Grief at the massacre of 19 children at an elementary school in Texas spilled into confrontation on Wednesday, as angry questions mounted over gun control — and whether this latest incident could have been prevented.
The tight-knit Latino community of Uvalde on Tuesday became the site of the US’ worst school shooting in a decade, committed by a disturbed 18-year-old armed with a legally bought assault rifle.
Wrenching details have been steadily emerging since the tragedy, which also claimed the lives of two teachers.
Photo: Reuters
Briefing reporters, Texas Governor Greg Abbott revealed that teen shooter Salvador Ramos — who was killed by police — shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face before heading to Robb Elementary School.
Ramos went on social media to share his plan to attack his grandmother — who, although gravely injured, was able to alert the police.
He then messaged again to say his next target was a school, where he headed clad in body armor and wielding an AR-15 rifle.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pressed on how the teen was able to obtain the murder weapon, the Texas governor repeatedly brushed aside suggestions that tougher gun laws were needed in his state — where attachment to the right to bear arms runs deep.
“I consider this person to have been pure evil,” Abbott said, articulating a position commonly held among US Republicans — that unfettered access to weapons is not to blame for the country’s gun violence epidemic.
Abbott’s stance was echoed by the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby, which issued a statement labeling the shooter as “a lone, deranged criminal.”
The governor was called out by a rival Democrat, who loudly interrupted the briefing to accuse him of deadly inaction.
“This is on you,” said former US representative Beto O’Rourke, a fervent gun control advocate who is challenging Abbott for his job in November.
“You are doing nothing,” O’Rourke said. “This is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.”
His interruption came a day after US President Joe Biden, in an emotional address, called on lawmakers to take on the US’ powerful gun lobby and enact tougher laws.
Biden on Wednesday said that he would soon visit Uvalde, as he renewed his plea for “common sense gun reforms.”
“I think we all must be there for them. Everyone, and we must ask when in God’s name will we do what needs to be done to, if not completely stop, fundamentally change the amount of the carnage that goes on in this country.”
“I am sick and tired of what’s going on and continues to go on,” Biden said.
In Uvalde, a small mainly Hispanic town about an hour’s drive from the Mexican border, there was outrage, too, at how such a tragedy could have occurred.
“I’m just heartbroken right now,” said Ryan Ramirez, who lost his 10-year-old daughter Alithia in the rampage, as he and his wife Jessica attended a vigil at a local bull-riding arena together with about 1,000 other mourners.
As families shared their news on social media, the names of the murdered children, most of Latino heritage, began coming out: They included Ellie Garcia, Jayce Carmelo Luevanos and Uziyah Garcia.
“My little love is now flying high with the angels above,” Angel Garza, whose daughter Amerie Jo Garza had just celebrated her 10th birthday, wrote on Facebook.
“I love you Amerie Jo,” he wrote. “I will never be happy or complete again.”
More than a dozen children were also wounded at the school, attended by more than 500 students aged 7 to 10, most of them economically disadvantaged.
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