Analysis: As deadly school massacre unfolds in Texas, few signs of common ground in Washington

“I had hoped once I turned President I’d not have to do that once more. One other bloodbath,” the President stated. “Stunning, harmless, second, third, fourth graders. And what number of scores of little kids who witnessed what occurred — see their buddies die as in the event that they’re in a battlefield, for God’s sake. They will stay with it the remainder of their lives.”

“As a nation we now have to ask when in God’s identify we’ll stand as much as the gun foyer,” he stated. “We have now to behave and do not inform me we won’t have an effect on this carnage.”

Earlier within the night, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut delivered the day’s most searing speech from the Senate flooring as he challenged his colleagues to interrupt the legislative stalemate.

“Simply days after a shooter walked right into a grocery retailer to gun down African American patrons, we now have one other Sandy Hook on our palms. What are we doing?” Murphy requested his colleagues.

“Our youngsters live in concern each single time they set foot within the classroom as a result of they assume they’ll be subsequent. What are we doing? Why do you spend all this time working for the US Senate? Why do you undergo all the trouble of getting this job, of placing your self able of authority, in case your reply is that because the slaughter will increase, as our children run for his or her lives, we do nothing?”

The scenes from Uvalde, a small tight-knit group of about 16,000 individuals about 80 miles west of San Antonio, have been gripping and all too acquainted. Shaky cellphone footage captured native residents working towards the college constructing in disbelief as information of the taking pictures unfold.

Then there have been the agonizing afternoon hours when mother and father have been directed to reunite with their kids at an area civic heart, bracing for information of which college students had survived and which weren’t coming residence. Not less than 20 injured victims have been being handled at native hospitals. And there have been extra questions than solutions concerning the suspect, recognized as Salvador Ramos, an Uvalde Excessive College scholar.

A kind of mother and father who was trying to find his 10-year-old daughter within the chaotic hours after the taking pictures was Jessie Rodriguez, who spoke to CNN affiliate KHOU. “After the taking pictures, they do not know the place she’s at. We do not know the listing of who has gotten flown out they usually’re not letting us in on the hospital proper now. So we do not know the place to go,” he stated.

Authorities seek for clues about gunman’s motives

Late Tuesday night, legislation enforcement was nonetheless making an attempt to piece collectively clues of how the taking pictures had unfolded and what drove the gunman to open fireplace on harmless kids and adults at Robb Elementary College. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated that the suspect arrived alone on the faculty round midday, deserted his automobile and went inside.

Sgt. Erick Estrada, of the Texas Division of Public Security, later described the chaotic collection of occasions that unfolded earlier than the taking pictures to CNN’s Anderson Cooper throughout an interview on “AC 360.”

Earlier than setting out on his rampage, Ramos shot his grandmother at her residence, Estrada stated. She is in crucial situation, he stated. The gunman then encountered officers after crashing his automobile in a ditch close to Robb Elementary, rising with a rifle and a backpack whereas carrying physique armor. It was unclear why the automobile crash occurred or if the college was even his meant goal.

After the crash, he was capable of enter via the south door of the college. Because the taking pictures unfolded, he entered a number of totally different lecture rooms, Estrada stated, but it surely was not clear how lengthy that terror ensued earlier than officers took him down.

Two responding officers have been struck by rounds, in response to Abbott, however weren’t severely injured. A US Customs and Border Safety agent, who was among the many first officers to reach on the scene in a city that isn’t removed from the US-Mexico border, was shot within the head, however the bullet didn’t penetrate, in response to an official. About 20 CBP brokers got here to the scene to help, some finally serving to switch college students safely to their households and providing medical help, authorities stated.

Investigators have been additionally sifting via social media accounts, together with an Instagram account tied to the suspect that three days earlier than the incident had posted a narrative together with photographs of two AR15-style rifles.

A former classmate of the suspect advised CNN’s Curt Devine and Jeff Winter that Ramos “would get severely bullied and made enjoyable of so much” and was generally taunted for the garments he wore and his household’s monetary state of affairs. The previous classmate, who didn’t wish to be recognized, stated Ramos “slowly dropped out” and finally “barely got here to highschool.”

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, advised CNN’s Erin Burnett in an interview Tuesday night that the gunman had acquired the 2 assault weapons when he turned 18, in response to a briefing that he was given by the Texas Rangers.

“On his 18th birthday, he purchased these two assault rifles,” Gutierrez stated. “It is the very first thing he did when he turned 18.”

Disappointment and impasse in Congress

Senate Democrats instantly took steps to attempt to place a background verify invoice handed by the US Home, often known as the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021, onto the legislative calendar. However there was no indication that the laws would get the ten Republican votes wanted for passage.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut stated the invoice ought to get a vote on the ground even whether it is prone to fail.

“I believe we have to maintain each member of Congress accountable and vote in order that the general public is aware of the place each considered one of us stand,” he stated.

Biden’s speech — which didn’t define any clear plan for motion on gun laws — mirrored the political actuality that he’s dealing with. With inaction the almost definitely end result, he selected as a substitute to concentrate on the anguish of the Texas households.

Biden performed a job in passing the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 after lawmakers didn’t renew it. His administration has taken some govt actions, together with current insurance policies to crack down on “ghost weapons,” however they fall far wanting the sweeping actions that each he and plenty of congressional Democrats want to see.

They’re hamstrung, partly, by the filibuster guidelines within the US Senate that require 60 votes to advance main laws. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, stated he would do “something I can” to maneuver what he referred to as “widespread sense” gun laws ahead, however he indicated Tuesday that he’s nonetheless not keen to get rid of the filibuster to get gun laws via the Senate.

Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, supplied a grim evaluation of how the subsequent few weeks would unfold in a well-recognized sample.

“A pair weeks — we’ll return on the Home flooring. We’ll have a second of silence, and we’ll speak about ideas and prayers,” he advised CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”

“The Democrat-controlled Home has handed gun management laws, however it is going to get nowhere within the Senate and nowhere with my colleagues throughout the aisle. And also you and I will likely be speaking about this once more, someday within the subsequent week, two weeks, months or years to come back.”