WASHINGTON — Public safety officials admitted a deadly lapse in trial while gun rights advocates were deferential but defiant Friday as a divided and heartbroken nation continued to mourn the lives of 19 fourth graders and their two teachers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Public safety officials admitted a deadly lapse in trial while gun rights advocates were deferential but defiant Friday as a divided and heartbroken nation continued to mourn the lives of 19 fourth-graders. grade and his two teachers in Texas.
The incident commander who was on the scene during the 45 minutes it took for tactical officers to storm a bullet-riddled classroom in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday made the “wrong decision” to wait, the head of the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged. State public.
During a turbulent and tense news conference outside Robb Elementary School, Col. Steven McCraw struggled at times to maintain his composure as he tried to explain the decision to treat the situation as a standoff rather than a life-threatening emergency.
“In hindsight, where I’m sitting right now, of course it wasn’t the right call, it was the wrong call, period,” McCraw said.
McCraw suggested that the commander on the scene simply didn’t believe anyone else in the classroom was still alive, despite reports that 911 dispatchers were still receiving calls from children inside the school.
“When there’s an active shooter,” he said, “the rules change.”
Until now, the confusing and often contradictory details have made it difficult to form a clear picture of exactly what happened on Tuesday and what may have gone wrong.
McCraw confirmed again Friday that the armed school district officer who would normally be at the school was not there that day, and that the gunman managed to enter the building through a door that a teacher had left open.
He also said the school district officer unknowingly walked right past the gunman, who was still outside at that point and crouched behind a vehicle, when he finally arrived at the scene.
The tragedy came nearly 10 years after 20 children and six adult staff members were shot in a similar mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, and just 10 days after a White gunman with racist motives killed 10 Blacks and injured three others.
Unsurprisingly, it has set off a familiar political tinderbox, with Democrats and gun control advocates clamoring for new restrictions, and gun rights advocates, as well as their largely Republican allies, closing ranks and pointing to questions about school safety and mental health supports. .
About 500 kilometers east of Uvalde, the National Rifle Association’s annual convention began as planned in Texas, with hundreds of protesters gathering outside to express their dismay.
Leading the marquee of speakers was former President Donald Trump, who stayed true to form as he denounced Democrats for playing politics with the shooting, urged Congress to arm teachers, and backed American schools being ” the most difficult targets in our country.
“We need to make it much easier to confine the violent and the mentally disturbed to psychiatric institutions,” Trump said matter-of-factly during a speech heavily tinged with familiar anti-Democratic rhetoric.
Attendees booed and shouted their support as he called for schools with stronger exterior fencing, metal detectors, reinforced single entry points and extensive screening procedures, along with armed guards and better training for police to deal with active shooters.
“This is not a question of money. It is a question of will,” he said, before earning some of the loudest applause of the night with this: “If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our kids safe at home.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott kept his appointment to speak at the convention, but he did so via a pre-recorded message and chose to hold a news conference in Uvalde, where he said he was “furious” at the “farce” of incorrect information. being delivered to families.
“There are people who most deserve answers, and those are the families whose lives have been destroyed,” Abbott said. “They need answers that are accurate. And it’s inexcusable that they may have suffered from any inaccurate information.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican from Texas most often associated with members of Congress who aggressively resist efforts to enforce gun control, also appeared in person at the NRA convention, along with the governor of South Dakota. Kristy Noem.
“Now would be the worst time to quit,” Noem told convention delegates of her efforts to resist gun control measures, a sentiment that was met with a flurry of applause. “Now is when we double down.”
Cruz described the gunman in Uvalde as one of the “lunatics and freaks” who have perpetrated mass shootings in the US over the years, but insisted that none of the myriad ideas about restricting gun sales would have done the trick. any difference in any of them. .
“That son of a bitch passed a background check,” Cruz said of the gunman. And of the Democrats, he said, “Their real goal of his is to disarm America.”
US President Joe Biden will travel to Uvalde on Sunday to “offer comfort” to the families of the victims and meet with community leaders, the White House says.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 27, 2022.
James McCarten, The Canadian Press
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