Greg Abbott,
the governor of Texas, has come under fire from families of people who lost
their lives in the Robb Elementary School shootout in Uvalde. Twenty-one
people, 19 students and two teachers lost their lives in the Uvalde massacre,
the deadliest school shooting in United States history. Governor Abbott was the
focus of rage during a Saturday rally organised by the student-led group March
For Our Lives.
The
families of Uvalde victims have been seeking gun reform in the state since the
massacre, comparable to only the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012.
The families want the Texas governor to limit access to firearms so that another
massacre cannot take place. That, however, has proved difficult owing to the
tight grip Republicans keep over gun laws in the red state.
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Advocates
for more stringent gun laws want to strike a compromise. All they are seeking
is to raise the minimum age to buy automatic rifles from 18 to 21. The gunman
who opened fire at Robb Elementary School, Salvador Ramos, was 18 years old.
In order to
achieve this, Gregg Abbott needs to call a special session of the Texas
legislature. He, however, has resisted all entreaties to do so. The governor
has also faced criticism for attending a fundraising event for his re-election
campaign on the night of the Uvalde massacre. At Saturday’s rally, many said
they just wanted some sort of compromise on gun reform.
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Jasmine
Cazares, one such advocate for gun reform, said pushing for gun restrictions in
a state that holds the constitutional right to carry firearms exhausting but
uplifting. “I didn’t plan on doing this, no one plans on doing this,” she said,
speaking to news outlets at the rally.
Javier Cazares,
Jasmine’s father, who was also at the rally said that Governor Greg Abbott
seemed genuine in his concern when he met him a day after the tragedy. But now,
Javier feels differently. “He (Abbott) had no emotions or anything, just his
overall demeanour was, ‘I have to be here because I have to be here,’” Javier
told the Tribune.