An 18-year old who had previously shot and seriously wounded his grandmother, shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at Uvalde Elementary School in Texas on Tuesday. Law enforcement shot and killed the gunman. The attack was the deadliest school shooting since the massacre in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in 2012 and comes just 10 days after an 18-year-old self-described white supremacist attacked a grocery store in the heart of Buffalo’s African American community. We travel to Austin to meet Nicole Golden, executive director at Texas Gun Sense. She says that Texas lawmakers have strongly opposed gun violence prevention legislation that has been supported by the majority Texas voters. She also denounces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recommendation to arm teachers.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be final.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were shot dead at an elementary school in the city of Uvalde on Tuesday. A teenager was armed with guns that he had just purchased on his 18th Birthday and carried out the attack at Robb Elementary School. The gunman was killed in the attack. On Tuesday, the gunman shot and critically wounded his grandmother.
Some victims’ names have been shared by families. These victims include Xavier Lopez (10 years old), Jose Flores (10 years old), Uziyah Garcia (9), Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez (10), and Eva Mireles (fourth grade teacher),
Robb Elementary School serves 600 students in three grades: second-, third-, and fourth. The school is home to approximately 90% Latinx students. Thursday was the last day of school for the year. The school district’s superintendent, Hal Harrell, spoke on Tuesday.
HAL HARRELL: Today was a hard day for me. We’re a small community, and we’ll need your prayers to get us through this.
AMY GOODMAN: Tuesday’s attack was the deadliest elementary school shooting since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook in Connecticut, when a 20-year-old gunman killed 26 people, 20 of them children between the ages of 6 and 7. Tuesday night was President Biden’s address to the nation.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?
AMY GOODMAN: The shooting in Uvalde came just 10 days after an 18-year-old self-described white supremacist attacked a grocery store in the heart of Buffalo’s African American community. Ten people were killed, all of them Black. Many of these victims were grandmothers. Celestine Chaney, 65 years old, was buried on Tuesday.
This is just as the National Rifle Association plans on hosting its annual meeting Friday, Houston, Texas. More than 55,000 people will attend and hear speeches from former President Trump and Republican Texas legislators, including Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, and John Cornyn.
We travel to Texas to talk with Nicole Golden, executive director at Texas Gun Sense.
Nicole, we are glad to have you. Democracy Now! This is a terrible day. First, we offer our condolences for the terrible events in Uvalde. I meant, I said it 10 days ago to the people from Buffalo. But, if you can respond and explain what happened in Texas and what you believe needs to be done,
NICOLE GOLDEN: Yeah, I’ll be honest. You know, we’re all barely hanging in there. It’s nothing compared to what this community must be experiencing. I’m sitting here talking to you while I’m exhausted and my own kids are getting ready for school. You know, I have to compartmentalize what happened in order to do the work that I do, but it’s so critically important.
You know, I’ve been involved in gun violence prevention in Texas for almost a decade. I have seen the brutal hearings at state Legislature. I have heard unbelievable arguments against our sensible request for commonsense gun legislation, laws that most Texans support and laws that law enforcement supports, laws which are working to prevent gun violence from other states. But we have a political climate here that makes it such that it’s been — you know, our work has basically been shut down.
But we’re here for the long haul. We’re not going anywhere. And I’m certain that at some point when the political will is there, we will have built the infrastructure to see real change here. Until then, we’ll keep chipping away, working in our communities to pass meaningful change and continuing with building this extremely strong movement that we’ve created over the past decade.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Just hours after the shooting, which was a horrific massacre, Nicole Golden, Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton, stated that teachers should also be armed. What is your response?
NICOLE GOLDEN: Look, you’ve probably heard this said before: If more guns made us safer, we’d be the safest country in the world. This experiment has clearly failed us and our children. Teachers do not support guns in schools. They are not teachers so that they can be armed during the day while they’re trying to love and support and educate their students. We don’t think that this is the right solution, and we will continue to push back next legislative session if it is.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Salvador Ramos is the alleged gunman in this case. He reportedly purchased two assault rifles within the past week. It is so easy to buy a weapon like this in Texas. Are there age restrictions?
NICOLE GOLDEN: That could have been a legal sale, you know. That doesn’t make it right, of course. It is too easy to walk into gun shops. Federally licensed dealers in Texas must run a background search. However, you can buy a gun at an online sale or from a collector without any questions. There are many ways someone can purchase a deadly gun. Some states have closed their loopholes so that there’s a background check required on every gun sale, to prevent — you know, we can’t prevent every shooting, but we can definitely prevent some by trying to keep guns out of hands of potentially dangerous individuals. But that measure has not succeeded in Texas to close those loopholes, as well as other measures that we’ve tried to pass at the state level.
AMY GOODMAN: Nicole Golden, NRA Houston. Cruz will be speaking there. It’s not only Paxton, but Cruz, too, decried Democrats for saying they’re going to make this a political moment and call for gun control; this whole issue of the answer is to arm the teachers. The studies that have come out that show that there are 400 million guns in the United States right now — more than every man, woman and child in this country. And the difference between the number of shootings — for example, I think there have been 30 shootings in schools in the United States this year alone, over 300 over the past 10 years. It is not like Mexico or Texas, I mean.
NICOLE GOLDEN: Yes. Yes. And so did gun violence. According to the most recent data, Texas had more than 4,000 gun-toting Texans in 2020. This was an increase over previous years. So, we have a clear crisis, and this “more guns is the answer” narrative that we’ve been — that’s been peddled, it’s truly outrageous. It’s, again, not supported by the people teaching our kids. It’s largely not supported by law enforcement.
Last legislative session, when lawmakers removed requirements for training and licensing to carry a handgun in Texas, we stood side by side with people from major law enforcement associations, faith leaders, survivors, teachers — I can’t name the full list — pleading to please not do this. The Legislature passed it anyway. Texas’ gun lobby seems proud of itself. Look around at where we are.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you also about the gun lobby’s efforts in recent years to market weapons, and especially high-powered weapons, to children. They developed in recent years a version of the AR-15 assault rifle, the JR-15, the Junior 15, where they actually say, quote, “Our vision is to develop a line of shooting platforms that will safely help adults introduce children to the shooting sport.” And this new JR-15 is supposedly built with ergonomics geared towards children. It’s lighter than an adult version, at 2.2 pounds, and 20% smaller. So there’s an actual effort by the industry to market. And many of these shootings that we’re seeing in recent years are being committed by 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds. Is this your sense of the industry’s responsibility in the new marketing campaign?
NICOLE GOLDEN: Yeah, I think not only is it — it’s shameful, and it’s dangerous, and it’s disturbing, but also I really think that that is not in line with what most voters think across this country and in Texas, regardless of your background politically or whether you’re a gun owner or not. I don’t think most think that this extremist direction is reasonable. I believe most people agree with us when it says we need some reasonable guardrails.
When it comes to children and guns, I think there are families who can responsibly own guns, and if families choose to do that together, I think there’s a way to do it that’s safe. They must secure their guns. That should not — that should be mandatory. Everyone should be telling everyone else to do it. Everyone should be asking, when their kids go somewhere, “Are guns locked safely at your home?” This is just the most simple way to prevent unintentional shootings and suicides or guns being stolen or lost and then used in a crime. Safe gun storage plays a vital role. And it is an adult’s responsibility to do that; it is not a child’s responsibility.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about a race that’s still not fully counted, that happened yesterday in Texas, the incumbent anti-choice, pro-gun Henry Cuellar versus the progressive Jessica Cisneros. Responding to Tuesday’s mass shooting, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, quote, “On the day of a mass shooting and weeks after news of Roe, Democratic Party leadership rallied for a pro-NRAIn a close primary, an anti-choice incumbent is under investigation. Robocalls and fundraisers are all part of the investigation. Accountability isn’t partisan. This was an utter failure of leadership,” AOC said. I know you must go for another interview. What are your thoughts?
NICOLE GOLDEN: So, we’re a bipartisan organization. We’re proud of that, because people join us from a variety of backgrounds, and we all stand together with one strong voice on the need for gun violence prevention strategies in Texas. I can’t really comment on specific races except to tell you that I do think that Texans and voters across the country are going to be looking for leaders who can lead us into a safer direction. And I think people should continue to push that message in their campaigns and that voters should be paying attention, because we know we can’t go on like this.
AMY GOODMAN: Nicole Golden, thank you so much for being with us, executive Director of Texas Gun Sense. We are speaking from Austin, Texas.
When we come back from break, we’ll be talking about the Supreme Court. It is poised further to de-eligulate guns. And we’ll talk about that meeting at the end of the week with the National Rifle Association in Houston, Texas. Stay with us.
