“Governor Abbott, I have something to say,” said O’Rourke, a former congressman who represented El Paso, Texas, and is a former Senate and presidential candidate as he approached the scene in Uwalde, Texas.
“It’s time to stop the next shooting right now and you’re not doing anything,” O’Rourke told Abbott. The two will face a run for governor of Texas in November.
“You said it was unpredictable. It was completely predictable,” he said of Tuesday’s shooting at a local primary school, which killed 21 people – including 19 children – and injured 17.
This is not the first time O’Rourke has spoken out about gun violence. The former congressman used his platform during the Democratic primary in the 2020 presidential election to advocate for tighter gun control measures, including a mandatory arms repurchase program. His focus on the issue was sharpened by the racist massacre in August 2019 at a Walmart store in El Paso.
At a Democratic debate next month, he did not apologize for the position, which provoked a quick reaction from Republicans and would go beyond most of the proposals discussed by his rival primary candidates.
“Hell, yes, we’ll take your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke said to applause in the debate room. “We will not allow it to be used against our compatriots anymore.”
Then his declaration, long before he decided to run for governor this year, set a stark contrast to Abbott, who often advertises all sorts of actions to loosen restrictions on access to and possession of weapons. Abbott is scheduled to speak at the National Weapons Association’s annual meeting in Houston this week.
O’Rourke spoke directly to Abbott as he left the room on Wednesday: “It’s up to you until you decide to do something different.
“This will continue to happen. Someone must stand up for the children of this country or they will continue to be killed, just as they were killed in Uwalde yesterday,” he added.
At a news conference Wednesday, Abbott said tougher gun laws were not a “real solution”.
“People who think we may be able to enforce strict gun laws and allow them to do so – Chicago, New York and LA – refute this claim. “Chicago teaches you that what you’re talking about is not the right solution,” Abbott said.
Abbott also said discussions are ongoing on how to address people with mental health challenges in the state, as well as ways to maintain school safety.
Confrontation with officials
Before leaving O’Rourke, Texas Republican Lt. Dan Patrick told the former congressman, “You’re off the line and you’re ashamed.”
“Sit down,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, O’Rourke’s opponent in the 2018 Senate race, shaking his head.
Another official on the scene, Uwalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, was cursing at O’Rourke and apparently ordering the authorities in the room to remove the former congressman from the audience.
O’Rourke was then taken away by officers.
“(Abbott) said he was going to do something. He didn’t do anything. In fact, the only thing he did was make it easier to carry a gun in a public place,” O’Rourke told reporters after leaving the news conference.
The former congressman said that “the only interest of the governor of Texas is the arms lobby.”
He told reporters that Abbott was currently due to speak at the National Arms Association’s congress in Houston this Friday, “just days after these children were slaughtered right here in Uwalde, after they were slaughtered at Santa Fe High School in Sutherland. Springs, In Midland Odessa, El Paso, Texas. ”
“Five of the worst mass hosting in US history, right here in this state in the last five years. He was the governor of each of them,” O’Rourke continued.
Less than an hour before O’Rourke interrupted the press conference, he sent an email to his supporters saying the shooting of Uwalde was a “direct consequence” of Greg Abbott’s “choice.”
“These massacres are not natural disasters, God’s actions or accidental. They are completely predictable, direct consequences of the choice made by Greg Abbott and most of those in the Texas legislature, “he wrote.
This story has been updated with additional details from the event.
Jamil Lynch, Amanda Musa, Ashley Kelow and CNN’s Brian Rocus contributed to this report.
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