Texas school shooting: At NRA convention, Abbott says gun laws don’t stop ‘madmen’ from killing

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a recorded video Friday told the National Rifle Association convention in Houston that gun laws don’t stop “madmen” from killing, days after 21 people were killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas

Abbott, who was slated to speak in person at the NRA event before the shooting, also expressed sympathy for those who died in the attack at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 children and two adults Tuesday. 

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“This is the time of year that children look forward ot the end of the school year and the promise of summer adventures. But nineteen innocent children will never come home from that last week of school,” Abbott, a Republican, said. “As Texans and as Americans we grieve and mourn with these families, the loss of a child is a tragedy that no parent should ever have to endure.” 

The governor continued to say that the shooter was already breaking several laws before the attack started. 

“There are thousands of laws on the books across the country that limit owning or using firearms, laws that have not stopped madmen from carrying out evil acts on innocent people and peaceful communities,” Abbott said. “In Uvalde, the gunman committed a felony under Texas law before he even pulled the trigger. It’s a felony to possess a firearm on school premises, but that did not stop him. And what he did on campus is capital murder.”

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“Just as laws didn’t stop the killer, we will not let his evil acts stop us from uniting the community that he tried to destroy,” Abbott added. 

Abbott’s comments came amid protests outside the NRA convention in Houston, and as many are pushing for increased gun control laws in the wake of the attack. 

In Congress, Democrats are calling for tighter federal gun laws while moderates in both parties in the Senate work on a possible deal for legislation either on background checks or red flag laws. 

The Uvalde shooting was the second major mass shooting in the United States this month, following an apparently racially motivated shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., in recent weeks.