Texas Democrat says school shootings are ‘American problem’ that many lawmakers ‘refuse to solve’

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said Tuesday that school shootings are “unfortunately an American problem that it seems many lawmakers refuse to solve.”

Escobar was responding to reports of another recent mass shooting in the U.S., this time at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that has so far left 14 children and one teacher dead.

“The problem is that firearm homicides have increased 40 percent for people between the ages of 10 and 24 years old in America. Those are the stats for 2020. It’s unacceptable, and I can’t believe lawmakers refuse to act,” Escobar told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Escobar said it was imperative to acknowledge the community’s “deep trauma and pain that they are going to suffer from, not just in the weeks to come but, frankly, in the years to come.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) confirmed the deaths of 15 people, including 14 children. The suspect was identified as an 18-year-old man who opened fire with a handgun in Robb Elementary School, about 85 miles west of San Antonio.

“He shot — horrifically, incomprehensibly — 14 students and killed a teacher,” Abbott explained Tuesday, adding that the shooter himself “is deceased” and that it “is believed that responding officers killed him.”