Sunday shows preview: Texas school shooting renews push for gun control

This week’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which left 21, including 19 children, dead and has reignited the gun control debate, is expected to be the focus of this week’s Sunday show circuit.

The shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday followed just over a week after a racially-motivated shooting that killed 10 and injured 3 at a grocery store in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo, N.Y.

The Uvalde massacre was the 27th shooting to occur at a school in the past five months.

The shootings have renewed calls for gun control legislation from Democrats. Following the attack in Texas, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) delivered an emotional speech on the Senate floor.

“What are we doing? There have been more mass shootings [than] days in the year. Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?” Murphy asked his colleagues. 

Murphy, pointing out that mass shootings regularly occurring “only happens in this country,” ripped his fellow senators for failing to pass gun reforms 

“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate, why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job of putting yourself in a position of authority if your answer is that, as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing?” he said. 

Murphy, who served as a congressman for the district in which the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School took place in 2012 before becoming a senator, is set to appear on ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Senate Democrats eager to get something done in the wake of the shootings have said they are willing to accept a modest deal on gun control legislation.

Murphy said immediately after the Texas shooting, “This is all about what can get 60 votes. Let’s see what public demand for action arises in the next few weeks, but we need to work with Republicans.” 

A bipartisan group of nine senators met Thursday afternoon to chart out a path for negotiations, saying their top priorities are proposals to expand background checks and encourage states to set up red flag laws to prohibit people deemed dangerous to themselves or others from owning firearms.

“If they’re successful, and I hope they are successful, I hope I’ll support it. I expect I will, but I’m certainly not going to be satisfied,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who is slated to appear on “Fox News Sunday,” said of the negotiations. “I know the dynamics here. The assault weapons [ban] is not going to be in that package.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who will be on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, expressed skepticism that even a modest deal could be reached with Republicans on gun control.

“I’m not going to engage in this fiction that somehow we’re going to have enough votes to pass. We know the outcome already. This is hopefully to put more people on notice in America about who stands for commonsense, bipartisan gun reform and who doesn’t,” he said. “My hope has had its ass kicked, OK?” 

Following the shooting in Buffalo, Booker, along with Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), reintroduced legislation that would require residents to acquire a Department of Justice (DOJ) license before purchasing or obtaining a legal firearm and raise the legal age for obtaining a firearm to 21 years old. The measure, the Federal Firearm Licensing Act, has virtually no chance of becoming law due to GOP opposition.

The shootings have also spurred new action from organizers and activists. March for Our Lives, formed by survivors of the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., is planning protests nationwide, including in Washington, D.C., following the Uvalde attack.

Jaclyn Corin, co-founder of March for Our Lives, is set to appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” along with Nicole Hockley, co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise. Tony Monalto, president of Stand with Parkland, will be on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke joined several organizations, including March for Our Lives, in protesting the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual summit in Houston on Friday following the school shooting in the state.

NRA leader Wayne LaPierre said Friday at the convention, which was thrust into the spotlight by the shooting, that a mass shooting like the one in Uvalde “should never happen again” but that he considered gun ownership a “fundamental human right.”

Former President Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) both spoke at the convention, while Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) nixed a scheduled appearance at the meeting and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) chose to appear for a press conference in Uvalde rather than attend the event live.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who is set to appear on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, also canceled a planned appearance at the convention, though he cited a scheduling conflict that arose prior to the shooting.

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:

ABC’s “This Week” — Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake; Tony Monalto, president of Stand with Parkland.

CBS’s “Face the Nation” — Murphy; Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla.; Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark.; Ronnie Garza, a county commissioner in Uvalde, Texas; Nicole Hockley, co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise; Jaclyn Corin, co-founder of March for Our Lives.

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Kinzinger; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas; state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-Texas.

“Fox News Sunday” — Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala.

FOX News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas); Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.); Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.); Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.).