- Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego condemned Republicans following the Uvalde elementary school shooting.
- "Fuck you @tedcruz," Gallego tweeted.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona didn't pull any punches while criticizing Republican lawmakers and pro-gun advocates for reacting to a school shooting in Texas by pushing against calls for stricter gun laws.
At least 19 children and two adults were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday. It was the second deadliest school shooting on record in the US, surpassed only by the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.
"Fuck your prayers. They haven't worked for the last 20 mass shootings how about passing laws that will stop these killings," Gallego said in a tweet responding to GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California offering "thoughts and prayers" to the families of the victims of the shooting. Republicans have often been ridiculed by Democrats for responding to such incidents with "thoughts and prayers" rather than embracing calls for more stringent gun legislation.
"Fuck you @NRA," the Arizona Democrat said in another tweet directed at the National Rifle Association.
The Texas shooting came on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The draft opinion has prompted fury and alarm among Democrats, who want to see Roe v. Wade upheld in order to protect reproductive rights. Meanwhile, Republicans have responded by zeroing in on the leak itself, while also reiterating their staunch opposition abortion.
Alluding to this debate in a tweet directed at GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who opposes abortion rights and stricter gun laws, Gallego said, "Fuck you @tedcruz you care about a fetus but you will let our children get slaughtered. Just get your ass to Cancun. You are useless." Gallego's mention of Cancun was an apparent reference to Cruz's controversial trip to the Mexican resort city as Texas contended with a deadly winter storm.
"Just to be clear fuck you @tedcruz you fucking baby killer," Gallego added in a subsequent tweet.
Cruz responded to the Uvalde shooting by pushing against calls for gun reform, while simultaneously echoing the gun lobby's "good guy with a gun" talking point — or the debunked notion that arming more people could help prevent mass shootings.
"Inevitably when there's a murder of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens," Cruz said to reporters on Tuesday, adding, "That doesn't work. It's not effective. It doesn't prevent crime."
Studies have shown that states with stricter gun laws see fewer gun deaths. And though polling has consistently shown that most voters on both sides of the aisle support policies such as expanding background checks, Republicans in Congress have consistently blocked efforts to pass legislation along these lines.
Cruz in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday also suggested that schools should have armed law enforcement present to help prevent shootings. "We know from past experience that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus," the Texas senator said.
Armed law enforcement on the scene in Uvalde, including a school district officer who worked at Robb Elementary, shot at the gunman as he moved to enter the building on Tuesday, but were unable to stop him, Sgt. Erick Estrada with the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN. The presence of armed security has also failed to prevent previous incidents at schools, such as a 2018 mass shooting that killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Following Tuesday's shooting, other Democrats have expressed outrage in a manner similar to Gallego and implored their Republican colleagues to embrace efforts to strengthen gun laws.
"It's fucking nuts to do nothing about this," Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona told reporters on Wednesday.
Sen. Chris Murphy, who has been an impassioned advocate for gun reform during his time in Congress and delivered an emotional speech to that effect on the Senate floor on Tuesday, told reporters that he wanted Republicans to "spare" him the "bullshit about mental illness." Republicans have often blamed mental illness for mass shootings, avoiding assigning responsibility to the ease of access to firearms in the US.
The US has the highest rate of civilian firearm ownership in the world, and the highest rate of gun deaths in the developed world.
Cruz and Issa did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.
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