We need change governor.
>> That is the governor of Texas.
Greg Abbott, being booed at the Uvalde memorial.
Now to be very clear, there's a lot of video of that going around and
the reason it was able to be filmed was because Greg Abbott had the call
to go to that memorial after everything that he knows he did and
didn't do in the months and the years leading up to this tragedy.
He went and he deserved far more than the booing that he got.
But that's what he got right now.
Let's talk a little bit about what effect he's had in this area, legislatively.
In the last two legislative sessions for Texas, they have loosened gun laws,
most notably by passing permitless carry back in 2021.
This is less than two years after mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa,
took the lives of 30 people.
And while we're gonna talk about mass shootings, for
very good reason, especially in the context of Texas,
generalized gun violence especially against kids has also gone up in Texas.
Annual child gun deaths there have more than doubled just while he's
been governor.
Deaths for children 17 and under went from 54 back in 2015 to 146
back in 2020 which is the latest year that we have that data for for the CDC.
Youth gun deaths rose every year over that period except one.
And they in fact have more children dying by gunshot than any other state.
But despite that, they have still been loosening gun restrictions, I guess,
believing that, sure, there are a lot of bad guys targeting kids there, but
perhaps if the kids just get their hands on some firearms,
we can stop the needless additional 100 or so deaths per year.
Now we have other updates in terms of what he's done, the funding that he's cut.
But Carolina I wanna give you a chance.
What do you think about Greg Abbott managing this period immediately following
the shooting?
>> Yeah, I mean, as we just sort of finished regardless of the police
situation and the response, this is Greg Abbott's fault.
He diverted billions of dollars to protect the border at
the expense of mental health services for Texas.
And that just raises the other ridiculous point that Republicans make in
the aftermath is telling us to focus on the fact that this is a mental health
crisis, specifically relating to young men, which is absolutely true.
And so maybe we should do something about that and
maybe we shouldn't keep cutting funding to these services for
mental health and psychiatry for young people, for everyone.
So that's sort of a digression.
But yeah, the leading cause of death among children in America is guns.
And that fact should haunt us, I'm sure for many of us it does.
And I think going back to this video, what I think is really,
really strong and important about this video is that those are Texans.
I mean as far as I believe and can tell those are Texans there.
Those, oftentimes the right claims that, it's the blue states are driving
this conversation and let us do what we want in our red states.
But those people, I again, I mean, I can't say for certain, but
those people are community members of Texas.
They are not people on mainstream media calling for this sort of thing.
And I think if there's any hope that we can have in this moment, again,
it's that the communities most affected by this
should have the biggest platform in this conversation.
And I think instances like this are really,
really powerful in showing that the people most affected also want change.
>> I agree.
Yeah, and I like having those people there to give that response.
I hope that they pressure their state legislators.
I hope that they pressure officials there in Uvalde.
I hope so.
We can talk a little bit about what they're trying to do.
Democrats in Texas are trying to call for an emergency legislative session.
So bear in mind they've already done an emergency legislative session in Texas
recently because they just had to pass a bill to suppress the vote.
So they can do it when they want to.
In this case Democrats want them to do so to endorse a passage of laws,
including raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21,
requiring universal background checks for gun purchases,
restricting ownership of high capacity magazines and other changes.
Literally any one of those, would have stopped or
severely changed the outcome of the shooting that we saw.
If had to be 21 to get that rifle, the shooting would not have happened.
The background check potentially could have caught him as well, and potentially
with smaller capacity magazines, maybe the death toll wouldn't have been so
high, maybe the cops wouldn't have been terrified of getting in there.
And so that is all very reasonable stuff to expect.
The only thing that's not reasonable, I suppose, is to expect that it's gonna work
in Texas, that they're gonna get the Republicans to go along with it.
That Greg Abbott, a guy who has spent the last year thinking that the greatest
threat to kids in Texas schools is grooming teachers or trans-swimmers maybe.
They've been fearmongering about that, not worrying so
much about the fact that they are potentially arming the next mass shooter.
>> Yeah, critical race theory.
I mean, the things that get the most headlines are culture war issues that
have absolutely no material impact on the health and safety of children.
And when it's clear as day that even one of these reforms has
the potential to have such an impact on the lives and safety of children and
the fact that they are distracting us with these things that truly do not
matter in the grand scheme of the safety of children is it's just an embarrassment.
>> And by the way you mentioned the border, how we put all the money towards
there, well he cut $211 million dollars from a mental health commission.
Now, the fact that he has dragged hundreds of millions of dollars out of dealing with
mental health issues in Texas did not stop him from once again talking
about mental health being responsible for all these shootings.
It's amazing that they can do that.
That there wasn't immediate pushback that he wasn't shamed into abandoning that
position, pretending that he cares about mental health as he defunds it.
But this is the same sort of approach that Greg Abbott provides.
When their energy grid failed and people died as a result of it, he pretended that
that was due to the fact that the green new deal had already passed.
That was how he defended against the initial horror
at the fact that they had allowed their grid to fail so disastrously.
And then once the media attention had moved on, they didn't do anything.
They didn't change it.
It's as likely to happen this coming winter as it wasn't any of the past ones.
And if it does, he'll talk about windmills again, and
he'll talk about solar panels and why not?
He's getting away with it, with the funerals of these kids,
still not having happened.
I don't think that he's gonna be shamed from these ridiculous
transparent talking points.
Any further thoughts Caroline?
>> No, yeah, I will say again, trying to find a kernel of hope in this.
It does seem like he is at least a little bit aware
that this is his fault and this is on him.
Some of his statements he's made recently,
going going back to the investigation and and saying flat out that he was lied to.
I do think that we can find tiny threads of a shift happening, but again,
if the pressure isn't there and if people like President biden and
and other other senators who so far have shown interest in having
bipartisan talks about this, if they don't keep that pressure on,
then any sort of kernel of hope we have is is dead in the water.
So, I think once again, circling back to the democratic response,
we need to take these little clues as as far as
we possibly can that this might be it, every single time this happens,
we have to approach it as this might be the one that we finally get changed here.
And I do think there is some hope to be had in his recent statements in the fact
that he is going to these funerals.
In the fact that he, you know, video conferenced into the N.
R. A. Thing, which again is is cowardly.
But you know at this point I will literally take whatever I can get okay.
I like the optimism Well, even with that.