Texas Governor Skirts Questions About Gun Control After Church Shooting

Texas Governor Greg Abbott attended a candlelight vigil in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Sunday, November 5, 2017 after a shooter opened fire on a church and killed 26 people. Photo by Laura Skelding
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott attends a candlelight vigil held for the victims of a fatal shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas. (AP Photo/Laura Skelding)
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday didn’t directly answer questions about whether gun control laws should be reevaluated after a gunman opened fire on a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Sunday, killing 26 people and wounding 20 others.

During an interview on CNN, “New Day” host Chris Cuomo asked Abbott what rules needed to be reviewed after news came out that the gunman was able to purchase a gun after being denied access to buy a firearm by the state of Texas.

“Obviously people want answers, but equally obviously, here we are, less than a day after the event happened where there are more unknowns than there are knowns, Abbott said. “How was it that he was able to get a gun? By all the facts that we know, he was not supposed to have access to a gun. So, how did this happen? That’s just one of the unknowns out there, we are in search of answers to these questions and the answers will be coming to light here in the coming days and before we can solve the problem we need to know the answers to all these multitude of questions.”

When asked again, Abbott said that the most important thing is the community’s response to the tragedy and said speaking to the family of the victims of “this heinous crime” was “probably the toughest thing I’ve had to do as governor.”

“Everybody knew the people who were victims of this crime and the one thing I took away from last night is this is a strong faith-based community and they are relying upon their faith to strengthen them and that strength remains very strong even today,” he said.

The alleged shooter, Devin Kelley, was discharged from the Air Force for assaulting his spouse and served time for the abuse. Authorities were still looking for a clear motive Monday, but reported the man’s in-laws attended the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, but weren’t in attendance on Sunday.

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  1. FOX and Friends

    Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt asserted on Monday that the dozens of
    people killed at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas had gone to the
    right place to be shot because they were close to Jesus at the time of
    their death.

    “We’ve been reporting this shouldn’t happen in a church,” Earhardt
    said during an interview with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ®. “But I was
    downstairs talking with some people that work here that we all talk
    about our faith and we share the same beliefs. We were saying there’s no
    other place we would want to go other than church.”
    “Because I’m there asking for forgiveness,” she continued. “I feel
    very close to Christ when I’m there. So, I’m trying to look at some
    positives here and know that those people are with the Lord now and
    experiencing eternity and no more suffering, no more sadness anymore.

  2. Also known as Insensitive Asshole Without A Brain."

  3. Heaven forbid we talk about any form of gun control—we have no idea how this keeps happening!

    .

  4. Avatar for dweb dweb says:

    LOOK…Let’s get to the REAL facts here. You have the top officials of the state of Texas asserting that the real solution is for every church in America to include, as part of its program, armed guards in and around the building.

    Does ANYBODY see the sheer insanity of this?

    And as has been noted many times, the idea of a unknown number of armed civilians packing under concealed carry laws when something like this breaks out just adds to the insanity.

    At the Colorado Walmart shooting recently, the police arrived and began immediately looking at the store’s security cameras. That’s when they saw numerous store patrons drawing their own weapons. What kind of a position do the police have to deal with in armed carry states when they arrive at a mass shooting session and their first task is to make sure they don’t wind up shooting average citizen Joe because he just pulled a gun thinking HE was going to be the hero on scene?

    Look at Orlando…a crowded night club…flashing lights, poor visibility, hundreds of people and maybe some of them armed civilians. Where do the cops aim and who do they shoot?

    Gabby Giffords shooting…one of her aides had a weapon and came within an inch of getting his head blown off when police arrived on the scene.

    And please NRA…give me a list of how many armed “good guys” have so far halted the deaths of literally THOUSANDS of innocent civilians in incidents like this latest one. How many Wayne? Tell me just how many?

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