The Uvalde taking pictures joins Parkland and Sandy Hook on America’s lengthy listing of horrific college shootings

An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 college students and not less than two adults at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday morning, simply 10 days after one other mass taking pictures at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that claimed the lives of 10 folks.

It’s the deadliest US college taking pictures since 2018, when 17 had been killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in Parkland, Florida, and the second deadliest to happen at an elementary college for the reason that 2012 taking pictures at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty in Newtown, Connecticut. The loss of life toll, reported earlier on Tuesday to incorporate 14 college students and one trainer, rose all through the night. It marks the twenty seventh college taking pictures this 12 months alone; along with the deaths reported in Uvalde, 25 folks have been killed at school shootings since January.

In a nationwide handle on Tuesday night time, President Joe Biden known as for lawmakers to move “widespread sense gun legal guidelines.” As vp, he tried and failed to move common background checks, a brand new assault weapons ban, and a prohibition on high-capacity gun clips.

“Why are we keen to reside with this carnage? Why do maintain letting this occur? The place in God’s identify is our spine to have the braveness … to face as much as the lobbyists?” he mentioned. “It’s time to show this ache into motion. For each mum or dad, for each citizen of this nation, we’ve got to make it clear to each elected official on this nation, it’s time to behave.”

Regardless of that plea, a number of Republicans, together with Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, have already publicly rejected the prospect of passing gun management laws in response to the taking pictures.

“Inevitably when there’s a assassin of this type, you see politicians attempt to politicize it, you see Democrats and plenty of of us within the media whose rapid resolution is to attempt to prohibit the constitutional rights of law-abiding residents,” Cruz advised CNN.

Eric Thayer/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures

What we all know concerning the Uvalde shooter and the Robb Elementary Faculty taking pictures

The gunman allegedly entered the college following a violent encounter together with his grandmother and after being concerned in a automotive crash. Based on Texas Division of Security spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez, the shooter had on physique armor and used a rifle within the assault. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott mentioned the gunman was armed with a handgun as properly. The shooter is now lifeless, believed to have been killed by responding officers, in accordance with Abbott.

“He shot and killed, horrifically, incomprehensibly, 14 college students and killed a trainer,” Abbott mentioned. The governor was scheduled to talk Friday on the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation’s annual assembly in Houston and has led profitable state legislative efforts to loosen up gun legal guidelines, most just lately signing laws to take away allow necessities to hold a hid handgun in public.

It’s not clear the place the gunman obtained his weapons. There may be no age restriction on possessing weapons in Texas, however it’s a must to be 21 or older to hold a hid handgun and not using a license underneath the permitless carry regulation that went into impact final September. And it’s typically not authorized to hold a handgun on Okay-12 public college property, although one Republican lawmaker sought to make that attainable for licensed adults within the final session of the Texas legislature. There are not any particular state regulation restrictions on carrying a rifle.

There have already been two college campus-related shootings in Texas this 12 months, every of which left one injured. However the Uvalde college taking pictures is the worst in Texas since 2018, when a pupil at Santa Fe Excessive Faculty close to Houston shot and killed 10 folks and wounded one other 13.

The Uvalde taking pictures — the second in a month — places a renewed highlight on gun management

Two mass shootings in 10 days needs to be a wake-up name for lawmakers. After the Buffalo taking pictures, nothing was completed to tighten federal gun legal guidelines. The Home handed a invoice aimed toward addressing home terrorism, for the reason that shooter was a white supremacist who invoked the “Nice Alternative” conspiracy idea earlier than he opened hearth on consumers in a predominantly Black neighborhood. However even that invoice, which solely tangentially addresses the underlying gun violence problem, has stalled within the Senate.

The Uvalde taking pictures isn’t more likely to meaningfully change the established order. Democratic Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer signaled Tuesday that he’ll put to a vote a invoice to lengthen the window for finishing a background test earlier than a gun sale, however it could want 60 votes to move and it’s not even clear whether or not all 50 Democrats are on board. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, for example, has beforehand opposed sure legislative efforts to increase background checks and although he advised CNN Tuesday that he would do “something I can” to maneuver “widespread sense” gun laws ahead, he nonetheless refused to get rid of the filibuster in order that Democrats might achieve this with a easy majority within the Senate.

Uvalde’s Rep. Tony Gonzalez, a Republican who’s operating for reelection this 12 months, has repeatedly voted in opposition to gun management measures whereas in Congress, together with laws that will require a background test for each firearm sale and for personal switch of firearms.

“My coronary heart breaks for the town of Uvalde. Pray for our households,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut and a number one proponent of gun management, urged Congress to take motion within the wake of the second mass taking pictures in two weeks.

“What are we doing? What are we doing? Simply days after a shooter walked right into a grocery retailer to gun down African American patrons, we’ve got one other Sandy Hook on our fingers,” he mentioned in an handle on the Senate ground Tuesday.

If historical past is any proof, it’s unlikely that Texas Republican lawmakers, who management the state legislature and pushed to loosen state gun legal guidelines within the lead-up to the midterms, will change course because of the Uvalde taking pictures. After the Santa Fe taking pictures, Abbott signed payments that bolstered psychological well being initiatives for youngsters, eliminated the cap on what number of college marshals can carry weapons on public college campuses, and gave college districts cash to stop and make emergency preparations for shootings — however didn’t enact gun management measures.

That’s in distinction to New York Democrats’ response to the Buffalo taking pictures, which was to tighten the state’s already restrictive gun legal guidelines.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced final week that police will now be required to bar people who’re believed to pose a hazard to themselves or others from possessing firearms. She additionally known as on the state legislature to move payments that will require police to report weapons related to crimes inside 24 hours and mandate that semiautomatic pistols offered in New York be microstamped in order that regulation enforcement can hyperlink cartridges discovered at crime scenes to the gun that fired them.

However there’s solely a lot that particular person states can do with out federal gun management measures, which have remained stalled in Congress for a decade because of Republican opposition. Tuesday’s taking pictures, significantly as a result of it occurred in a deep purple state, most likely gained’t soften that longstanding opposition.