Ken Paxton has again rubbished calls for tighter gun control laws after 19 children and two adults were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Speaking with Newsmax on Wednesday, the Texas attorney general claimed gun control laws would not have stopped 18-year-old Salvador Ramos from shooting the 21 victims dead.
“Having a gun law that told him not to have a gun I don’t think would’ve stopped any of this,” said the Republican, who argued that the United States “already have laws against killing people”.
“So I think that’s not the right focus,” he continued, claiming that Democrats, gun control campaigners and shooting victim’s families “obviously have a political agenda” to introduce tougher laws on owning weapons.
On Tuesday, Mr Paxton also called for teachers to be armed after police killed Ramos, the shooter, who allegedly barricaded himself inside a fourth grade classroom at Robb Elementary School with a AR-style rifle.
“First reponders typically can’t get there in time to prevent a shooting,” Mr Paxton said on Newsmax. “It’s just not possible unless you have a police on every campus, which for a lot of these schools is almost impossible.”
Mr Paxton also proposed having “one point of entry” at schools to make it more difficult for shooters to enter a school, as well as arming teachers and “potentially other administrators”.
Later on Fox News, Mr Paxton pushed back on the idea that there should be more laws to restrict gun ownership.
“We can’t stop bad people from doing bad things,” he said. “If they violate murder laws, they’re not going to follow gun laws. I never understood that argument.”
He later reiterated his point about arming teachers.
“The reality is we don’t have the resources to have law enforcement at every school,” he said. “It takes time for law enforcement, no matter how prepared, no matter how good they are to get there. So having the right training for some of these people at the school is the best hope.”
Governor Greg Abbott said the state would investigate the shooting.
“I have instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers to work with local law enforcement to fully investigate this crime. The Texas Division of Emergency Management is charged with providing local officials all resources necessary to respond to this tragedy as the State of Texas works to ensure the community has what it needs to heal”
The attack occurred on polling day for a runoff primary between the current attorney general and Land Commissioner George P Bush, which Mr Paxton won. He was supported by former US president Donald Trump.
