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5:38 a.mTexas Senator calls for gun control after 2 mass shootings in 2 weeks
Warning: This story contains disturbing details.
Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez says he sees images of children killed in mass shootings that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
The country has seen two mass shootings in the past two weeks. Dino Saturday, the gunman killed eight people, including children, and injured seven others in the parking lot of an outlet mall in Allen, Texas. On April 28, police said gunman in Houston shot and killed five neighborsincluding a nine-year-old boy, after the family confronted him that night about shooting shots in their yard.
Texas also had a shooter kill 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school on May 24, 2022.
Throughout it all, Gutierrez said he and his colleagues have pushed for what he calls “common sense” gun reform. Those include increasing the legal age to purchase firearms, mandating private gun sellers to conduct background checks, and bringing in “extreme risk protection orders” that allow authorities to temporarily restrict access to guns to those deemed a danger to themselves or others. .
The party made some progress on Friday when the Texas House committee led by Republicans advanced a bill that would raise the purchase age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. But the measure is unlikely to become law, because Republican Governor Greg Abbott has previously waved off the idea.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Abbott said his country is working on a bill to “get guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and increase penalties for criminals who own guns.” But, in general, they reject gun control as a solution to gun violence, instead targeting mental illness.
“There’s been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that’s happening in America,” he said. “We are working to address that anger and violence by going to this root cause, which is addressing the mental health problem behind it.”
Gutierrez – whose district includes Uvalde – spoke for As it happens host Nil Köksal is there. This is part of the conversation.
Senator, Gov. Abbott said this is about mental health and healing, a polarized country. What is your response to that?
We’ve been hearing this from Republicans for too long in this country and in this country. The fact is that the common denominator is guns.
We always have mental health issues; he was right. But we also have the problem of having unfettered access to guns for the mentally ill. So how does it jive? How does that make sense? Abbott can’t have it both ways.
They’re creating a mess in our country where … everybody and anybody can go out and get a gun without showing ID, if you do it at a gun show. Not to mention taking illegal guns. They created a situation where every kid could go to the gun store – [people who are] 18, 19 and 20 years old – and buy an AR-15 without any waiting period or registration.
The chaotic situation created by the Republicans has greatly increased crime and public safety in our country. And bloody, that responsibility, is in the hands of Greg Abbott, [Texas Lt.-Gov.] Dan Patrick and others like him.
WATCH | Texas gun debate:
A gunman killed eight people and wounded seven others in a Texas mall before being killed by police. The attack sparked a familiar debate about access to assault-style weapons.
You want to raise the age to buy an AR-15 style rifle from 18 to 21. That might stop the person speaking in Uvalde, who is 18. , is 33 years old. So he still has access to guns, isn’t that right?
No, that’s right. I mean, look, it will stop the gunman, or could have stopped the gunman, in Uvalde of course.
We also have an extreme risk protection order, which is one of the bills…. Maybe we have seen it [Allen shooter’s] termination of the military, we have seen the fact that he has been considered to have some mental health problems from the military, perhaps we can have a protective order of extreme risk that can take the gun away.
The state of Florida has implemented 9,000 extreme risk protective orders without any problems. Every sheriff is in favor of it. We need to take guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
And to be clear, you are not against gun ownership in general. You have your own gun, I know.
I have a lot of guns. I don’t own an AR-15; I don’t need one. At the end of the day, you know, gun owners have to be held accountable. But we need to know who has the gun.
You go to the DMV, they know exactly what kind of car I drive. But with guns, we don’t have any kind of registry. We don’t know who owns it. We don’t know if you are mentally ill. We don’t know if you have the capacity to own it, or the responsibilities required to own it. We should have some general solution here.
I don’t want to take someone’s gun. I want to regulate guns so that we stay away from certain people who don’t have them.
When we looked at the last election, Gov. Abbott was re-elected, and it was not long after what happened in Uvalde. And the Democratic candidate, Beto O’Rourke, who campaigned for the kind of gun control you’re talking about, didn’t win. So do you feel that the politicians in Texas – and the people of Texas – are ready for this change?
Seventy-six percent of the Texas public wants common sense gun solutions, including about 66 percent of Republican voters. They want extreme risk protection orders, they want to increase the age limit and they want to close the gun show loophole.
However, the Republican Party and the members who represent them in this building, need to increase their strength and some fiber in their bodies to do what is right to protect everyone – Democrats [and] Republicans, same.
How difficult is it for you, Senator, to support what you’re proposing and keep going through this, watching it happen in your country, watching people die?
I will never stop. I will never stop, ever. I saw all these little children die. I see all the pictures you haven’t seen [from the Uvalde school shooting]. I have seen little children whose faces were blown off, their bodies destroyed. I have seen children piled in piles with the teacher on top. Those images will never leave my mind.
I’ve watched hundreds of hours of body cam footage, because I had to see how these guys failed. I will never stop.
This is the most important issue in my life. No other issue of politics or policy matters. If you don’t have children, then nothing. There is nothing left.
With files from Reuters and The Associated Press. Interview produced by Kate Swoger. Q&A edited for length and clarity.
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