Texas state senator blasts Uvalde police reaction in congressional listening to: ‘It was once cowardice’

By means of MATTHEW CHOI

The Texas Tribune

WASHINGTON – Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, lambasted the emergency reaction to the Robb Basic College capturing as “the worst reaction to a mass capturing in our country’s historical past” all through a congressional listening to Thursday.

“It was once gadget failure, it was once cowardice,” Gutierrez mentioned. He joined members of the family and supporters of the sufferers in calling for more potent federal motion to forestall gun violence.

Gutierrez, a Democrat, made the remarks all through a listening to of the U.S. Area Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Fatherland Safety that was once occupied with bipartisan legislative answers to gun violence. However bipartisanship was once infrequently provide as Democrats persisted to show what they known as common sense gun coverage and Republicans accused them of making an attempt to remove constitutional gun rights.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, chaired the listening to, which additionally integrated U.S. Reps. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, and Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, isn’t at the subcommittee however joined the target audience to concentrate in.

Castro, Jackson Lee and Gutierrez had a listening to in Uvalde in September to listen to from households.

A Texas Area record present in July that “systemic disasters” at nearly all ranges of energy allowed the 18-year-old gunman to bloodbath 21 other folks at Robb Basic. Gutierrez instructed individuals of Congress that “there’s no transparency and no responsibility to this point.”

Lots of the listening to targeted at the resources of gun violence quite than the emergency reaction. Jackson Lee discussed proposals Democrats have raised to curb gun violence prior to now, together with elevating buying ages; developing purple flag regulations, which permit judges to briefly snatch firearms from people who find themselves deemed bad; and banning AR-15-style guns. She known as out Republicans for no longer supporting them.

“I’m indignant. Legislators aren’t intended to be enraged. We’re merely intended to face with stoic faces and let witnesses put their souls at the desk,” Jackson Lee mentioned. “None of you will have to inform your tales.”

Congress handed a bipartisan legislation spearheaded by means of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, within the aftermath of the Uvalde capturing – the primary primary gun protection legislation in a long time. The legislation greater investment for psychological well being sources, barred convicted violent home companions from purchasing weapons, created grants for states imposing purple flag regulations and set cash for state disaster intervention systems.

However Gutierrez criticized the bipartisan gun legislation as missing elementary provisions that will have stopped the bloodbath. He was once angered that the Senate stripped a provision elevating the minimal age to shop for attack guns to 21.

“The reality is in Texas you were given to be 21 to shop for a handgun, 21 to shop for a lager, 21 to shop for a pack of cigarettes, however you’ll be able to be 18 and purchase an AR-15, and that’s what came about right here as a result of this governor allowed it,” Gutierrez instructed newshounds all through a recess within the listening to. “It’s time for trade, no longer simply in Texas however during this nation.”

The listening to additionally integrated emotional testimony from circle of relatives and group individuals from Uvalde.

“It hurts. I misplaced my higher part,” mentioned Religion Mata, a witness whose more youthful sister Tess died all through the capturing. Mata fought again tears previous as she described the lack of her more youthful sister and the way “we will be able to by no means know the way scared she was once in that final school room.”

Roy Guerrero, a Uvalde doctor who knew and handled lots of the youngsters killed within the capturing, rebuffed any concept that an act of heroism or intervention may have stopped their deaths when an AR-15-style gun was once concerned.

“Those youngsters weren’t helpless sufferers that day. They had been spunky, clever, street-smart youngsters” who knew the way to act in an emergency scenario, Guerrero mentioned. “However with a weapon like that, [they] had no probability.”

In one of the emotive moments of the listening to, Guerrero performed a recording of youngsters’s screams as they struggled to escape Robb Basic.

However Republicans rejected Democrats’ pleas as making an attempt to remove weapons from law-abiding voters, with Republican score member Andy Biggs announcing Democratic gun proposals would “emasculate” gun house owners’ rights.

Republicans and their witnesses targeted as an alternative on social problems as the reason for gun violence, specifically absent fathers. Jack Brewer, chair of the Middle for Alternative Now on the Donald Trump-aligned The united states First Coverage Institute, mentioned “bringing the paddle and prayer” again to public colleges would deal with the “root reasons” of gun violence.

Gohmert mentioned abuse of 2nd Modification rights had been the result of decaying ethical training in colleges, insisting that “our morality as biblical Judeo-Christian morality goes out the window.”

Democrats rejected the argument as absurd.

“Truly?” mentioned U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pennsylvania. “We had testimony of a headless kid. We’re going to discuss how paddles and prayers are going to unravel this downside? The place is our humanity?”

The listening to got here the day after the tenth anniversary of the varsity capturing in Newtown, Connecticut, the place 20 youngsters and 6 different sufferers had been killed by means of a gunman. Nicole Melchionno, a highschool senior who survived the Newtown capturing as a 2nd grader, instructed the committee she was once there to “beg our lawmakers who voted into workplace to delight do the entirety on your energy to offer protection to us.”

“We ran out of time over a decade in the past. We wish to act now,” Melchionno mentioned.