the last legislative session, the Democrat and former prosecutor offered a slate, of what she called "common-sense gun safety reforms".
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None, including a measure elevating penalties for mass shootings, made it to the Governor's desk.
"Because it offended the gun lobby, my colleagues on the other side didn't have the courage to vote for it, so you want to talk about politics, that's politics," said Johnson. "Politics in Texas is 365 days, they just forget to mention it on the day that kids are slaughtered and families are burying their kids. So, you live by these politics, and we die buy it."
Texas School Shooting: Lawmakers say state leaders need to be held accountable amid rampant gun violence
In the wake of yet another deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, lawmakers are outraged and holding state leaders accountable. FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan has more.
Meantime, near the scene of the mass murder, Democrat for Governor Beto O'Rourke publicly confronted incumbent Greg Abbott saying the children of Uvalde paid a terrible price for his inaction.
"He has refused to support a ban on AR-15s and AK-47s. This 18-year-old, who just turned 18, took it into an elementary school and shot kids in the face, and killed them," said O'Rourke to reporters. "Why are we letting this happen in this country, year after year, city after city? This is on us if we don't do something."
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Back in 2019 during his presidential run, O'Rourke called for government confiscation of assault-style rifles labeling them "weapons of war."