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Texas Governor Greg Abbott, with other officials, holds a press conference to provide updates on the Uvalde elementary school shooting, at Uvalde High School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022. | Source: ALLISON DINNER / Getty

In response to horrific mass shootings, Republicans are, as usual, being childish. In Texas, actual children were mercilessly killed by a gunman who was able to legally purchase two assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammo and then use that same weaponry to carry out a crime he wouldn’t have been able to carry out otherwise. This is a simple, straightforward fact and a direct link between access to guns and a mass shooting.

Since the shooting, conservatives have blamed video games, rap music, lack of societal morals, lack of God and, of course, they are using mental illness as a crutch despite no credible news reporting that Salvador Ramos had been diagnosed with any kind of mental illness.

And now, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is leaning on another crutch Republicans have defaulted to for years—Chicago. 

MORE: Uvalde School Shooting Comes Days Before NRA Hosts Pro-Gun Texas Republicans Greg Abbot And Ted Cruz

“What about Chicago” has always been a weak argument, especially when it’s used to deflect calls for stricter gun laws. But beyond that, Republicans use “Chicago” the way kids who haven’t learned how to crack jokes yet use “I know you are but what am I?”and Abbott is no exception.

“I hate to say this, but there are more people shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas,” Abbott said, according to the Texas Tribune. “We need to realize that people who think, ‘Well, maybe if we implement tougher gun laws, it’s going to solve it,’ Chicago, LA and New York disprove that thesis.”

This argument is as tired as it is anecdotal. It ignores Chicago’s population density. It ignores the fact that cities bordering Chicago do not have the same strict gun laws. It ignores study after study after study after study that shows stricter gun laws are effective in reducing gun violence. And if we’re going to use large cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angels]es as “proof” of anything, we also need to look at how the U.S. is damn near leading the world in gun-related deaths while countries like Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway saw sharp reductions in mass shootings and gun-related deaths after—you guessed it—adopting stricter gun laws

Besides, conservatives literally never care about what’s going on in Chicago until it serves as a convenient political talking point.

But really, Abbott has always kept an empty platitude-driven narrative when it comes to the numerous mass shootings that happened in Texas on his watch.

From the Tribune:

It. Could. Have. Been. Worse.

Imagine being the leader of a state where 19 pre-teen children and two adults were ruthlessly gunned down and even having the audacity to be that dismissive. How about the fact that things could have been better if Ramos didn’t have ready and legal access to some of the deadliest guns on the market?

Abbott and the rest of his ilk are cowardly and perpetually disingenuous. And all their anti-gun control rhetoric means is that they, once again, plan on doing nothing to prevent future mass shootings.

SEE ALSO:

‘Cops Aren’t Doing Anything’: Uvalde School Shooting Investigation Spotlights ‘Unprepared’ Police Response

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Herschel Walker Among Republicans Desperately Defending 2nd Amendment After Uvalde Shooting

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Deflects To Chicago Gun Narrative Following Uvalde School Shooting  was originally published on newsone.com