Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) blamed Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead, on mental health issues but admitted that the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos had “no known” mental health problems.
Abbott said he asked local officials, including the sheriff and mayor of Uvalde “what is the problem here?” and their “straightforward and emphatic” answer was that “‘we have a problem with mental health illness in this community.'”
Abbott continued: “They elaborated on the magnitude of the mental health challenges that they are facing in the community and the need for more mental health support in this region.”
Before he made those comments Abbott said the gunman had “no known mental health history,” or criminal history.
Asked about the shooter’s ability to purchase long guns, Abbott said 18-year-olds have been able to buy long guns in Texas for over 60 years so that could not possibly be the reason why school shootings have become more prevalent in recent years.
“One thing that has substantially changed is the status of mental health in our communities, Abbott said. “What I do know is this, and that is we as a state, we as a society, need to do a better job with mental health. Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge, period. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and do something about it.”
[Beto O’Rourke confronts Gov. Greg Abbott over Uvalde shooting: ‘This is on you’]
Other elected Republican officials at the press conference like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blamed the shooting on the school having too many doors.
The attack was the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
