Texas governor Greg Abbott urged his state’s legislature on Wednesday to create a special committee to investigate the Uvalde shooting and offer legislative recommendations to prevent such tragedies in the future.
In a letter to House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Abbott called on the state to “reassess the twin issues of school safety and mass violence.”
“As leaders, we must come together at this time to provide solutions to protect all Texans,” he said. Abbott asked the legislature to “immediately” strike up the committee process to examine “what steps previous legislatures have enacted” and discuss the five related issues of “school safety, mental health, social media, police training, and firearm safety.
In May, an 18-year-old entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and started shooting with an AR-15 style rifle at a fourth-grade classroom, killing 19 children and two teachers. Authorities are currently probing the incident. Law enforcement in Uvalde is facing scrutiny for allegedly delaying going into the school for over an hour to apprehend the gunman as the carnage unfolded.
In response to Abbott’s petition, Phelan said in a statement that “conversations about the issues outlined by Gov. Abbott are already underway in the Texas House and will continue to be a top priority in the months leading up to the next school year and the legislative session,” the Texas Tribune noted.
Abbott’s Democratic critics argued that simply calling for the formation of a committee to study mass shootings is not expedient enough, advocating instead for a special emergency legislative session.
On Wednesday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, Abbott’s opponent, condemned the governor’s policy response to the Uvalde massacre as apathetic and ineffective.
“Anyone can call for a committee. Only a governor can call a special session. Do your job,” O’Rourke tweeted. Last week, O’Rourke interrupted Abbott’s press conference on the Uvalde school shooting, claiming he was culpable for the shooting with the outburst, “This is on you.”
Without specifying which Abbott-backed policies were responsible for the tragedy, he leveled the accusation, repeatedly: “You are doing nothing. You are offering up nothing.”