Counter-protests expected as about 55,000 NRA members to attend event, including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott
Just days after the deadliest mass school shooting in Texas history, the National Rifle Association (NRA) – America’s leading gun lobbyist group – will meet a few hours away in Houston on Friday.
Ashton P Woods says they are not welcome in his hometown.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Click here for full coverage of the shooting at the Robb elementary school in Uvalde
As the US begins to reflect on the events of yesterday as it begins to wake up, several politicians have made calls to action or asked pressing questions. Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic party presidential nominations in 2020, said:
We grieve for the 21 who were killed in Texas today. But grieving is not enough—we could have, and must now, take commonsense actions to prevent these tragedies, like establishing single points of entry into schools, armed guards, trained staff, mental health services & more.
Continue reading...Three children, aged eight and 10, have been named; US president Joe Biden called for ‘common sense’ legislation after school massacre
The second US mass shooting in 10 days, which left 14 young children and a teacher dead at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, led to an outpouring of disbelief and potent rage at America’s persistent failure to tackle its epidemic of gun violence.
Tuesday’s horrifying attack in Uvalde, a small, largely Hispanic community outside San Antonio, came just 10 days after the events in Buffalo, New York. There 10 grocery shoppers, most of them African American, were gunned down in a supermarket.
Continue reading...First victims being named as US president calls for action on gun laws
An 18-year-old man, identified by police as Salvador Ramos, opened fire in an elementary school in Texas. He killed at least 19 students and two adults at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, a mostly Latino community about 85 miles west of San Antonio near the Mexico border.
Police said Ramos was killed after the shooting. The motive was not immediately clear and it is believed he acted alone. Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez said the suspect shot his grandmother at her home in the morning. She is believed to be in critical condition in hospital, Sergeant Erick Estrada told CNN.
The suspected gunman bought two rifles on his 18th birthday, Gutierrez told reporters. Two assault-style rifles were reportedly purchased from a store in Uvalde County. “That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” Gutierrez said, adding that the gunman had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming. “He suggested the kids should watch out,” he said.
Fourth-grade teacher Eva Mireles has been confirmed as one of the adults killed in the attack. “I’m furious that these shootings continue,” her aunt said in a statement reported by ABC News. “These children are innocent. Rifles should not be easily available to all.”
Names of student victims began to emerge. Eight-year-old Uziyah Garcia and Xavier Javier Lopez, 10, were confirmed by the Associated Press to have been killed after speaking with members of their families. Amerie Jo Garza, also 10, was identified by family as one of the children killed, according to ABC news.
Joe Biden addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after returning to the White House from a five-day trip to Asia. The president delivered an emotional speech, calling for “common sense” gun laws and said: “It’s time to turn this pain into action.”
Parents of school children have had to wait for hours in a parking lot to receive the news that their children are dead after being swabbed for DNA, according to New York Times reporter, Jazmine Ulloa.
The families of people killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting have pleaded for action on gun control in the wake of the killings at Robb elementary school in Texas.
NBA coach Steve Kerr gave an emotional pre-game press conference which he devoted to the events in Texas. He singled out politicians for failing to act on gun control in order to hold on to power and noted the recent shooting in Buffalo.
Numerous lawmakers and public figures spoke out on Tuesday by calling for action on gun control legislation in the wake of a tragedy that drew immediate comparisons to the Sandy Hook massacre, when 20 first graders and six educators were killed by an 18-year-old man armed with an AR-15-type rifle. In a series of tweets, former president Barack Obama said that “nearly ten years after Sandy Hook – and ten days after Buffalo – our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies”.
US Senator Chris Murphy, who came to Congress representing Sandy Hook, begged his colleagues to finally pass legislation addressing the nation’s gun violence problem. “What are we doing?” Murphy said. “I’m here on this floor to beg to literally get down on my hands and knees to beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”
Hal Harrell, superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent school district, said Tuesday that Robb Elementary School will be closed and all school activities will be cancelled until further notice. Harrell also said grief counselors would be available starting Wednesday morning.“My heart is broken today,” Harrell said. “We’re a small community and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
Continue reading...Prime minister says after 2019 Christchurch massacre, country made a ‘pragmatic’ decision to get guns off streets: ‘We saw something that wasn’t right and we acted’
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern says her country’s swift change to gun laws after the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch was a “pragmatic” response, where “we saw something that wasn’t right and we acted on it”.
The prime minister was speaking as her visit to the United States coincided with the mass killing of 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas.
Ardern appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was filmed shortly after the Uvalde shooting. “When I watch from afar and see events such as this today, it’s not as a politician. I see them just as a mother,” an emotional Ardern said. “I’m so sorry for what has happened here.”
A teenage gunman has killed at least 19 children and two adults after storming into an elementary school in Texas, officials have said, the latest bout of gun-fueled mass killings in the United States and the nation’s worst school shooting since Sandy Hook a decade ago.
The carnage began when the 18-year-old suspect, identified as Salvador Ramos, shot his own grandmother, who is in a critical condition, authorities said.
Continue reading...Races from Georgia to Texas were a litmus test of Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican party with some significant losses
Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, defeated former Senator David Perdue, who had been endorsed by Donald Trump. Perdue’s loss marked a significant defeat for Trump’s reputation as a kingmaker in the Republican party, as the former president has used the power of his endorsement to wield influence over candidates and lawmakers.
Continue reading...Bereaved say it is ‘beyond time to take action’ on gun control in the wake of the killing of 19 children in Texas
The families of people killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting have pleaded for action on gun control in the wake of the killings at Robb elementary school in Texas.
Erica Leslie Lafferty, whose mother was killed in the massacre in Connecticut in 2012, said that it was “beyond time to take action” in the wake of the attack in Uvalde which has left at least 19 children and two adults dead.
Continue reading...Loving county judge and top official, Skeet Lee Jones, 71, is alleged to have taken stray cattle and sold them
A senior county official in west Texas has been arrested over cattle rustling in a case that has stirred up anger in the tiny community of Loving.
Skeet Lee Jones, 71, a judge and chief elected official in the county, faces three counts of theft of livestock worth less than $150,000 and one of engaging in organised criminal activity after his arrest on Friday, the sheriff of neighbouring Winkler county, Darin Mitchell, said on Sunday.
Continue reading...High winds have hampered operations as crews fight blazes in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico
More than 5,000 firefighters have battled multiple wildland blazes in dry, windy weather across the south-west, including a fire that has destroyed dozens of structures in west Texas and another picking up steam again in New Mexico.
Evacuation orders remained in place on Thursday for residents near the wildfires in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. High winds prevented officials from sending aircraft to drop retardant or water in many places.
Continue reading...Jeremy Smith, 36, arrested on three counts of assault with a deadly weapon over Koreatown hair salon attack that left three wounded
Authorities in Dallas said on Tuesday the man suspected of opening fire in a hair salon in the city’s Koreatown and wounding three women of Asian descent harbored delusions about Asian people since having a car crash involving an Asian man two years ago.
Police identified the gunman as Jeremy Smith, 36, and said he has been charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Smith was booked early on Tuesday is being held in Dallas county jail.
Continue reading...Gonzalo Lopez stabbed the driver and fled on Thursday as inmates were bussed through a rural area between Houston and Dallas
A convicted murderer serving a life prison sentence in Texas stabbed a transport bus driver and escaped Thursday, setting off a frantic manhunt that was ongoing more than a day later.
The getaway happened as officers bussed Gonzalo Lopez, 46, and other inmates through a rural area between Houston and Dallas about 1.20pm. Lopez somehow slipped out of his shackles, used an unspecified sharp object to stab the driver in the hand and lunged for the wounded officer’s service pistol, Robert Hurst of the Texas department of criminal justice told reporters.
Continue reading...Black labrador Max attracted volunteers who had been searching for Sherry Noppe, who had been missing for three days
A Texas woman who suffers from dementia and was missing for three days was found in the early hours of last Friday, bruised and dehydrated but safe, after her dog’s barking helped rescuers track her down.
Sherry Noppe, 63, left her home in Houston, Texas last week, to take her black labrador, Max, for a stroll. The pair never returned.
Continue reading...Crystal Mason was sentenced to five years in prison for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election
A Texas appeals court must reconsider its decision to uphold a five-year conviction for Crystal Mason, the Texas woman sentenced to prison for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election, the state’s highest criminal court ruled on Wednesday.
Mason showed up to the polls to vote in 2016, while on supervised release – which is similar to probation – for a federal tax felony. She cast a provisional ballot at the urging of election workers, which was ultimately rejected because people with felony convictions in Texas cannot vote while they are serving any part of a federal sentence.
Continue reading...Bishop Evans jumped into the Rio Grande on Friday to save two people he thought were struggling to swim across
Search crews on Monday recovered the body of a Texas national guard soldier who apparently drowned three days earlier while trying to save two people he believed were struggling to swim across the Rio Grande near the US southern border.
The 22-year-old soldier, Bishop E Evans, was working in Eagle Pass as part of a border security operation under the direction of the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. Evans’ superiors hailed him as “selfless” and condemned the people he was trying to save as suspected drug traffickers attempting to enter the country without permission.
Continue reading...Mexican American woman, 52, who was due to be put to death on Wednesday, wins time for court to consider new evidence
The Texas court of criminal appeals has issued a stay of execution for Melissa Lucio, the Mexican-American woman who was set to be judicially killed within 48 hours, ordering a lower court to consider new evidence of her innocence in the death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah.
The court issued its order on Monday as the final clock was ticking on Lucio’s transfer to the death chamber. She would have been the first Hispanic woman executed by Texas.
Continue reading...National guard soldier Bishop Evans, 22, attempted to save two people he believed were drowning but did not resurface
Search crews combed the Rio Grande for a third day Sunday looking for signs of a Texas national guard soldier who went missing in the water amid an attempt to save two people he believed were drowning.
For the first time Sunday, Texas officials publicly identified the missing soldier as Bishop E Evans, a 22-year-old specialist and field artilleryman.
Continue reading...Crash comes after authorities in March reported arresting 210,000 migrants attempting to cross southern border without permission
Sixteen people – most of whom were trying to enter the US without permission – were injured when their pickup truck crashed while being chased at high speeds by Texas police, according to authorities.
Two of those hurt were critically wounded and flown to hospitals in San Antonio by helicopter, said the sheriff of Medina county, Randy Brown, whose deputies pursued the truck at the center of the wreck.
Continue reading...Officials dismiss reports that body of soldier, who was part of a security operation overseen by governor, has been found
A Texas national guard soldier who was part of a border security operation overseen by the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, went missing on Friday amid fears the soldier might have drowned in the Rio Grande.
The Texas military department said the disappearance occurred in the river in Eagle Pass during a mission associated with Abbott’s so-called Operation Lone Star.
Continue reading...Lawsuit asks court to rule SB 8 unconstitutional, citing public threats and legal action from anti-abortion activists
Reproductive rights advocates in Texas have filed a new legal challenge to halt a near-total abortion ban that has been in effect for more than half a year.
Senate Bill 8 bars abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected – typically as early as six week of pregnancy, which is before most people are aware they are pregnant – and offers no exception for rape or incest. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, asks a federal court to rule the extreme law unconstitutional. It cites public threats and legal action from anti-abortion activists against Texas abortion funds, groups that have been instrumental in helping patients travel out of state for care, arguing that this conduct has chilled their first amendment rights.
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