Summary
That’s all for live coverage today. Some links and updates from the day:
- Family members shared more tributes for the 19 students and two adults killed in the massacre.
- Hundreds rallied for gun control outside the NRA’s annual convention in Texas.
- The head of the Texas department of public safety admitted on Friday afternoon that “it was the wrong decision” for armed police to wait for an extended period outside the classroom where the gunman was killing children and teachers, without storming in.
- The maker of the rifle used in the Texas elementary school shooting is facing fresh outrage over an advertisement featuring a young child posted days before the killings.
- The Texas school killings have touched nearly everyone in the small town of Uvalde, from friends and neighbors to shopkeepers and coaches.
- The mother of the 18-year-old gunman who shot dead 19 young children and two teachers and wounded many others in an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, this week has said: “Forgive me, forgive my son.”
- Texas governor Greg Abbott, facing mounting questions about why the police’s narrative has changed so dramatically, said he was “misled”.
Charlie Scudder reported for the Guardian from outside the NRA convention today, where politicians spoke alongside those who lost loved ones to gun violence.
Scudder writes that lawmakers promised action on gun control:
US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, said that Democratic House leadership would consider gun control bills in the coming weeks. “I have no need to challenge your guns. I have no need to challenge the constitution,” she said. “We have heard your voices… I have been in the fight for [too] long.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s primary executive in Houston, called on state legislators to pass similar measures. “We should not make the grandmothers cry,” Hidalgo said. “You did not elect me to offer thoughts and prayers.”
Harris County Judge @LinaHidalgoTX speaks in favor of gun reform at #NRAconvention protest at Discovery Green pic.twitter.com/T7lMzRLxhl
— Ariana Garcia 🇵🇷 (@Ariana_noGrande) May 27, 2022
House Representative Sheila Jackson Lee calls on Donald Trump to cancel his visit and for the NRA to cancel the convention if they care about gun safety, something she's tried to put on the legislative agenda every year.
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) May 27, 2022
"Cancel yourself, NRA" she said. pic.twitter.com/Sv13sP64UL
Trump and other Republicans have also called for metal detectors in schools in response to the Uvalde massacre, even though experts have repeatedly dismissed this as an ineffective response that can have harmful consequences.
Trump's solutions on schools: "Every building should have a single point of entry...strong exterior fencing, metal detectors,'' new technology to make sure no one can enter with weapon, plus "hardened, lockable" doors that can be closed from inside, and armed security on staff. pic.twitter.com/bB8r4kNkAK
— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) May 27, 2022
From a 2019 USA Today report after a California school shooting:
Chris Dorn, senior analyst for the campus safety group Safe Havens International, is not convinced that’s a worthwhile investment.
Dorn said metal detectors are costly – proper use requires an armed guard – and tend to jam up entrances. They can also create a prison-like feeling among students, have been linked to diminished academic performance and, worst of all, don’t work well in school settings.
And as NBC News reported this week, the state of Texas had granted Uvalde funding for these kinds of security measures, but that did not prevent the bloodshed:
In 2020, the Texas state government awarded Uvalde a $69,000 grant to be spent on hardening measures, such as metal detectors, barriers, security systems and “campus-wide active shooter alarm systems,” according to state records. The funding was part of the state’s 2019 initiative for physical security upgrades.
Updated
Donald Trump has also echoed his Republican colleagues by claiming that the best way to prevent mass shootings is to have armed officers in place with proper training on how to respond to active shooters.
But the revelations from the last 24 hours about how the Uvalde tragedy unfolded have highlighted how a large law enforcement presence, with officers trained in active shooter situations, can still fail to stop mass casualties.
More reading here on what went wrong:
Updated
Donald Trump speaks at the NRA convention
The former president Donald Trump, who rejected calls to cancel his appearance at the annual NRA convention, has taken the stage. He started with a brief moment of silence for the victims of the school massacre, but went on to praise the “wonderful NRA”.
On the calls for greater gun control, Trump said, “There’s always a grotesque effort by some in our society to use the suffering of others to advance their own extreme political agenda.”
Polls, however, suggest these are not extreme views, but rather the majority of Americans supporter stronger gun laws. In a poll this week, 84% said they supported background checks for all firearm sales, 70% said they supported backing “red flag” laws to allow police to confiscate guns from people considered a threat, and 72% said they support raising the minimum age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21.
Trump, like his Republican colleagues in Texas and across the country, has focused on mental illness in his remarks, saying, “We need to drastically change our approach to mental health.” Experts, however, say this focus is misguided, since just 3-5% of violent acts can be attributed to mental health problems, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. People with mental illness are significantly more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.
From our previous reporting after mass shootings in 2019, Arthur C Evans Jr, CEO of the American Psychological Association, said, “Blaming mental illness for the gun violence in our country is simplistic and inaccurate and goes against the scientific evidence currently available.”
More reading here on the problems of blaming mental illness for mass shootings:
Updated
Growing scrutiny of Uvalde school district police chief
Pete Arredondo, the school district police chief, is facing growing scrutiny over the response to the shooter.
Arredondo led the response, which state officials now say included the “wrong decision” of having armed police wait for an extended period outside the classroom where the gunman was killing children and teachers, without storming in. Arredondo has served as the chief of the school district’s police force for two years and was also recently elected the city council, the New York Times reported.
The Times also noted that the department he leads, which includes five others, had done in-person training exercises to prepare for mass shootings, which included role-playing in school hallways. Arredondo had told district officials the training exercises were “very successful”, the paper reported. CNN has further context on Arredondo:
Arredondo posted on Facebook that his department was hosting an “active shooter training” at Uvalde high school in an effort to prepare local law enforcement to respond to ‘any situation that may arise’. A flyer for the event he posted stated that topics covered would include priorities for school-based law enforcement and how to ‘stop the killing’.
Fact checking Texas governor's claims on mental illness
Texas governor Greg Abbott has again rejected calls for stricter gun laws at a press conference, deflecting questions about proposals to ban 18-year-olds from purchasing assault rifles and expand background checks:
“Ever since Texas has been a state, an 18-year-old has had the ability to buy a long gun, a rifle ... We’re focusing our attention on the wrong things.”
He argued that teenagers’ access to assault rifles was not contributing to the problem, but rather mental health problems were to blame, saying, “Anyone who suggests that maybe we should focus on background checks as opposed to mental health is mistaken.”
But, as the Washington Post noted in its coverage this week, although conservatives and commentators across the political spectrum have been focusing on “mental illness”, research has consistently shown that a very small percentage of violent acts can be linked to mental health challenges:
Despite public perception and misleading commentary from many elected officials, decades of research have found that people with mental illness are responsible for a tiny fraction of interpersonal and other gun violence.
Some more details from a 2019 McClatchy fact check of Donald Trump, who suggested without evidence that mental illness was a main cause of gun violence noted:
Just 3-5% of violent acts can be attributed to mental health problems, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, whereas mentally ill people are more than 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than are the general population.
The 18-year-old Uvalde gunman legally purchased his rifles, modeled after military weaponry, shortly after his 18th birthday.
Updated
Governor Abbott says he was 'misled' by law enforcement
Texas governor Greg Abbott, facing mounting questions about why the police’s narrative has changed so dramatically, said he was “misled” and is “livid” and blamed local law enforcement officials for giving him incorrect information:
I was misled. I am livid about what happened. I was on this very stage two days ago, I was telling the public information that had been told to me... I wrote down hand notes in detail about what everyone in that room told me in sequential order about what happened.
It was a recitation of what people in that room told me. The information that I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate. I am absolutely livid about that. My expectation is that the law enforcement leaders that are leading the investigation ... that they get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty. There are people who deserve answers the most – the families who lives have been destroyed. They need answers that are accurate. It’s inexcusable that they may have suffered from any inaccurate information.
Updated
Governor Greg Abbott, who at the last minute canceled his scheduled appearance at the NRA’s convention, is speaking at a press conference now.
- He says there will be a mental health help line available for residents of Uvalde 24/7 at: 888-690-0799.
- He says an anonymous donor gave $175,000 to cover funeral costs.
- He says the mental health care services are available to “anyone in the community who needs it – the totality of anyone who lives in this community”.
- Every family impacted by the shooting has been assigned an advocate to help them with their needs, he says, noting that includes airfare for travel for funerals and healthcare costs.
- He says people can make donations to support victims at onestarfoundation.org/uvalde.
Updated
Hi all – Sam Levin taking over our live coverage.
Senator Dick Durbin has announced that the Senate judiciary committee will hold a hearing on 15 June focused on gun violence and youth:
As we mourn those lost in the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, we face the reality that gun violence has now become the leading cause of death for American children & teens. Let that sink in.@JudiciaryDems will hold a hearing on June 15 focused on gun violence and kids. pic.twitter.com/bSCx7Srf9L
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) May 27, 2022
The Democrat noted that gun violence in 2020 became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the US, overtaking car accidents. Durbin also lamented today that every single Senate Republican voted against his domestic terrorism prevention act.
More here on the relevant gun violence research from our earlier coverage:
Updated
It’s Richard Luscombe signing off. I’m handing over the blog to my colleagues on the west coast now, who will guide you through the next hours. Greg Abbott, the Texas governor will speak to reporters shortly and is sure to face questions about law enforcement’s failure to tackle the Uvalde gunman.
I wanted my final post of the day, however, to be about the victims. Please take some time to read here about the children and their teachers who were killed on Tuesday in their elementary school.
Patricia Paduay-Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin was among the 17 victims of the 2018 Parkland high school shooting in Florida, met Beto O’Rourke are she joined the anti-NRA protest in Houston today.
She and her husband, Joaquin’s father Manuel Oliver, founded the advocacy group Change the Ref, which urges citizens to be part of the fight for gun reform instead of leaving it to politicians. He told CNN this afternoon:
We have to make the difference. It’s on us. If you’re expecting these guys to solve the problem while you’re watching TV in your living room you’re wrong, because you can be the next victim.
“There will be more Uvaldes, El Pasos, Sutherland Springs, and Santa Fes until we decide to put the lives of our kids ahead of the political careers of gun lobby politicians like Greg Abbott.” @BetoORourke pic.twitter.com/yTla2faVPQ
— Change the Ref (@ChangeTheRef) May 27, 2022
Charlie Scudder reports from Houston…
Around 1.30pm, Beto O’Rourke gave brief remarks to the crowd of several hundred outside the NRA convention hall. The Democrat is running for Texas governor, and confronted his opponent, Governor Greg Abbott, at a press conference in Uvalde this week.
In Houston, O’Rourke spoke briefly. Talking about meeting families of the victims in Uvalde, he said he would never forget their names.
“The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Sandy Hook,” he said, referring to the killing of 20 children and six adults in Connecticut in 2012.
“The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Parkland.”
Seventeen people died in that shooting, at a high school in Florida in 2018.
“The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Santa Fe high school.”
Ten people were killed there, in Texas, three months after Parkland.
O’Rourke said: “To the attendees of the NRA convention across the street, you are not our enemy. Join us to make sure this never happens again.”
The speech was brief and many attendees left the rally as other speakers began speaking. About 500 people stayed to chant and listen to speakers, across the street from the convention’s main entrance.
Texas governor Greg Abbott will speak to the media a little later this afternoon about the Uvalde school shooting, but not all of his focus is there. Martin Pengelly and Charlie Scudder have this report:
Amid mounting fury over the National Rifle Association holding its convention in Houston three days after 19 children and two adults were shot dead at a school in Uvalde, the governor of Texas withdrew from speaking in person at the event.
Greg Abbott was still due to address the NRA by video, while visiting Uvalde and holding a press conference there.
The Republican governor stirred controversy by attending a political fundraiser on Tuesday, the day the shooting occurred. His staff then said he would suspend all political activity.
In a dramatic scene on Wednesday, as Abbott and others gave a briefing about Uvalde, they were confronted by Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for governor.
O’Rourke, who is strongly pro-gun control, told Abbott: “This is on you.”
Abbott’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, withdrew from speaking to the NRA, saying he did not want “to bring any additional pain or grief to the families and all those suffering in Uvalde”.
Other prominent Republicans to withdraw included Dan Crenshaw, a congressman, and Senator John Cornyn. Cornyn is involved in negotiations in Washington over gun law reform, although a spokesperson said his withdrawal was for personal reasons.
Prominent Republicans still planning to speak included former president Donald Trump, the Texas senator Ted Cruz and the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem.
Cruz, a leading recipient of gun group donations, has maintained a high profile since the shooting, angrily clashing with one reporter who asked about gun reform.
Read the full story:
Charlie Scudder reports from Houston…
A series of speakers outside the NRA convention hall spoke to several hundred people through the early afternoon. Between speeches from politicians, people who lost loved ones to gun violence shared their stories.
One woman who introduced herself as Adrienne said her son died after being shot in a road rage incident on Halloween 2019.
“I had to bury my baby on his 19th birthday. No parent should have to have that. My son was my life,” she said. “I’m the one serving a life sentence, not the monster who shot my son.”
The US representative Sheila Jackson Lee said she and democratic House leadership will consider bills on gun control in the coming weeks.
“I have no need to challenge your guns. I have no need to challenge the constitution,” she said. “We have heard your voices … I have been in the fight for [too] long.”
The Harris county judge, Lena Hidalgo, the primary executive in Houston, called on state legislators to pass similar measures.
“We should not make the grandmothers cry,” Hidalgo said. “You did not elect me to offer thoughts and prayers.”
Here’s our news story about this afternoon’s press conference in Uvalde, Texas, in which we learned that children inside classrooms at Robb elementary were frantically calling 911 for help as a gunman murdered their schoolmates, and up to 19 police officers stood outside in school hallways without intervening:
Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell of California, a vocal gun reform advocate, is furious that Republicans in the House are seeking to gain political capital out of the baby formula crisis, while refusing to back legislation to help prevent school shootings:
Where are the babies, @housegop? They’re dead. They’re dead in their classroom because you won’t do shit to protect them. You done? https://t.co/nBeANfDW9C
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) May 27, 2022
Interim Summary
It’s been a busy day with developments on the Texas elementary school shooting as more details emerge.
Here’s where things stand:
- The head of the Texas department of public safety has said “there’s no excuse” for officers not trying to break into the elementary school classroom as the gunman fired away.
- The parents of the gunman have spoken out asking forgiveness, with the mother saying, “Forgive me, forgive my son” and the father saying, “I just want the people to know I’m sorry, man, [for] what my son did.”
- Protestors, led by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, are calling for gun reforms are gathering in Houston where the National Rifle Association (NRA) will begin its annual conference later today, less than 300 miles from the scene of the Uvalde massacre.
- Investigators are facing questioning over changing aspects of the shooting narrative as parents demand answers to why law enforcement were delayed in their responses.
More from Charlie Scudder in Houston…
A rally with speakers began around noon outside the Houston convention center.
Liz Hanks, with Moms Demand Action in Texas, lead a chant of “shame” toward the NRA Convention across the street.
“We are an embarrassment around the entire world because we cannot protect our children in our schools,” Hanks says. “We know how to fix this. Turn around and let them know how you feel.”
Overhead, a plane carried a banner: “NRA GO AWAY.”
David Hogg, a survivor of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida in 2018, encouraged people to call their representatives in Congress to encourage a vote on gun control measures.
“I believe that this time can be different and will be different,” Hogg said. “The NRA is at its weakest point it has been in American history, ever.”
The barrage of questions at the press conference has taken its toll on Steven McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the veteran officer broke down in tears:
Forget how I’m doing, it’s the parents, those children... forget about me and our officers, we take an oath to protect the people.
Asked if the parents were owed an apology, McCraw responded:
If I thought it would help, I’d apologize. We’re not here to defend what happened, we’re here to report the facts.
This is about finding facts as quick as we can.... for the citizens of Uvalde.
He then appeared to pass off responsibility to chief of police of the Uvalde independent school district, who, he told reporters, had control of the situation.
He was convinced at that time there was no more threat to the children, that the subject was barricaded, and they had time to organize with the proper equipment to go in.
You’re certainly welcome to reach out to them.
The lengthy press conference has wrapped, with McCraw saying he will welcome Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Sunday.
This community has been hit hard, it’s noble the president will be here to recognize the pain and suffering.
Charlie Scudder reports from Houston…
By noon on Friday, several hundred people protesting for stricter gun control had gathered across the street from the main entrance of the George R Brown Convention Center, where the NRA is holding its annual meeting.
Some groups, like Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and the local Democratic party, set up booths to pass out signs and water and register voters. Many more people gathered in a scrum directly across from the convention hall, shouting into megaphones with chants like “Not one more” and “Vote them out”.
One group, holding wooden crosses for each Uvalde victim and wheeling a child-sized coffin, split off from the main group to march around a large city park.
They shouted: “Protect our kids, not guns.”
Among those who gathered was 73-year-old Nancy Harris. She carried in her pocket a handwritten list of 12 names, all people she knew who died from gun violence. Her daughter’s name was among them.
“I drove here from Fort Worth to tell these assholes to stop,” Harris said, her voice halting.
She said she didn’t know one the NRA was meeting in Houston until after the shooting in Uvalde. She stayed up for two nights, she said, hearing people say Americans needed to do something and wondering what she could do herself.
Asked why she had driven the four hours to protest the convention, she laughed.
“How many more of these do you intend to report on?” she told the Guardian. “How many more need to happen? … All I want is reasonable gun control. Reasonable background checks and eliminating military style weapons.”
McCraw said officers who responded were obliged to have tried to take the shooter down, regardless of the presence of a commander on the scene:
When there’s an active shooter, the rules change.
Texas embraces active shooter training, active shooter certification, and that doctrine requires officers, we don’t care what agency, you don’t have to have a leader on the scene, [that] every officer lines up, stacks up, goes and finds where those rounds are being fired, and keeps shooting until the subject is dead. Period.
Texas officials: 'No excuse for not tackling shooter'
The head of the Texas department of public safety has said “there’s no excuse” for officers not trying to break into an elementary school classroom where a gunman was killing 19 students and two teachers.
Steven McCraw was facing questions over law enforcement’s response to Tuesday’s shooting at Robb elementary, at a lunchtime briefing in Uvalde.
Reporters wanted to know why law enforcement officers waited outside for about an hour while the killing continued, and before a Swat team eventually breached the classroom and shot the killer dead.
Parents and locals pleaded with officers in vain to go in and end the massacre, even as the sound of gunshots was audible from outside.
“It was the wrong decision,” McCraw conceded.
“The on-scene commander at the time believed it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject,” he said, adding the commander thought “there were no children at risk”.
“Obviously, based upon the information we [now] have, there were children in that classroom at risk”.
Asked about a “40-minute gap” in which 911 operators were aware children were alive, but officers still didn’t go in, he added:
The decision was made that this was a barricaded subject, there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team … that was the decision, that was the thought process.
With the benefit of hindsight, of course it was not the right decision, it was the wrong decision. Period. There’s no excuse for that.
Updated
McCraw said: “I want to correct something that was said earlier on the investigation, that [the killer] posted on Facebook publicly that he was going to kill his grandmother and secondly he was going to shoot up a school.
“That didn’t happen,” McCraw said, adding that it was on a message to someone else.
On 14 March, the subject made an Instagram post saying “10 more days”, the director said, to which a respondent asked: “Are you going to shoot up a school.”
“Stop asking dumb questions and you’ll see,” Ramos allegedly replied.
Now it’s time for media questions ...
Updated
McCraw is getting emotional as he recounts some of the 911 calls, including several from a female who, is a whisper, reported “multiple dead” in a classroom.
She said there were eight to nine students still alive, at that stage.
At 12.36pm, a 911 call that lasted for 21 seconds was received, from a student, who was told to stay on the line and stay quiet.
The student said: “Please send the police now.”
At 12.51pm, McCraw said, there was a loud noise, then what sounded on the call like officers were removing children from the room.
Updated
Three Uvalde police department officers entered the school at 11.35am, McCraw says, two minutes after the shooter entered using the same door.
Four more officers followed. Some of the officers received “grazing wounds”.
At 11.51am other agents arrived and at 12.03pm there were as many as 19 officers in the school hallway, he says.
He then gives a brief chronology of the next 40 or so minutes, more shots being fired, more officers, including a tactical team, arriving, and the breaching of a classroom door at 12.50pm using a key provided by a janitor.
It was at that point the shooter was taken down, McCraw says.
Now he’s going to give a timeline of 911 calls ...
Updated
McCraw, using a map of the school as a prop, says the back door at Robb elementary school was left propped open by a teacher.
Salvador Ramos, the shooter, crashed his car outside the school and began firing at two men outside, who were not hurt.
A teacher saw a man with a gun and called 911, and then the shooter entered the school and began shooting in a classroom.
He said information that the gunman being confronted by a school resource officer was incorrect, confirming what reporters were told yesterday.
The SRO was not on campus, McCraw said, but “heard the 911 call ... and sped to the school”. At this point the shooter was still outside and shooting towards the school.
He said there was an encounter between law enforcement and Ramos before he went in, which does seems to be new information.
McCraw said audio evidence showed Ramos fired “at least 100 rounds”.
Updated
A news briefing is under way in Uvalde, with Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw saying the Texas Rangers have control of the investigation.
He says he wants to provide “as much information as we can on where we are in the investigation”:
We’re here to report facts as we know them now, and not to defend what was done, or criticize what was done, or the action taken.
He begins with a timeline ...
Updated
Parents of Uvalde gunman seek forgiveness
The mother of the 18-year-old gunman who shot dead 19 young children and two teachers and wounded many others in an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, this week has said: “Forgive me, forgive my son.”
Adriana Martinez looked distraught as she wept in her car, telling CNN affiliate Televisa, in Spanish: “I have no words to say, I don’t know what he was thinking.”
Her interview aired on Friday as questions continued to multiply over the actions of law enforcement three days ago during the shooting, with gaps in the timeline and bewilderment and anger about how the gunman was inside for about an hour as armed officers held back.
“He had his reasons for doing what he did. Please don’t judge him. I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me,” she said.
Earlier this week, Salvador Ramos, who had recently turned 18, shot his grandmother, badly wounding her, before storming into Robb elementary school in Uvalde, which has a population of less than 16,000 and lies between San Antonio and the Texas-Mexico border.
He was heavily armed and had a huge stash of ammunition, and killed 19 fourth-graders aged eight to 10 and two teachers with a semi-automatic rifle, wounding about 17 others. He was ultimately shot dead by a federal agent in a classroom in which he had barricaded himself with his victims.
When asked by a reporter what Martinez would tell the families who have lost loved ones, she replied: “Forgive me, forgive my son. I know he had his reasons.”
“What reasons could he have had?” the reporter followed up.
Martinez said, weeping: “To get closer to those children instead of paying attention to the other bad things, I have no words. I don’t know.”
Read the full story:
Updated
Democrats in the House of Representatives are launching an investigation into the “manufacture, marketing and sale” of AR-15 style assault rifles similar to that used by the Uvalde killer, and in numerous mass shootings in recent years.
New York congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, chair of the oversight and reform committee, has written to gun manufacturers including Bushmaster, Ruger and Smith & Wesson, seeking information.
In a statement released Friday, Maloney said she wrote the companies thus:
Our country faces an epidemic of gun violence, which is now the leading cause of death for children in the US.
I am deeply concerned that gun manufacturers continue to profit from the sale of weapons of war, including the AR-15 style assault rifle that a white supremacist used to murder 10 people last week in Buffalo, New York, and... reportedly used this week in the massacre of at least 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.
Despite decades of rising gun deaths and mass murders using assault weapons, your company has continued to market assault weapons to civilians, reaping a profit from the deaths of innocent Americans.
.@bushmaster_inc, @DanielDefense, @sigsauerinc, @Smith_WessonInc, & Ruger manufacture and market weapons of war that have been repeatedly used in horrific, deadly attacks.
— Carolyn B. Maloney (@RepMaloney) May 27, 2022
Today, I'm announcing that @OversightDems is investigating their sales & marketing of assault weapons. https://t.co/O9nlbkwPum pic.twitter.com/vKrkztnlMD
A news conference is scheduled to begin within the next half-hour or so at which Texas Department of Public Safety officials are certain to face demands for a full explanation of the law enforcement response to Tuesday’s mass school shooting in Uvalde.
Yesterday’s briefing did not go well, with an officer unable to account for a “missing hour” between the gunman’s arrival at the school and his death, when a Swat team stormed the classroom he had barricaded himself into.
The agency will also likely be pressed on its changing timeline of the shooting, and contradictions over whether there was any engagement between law enforcement and the gunman before the massacre began.
Interestingly, the agency says today’s briefing will be hosted by Texas DPS director Steven McCraw, and not regional director Victor Escalon, who struggled to answer reporters’ questions yesterday.
The press conference is scheduled to begin at 11am CST (12pm eastern).
Happening Today: Friday, 5/27 at 11:00 a.m.
— Texas DPS (@TxDPS) May 27, 2022
(Near Robb Elementary; Int. of Old Carrizo Rd. & Geraldine St.)
DPS will hold a press conference to provide an update on the deadly shooting that occurred at Robb Elementary School. DPS Director Steven McCraw will brief the media.
Updated
Students across the country outraged by the latest school shooting are staging protests on campuses to demand legislative action in Washington DC over gun reforms.
Here are just some of them.
At Meridian high school in Falls Church, Virginia, students staged a die-in on their athletics field:
Falls Church, Virginia's Meridian High School, where students held a die-in protest against gun violence in the middle of their athletic field. Reminds me of the walkouts that preceded the (first) March for Our Lives. That was four years ago. Video: WJLA. pic.twitter.com/Q4G44TP2t5
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) May 26, 2022
At Francis Howell North high school in St Charles, Missouri, students say “thoughts and prayers” are not enough:
Very proud of my daughter & students at Francis Howell North (Missouri) for organizing a walk out to demand common sense gun laws and observe a moment of silence. She said “thoughts & prayers are not enough, we want to know we are safe at school” @StudentsDemand @HowellNorthFHSD pic.twitter.com/ajuztJ0BPi
— Christine Hyman (@chrisehyman) May 26, 2022
Frank Sanchez, principal of Columbia high school in Maplewood, New Jersey, says he “couldn’t be more proud” of his students for their walkout protest:
I couldn't be more proud of our students who eloquently spoke about the horrors of school shootings today. I feel we are in good hands with this young generation! #Walkout #CougarNation pic.twitter.com/3Ciye5vfEB
— Columbia High School Principal (@CHSPrincipalNJ) May 26, 2022
At Whitefish Bay high school in Wisconsin, students streamed out of the school building and on to their field:
LIVE: Students walk out of Whitefish Bay High School https://t.co/4kLN7SpNzU
— WISN 12 NEWS (@WISN12News) May 26, 2022
There were similar scenes at Camden high school in Bucks county, New Jersey:
Students at Camden High School walk out shouting no more gun violence while some hold flowers to honor the 21 lives lost in Uvalde. @6abc pic.twitter.com/vQwd9LfPxA
— Bryanna Gallagher (@BGallagherTV) May 26, 2022
And at Michigan’s Oxford high school, where four students were killed in a shooting last November:
Students at Oxford High School in Michigan stage a walkout and form a giant “U” to honor the victims of the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting.
— The Recount (@therecount) May 26, 2022
Four students were killed and several others injured last November at a shooting at Oxford High School. pic.twitter.com/lt3cNtvNQv
The protests have the backing of high-ranking Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin, who says politicians are “setting young people up for disaster” with lax gun laws.
I strongly support students speaking up, rallying, walking out, chanting, demanding passage of gun safety. Any politician who favors compulsory school attendance along with easy gun laws is setting young people up for disaster. Senate must act!
— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) May 27, 2022
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The killing of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has reignited the gun control debate in the US.
The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland speaks to the chief correspondent for the Washington Post, Dan Balz, about why, after yet another tragedy involving firearms, the Republican party is still unwilling to talk gun reform.
Listen to the Politics Weekly America podcast here:
O'Rourke to lead anti-NRA protest in Houston
Protestors calling for gun reforms are gathering in Houston where the National Rifle Association (NRA) will begin its annual conference later today, less than 300 miles from the scene of the Uvalde massacre.
There’s outrage that the event is going ahead in the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde elementary school massacre in which a teenage gunman with an AR-15 style assault weapon killed 19 children and two teachers.
Donald Trump is the headline speaker, although a raft of other pro-gun Republicans will also be in attendance, including Texas senator Ted Cruz who stormed away from a television interview yesterday when asked why school shootings only seem to happen in America.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has cried off, presumably chastened by the outrage over the shooting in his state.
But Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic challenger to Abbott in November, and who confronted the governor a testy press conference in Uvalde on Wednesday, will be in Houston.
Action is the antidote to despair. Join us in Houston tomorrow:https://t.co/ddKCWKqeQK
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) May 26, 2022
O’Rourke will be leading the anti-NRA protest and rally on Discovery Green at noon local time, and will have plenty to say about the revived push for gun law reforms.
Charlie Scudder will be sending dispatches to the Guardian from the protest.
Meanwhile, here’s Charlie’s analysis of the power the NRA wields over lawmakers in Washington DC, and how the gun lobby has successfully stymied gun reform legislation for decades:
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Investigators facing questions over changing Uvalde narrative
Officials in Texas are today facing growing outrage over the law enforcement response to Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, in which an 18-year-old gunman claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
It has emerged that the shooter was locked in a classroom at Robb elementary for a full hour before a Swat team broke in and killed him, during which frantic parents outside the school pleaded with officers to move in and end the massacre.
At a press conference Thursday that quickly went off the rails, Victor Escalon, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS), was unable to explain why officers waited to storm the classroom.
Escalon also changed the official narrative of the shooting by admitting that there was not an armed officer at the school who confronted the gunman as he entered, and that the shooter was able to gain entry unchallenged, probably through an unlocked back door.
Earlier in the day, reporters were told that law enforcement engaged with killer Salvador Ramos as he went on to the campus with an AR-15 style assault weapon.
It was reported that one of the victims, a 10-year-old girl, was bleeding for an hour after being shot and died in hospital, although it is not known if an earlier intervention would have saved her life.
TDPS Lt Chris Olivarez was challenged about the delay on CNN last night, claiming that officers “could have been killed” had they rushed in:
The American people need to understand… officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots.
At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school.
The controversy has growing parallels with the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where an on-site school resource officer, and other cops first on the scene, chose to wait outside instead of confronting the gunman. Several were later disciplined.
Joseph Giacalone, a law enforcement trainer and retired New York police department sergeant, said on CNN Friday morning that officers responding to an active shooter situation are obligated to move in at the first opportunity.
The idea is to neutralize them, at the very least draw attention away from the other potential victims towards the police.
You have to engage this guy immediately. And yes, you’re going to receive gunfire. That’s the idea behind it. It sounds crazy and it is, but unfortunately, that’s what has to be done.
Here’s my colleague Ed Pilkington’s story from last night on the police response to the Uvalde shooting:
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Good morning and welcome to our live blog covering developments in Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
Outrage is mounting over the law enforcement response to the massacre, after it emerged the gunman was locked in a classroom for a full hour before a Swat team broke in and killed him.
Fury is also growing that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is pressing ahead with its annual conference, beginning Friday in Houston, less than 300 miles from the scene of the shooting. Donald Trump is among the speakers.
Meanwhile, families of those killed by the 18-year-gunman are preparing to hold the first funerals.
And Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will visit Uvalde on Sunday to grieve with the community and talk with civic leaders and first responders, the president’s second trip to the site of a mass shooting in two weeks following the killing of 10 Black people in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket earlier this month.
We’ll have all the developments through the day.
While we wait for the day to unfold, here’s the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano in Uvalde on the heavy cloud of grief hanging over the devastated community:
