A massacre at an elementary school in Texas has raised tensions between pro-gun and anti-gun members of Congress.
On Tuesday, May 24, Salvador Ramos, 18, shot and killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County. One adult and one child remain hospitalized, while at least 17 others sustained non-life-threatening injuries from the incident.
The massacre renewed a contentious national debate on gun violence and anti-gun legislation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused pro-gun congressmen of “opposing all efforts to save lives” and called for bipartisan anti-gun legislation.
Her sentiments were shared by House majority leader Steny Hoyer, who lamented, “How many more times will [they] express outrage at horrific shootings…and then block meaningful, bipartisan background-check legislation?”
More bitingly, anti-gun congressman Ruben Gallego attacked pro-gun senator Ted Cruz in a vulgar tweet, writing, “F— you @tedcruz you care about a fetus but you will let our children get slaughtered. Just get your a– to Cancun. You are useless.”
For his part, Sen. Cruz pushed back against the notion of advancing broad anti-gun legislation, tweeting on Thursday, May 26, “I’m going to keep fighting to target felons and fugitives who try to buy firearms. We need to stop bad guys from getting guns, not law-abiding citizens.”
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert echoed that sentiment: “You cannot legislate away evil.”
She added on Twitter, “Nancy Pelosi had no problem bussing in 25,000 armed troops to protect her with AR-15s in an empty, locked down city. At a minimum, our schools can have certified armed teachers to protect our children from deranged maniacs who wish to do them harm.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott also challenged the idea that anti-gun legislation could have prevented the Uvalde massacre.
At a news conference on Wednesday, May 25, he told reporters, “People like to try to oversimplify this. Let’s talk about some real facts. There are quote ‘real’ gun laws in Chicago. There are quote ‘real’ gun laws in New York. There are real gun laws in California. I hate to say this: there are more people who are shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas. We need to realize that people who think maybe if we can just implement tougher gun laws, it’s going to solve it, Chicago and LA and New York disprove that thesis.”