A day after Texas police chief described the May 24 response to the May 24 massacre as a “major failure,” Texas senators turned their attention Wednesday to mental health funding for schools and shortages. mental health counselors and providers. So far, lawmakers and witnesses at the Texas Capitol hearings have just mentioned the gun debate. On one of the few occasions he appeared, Democratic Sen. Jose Menendez asked Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, if the perpetrator could have done so much damage with a bat, knife or revolver. “No,” McCraw said. The harsh response to the attack that left 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary dead has angered the nation and a recent wave of deadly mass shootings has renewed pressure for more gun laws. By the end of the week, the U.S. Senate could pass new legislation that would strengthen background checks for newer firearms buyers and require more vendors to conduct background checks. The hearing in Texas on Wednesday had just begun when lawmakers who were not members of the committee argued over what kind of weapons should be allowed in the state Capitol, where revolvers are located, not rifles. Democrat Gina Hinozhosa wrote on Twitter that lawmakers should “be truthful about our ability to protect the public from AR-15s.” Briscoe Kane, one of the most conservative members of Parliament, replied that long rifles “should not be banned in the Capitol”. Outside the Texas Senate, nearly two dozen members of the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America lined up at the entrance, holding placards criticizing Republican Greg Abbott and urging lawmakers to consider new restrictions and restrictions. on the property. “We’re tired of these committees and roundtables after every mass shooting in Texas,” said Melanie Green of Austin. “They talk about what went wrong and it’s usually everything except weapons. We are tired of all the discussions and we want some action “. The group wants lawmakers to consider raising the age of possession of firearms from 18 to 21, reviewing all arms sales history and a “red flag” law that would allow authorities to take firearms from those deemed to be at risk. The gunman at Robb Elementary was an 18-year-old former student, Salvador Ramos. Green is not optimistic that any of these ideas will be adopted by the Republican-dominated group. “This panel is a dog and pony show. It is a documentary political theater. “But we are not going to give up,” Green said. Texas does not require a license to carry a long rifle like the one used in the Uvalde. Last year, lawmakers made it legal for anyone 21 and older to carry a public weapon without a license, background check or training. The Republican-dominated state legislature has spent the past decade lifting gun restrictions, even as Texas suffered a series of mass shootings at an El Paso Walmart, a church in Sutherland Springs and Santa Fe High School outside Houston. Republican Sen. Bob Hall tried to steer the inaugural hearing away from any gun debate. “You do not need a weapon. This man had enough time to do it with his hands or a baseball bat. “And so it is not the weapon, it is the person,” Hall said on Tuesday. Senator Royce West, one of the few Democrats on the Senate committee to raise the issue of gun control, said that “without discussing these rights and the limits associated with them, this would be an incomplete debate.” . However, it is the delays and errors in the response of law enforcement authorities at Robb Primary School that are at the heart of federal, state and local investigations. The state’s public security chief said Tuesday that police had enough officers and firepower at the school to stop Ramos three minutes after he entered the building, but waited more than an hour before storming the classroom and killing him. McCraw described a series of missed opportunities, communication errors and mistakes based on a survey of about 700 interviews. He also blamed much of the blame on Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief who McCraw said was in charge. Arredondo, who testified Tuesday in a closed-door hearing in a Texas House committee, said he did not consider himself responsible and assumed that someone else had taken control. He has repeatedly denied requests for comment from the Associated Press. The mayor of Ovalde denied McCroy’s testimony, blaming Arredonto, saying the Department of Public Safety had repeatedly published false information about the shooting and violated the role of its own officers. Public pressure has increased for state and local officials to release more information. On Wednesday, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Texas Department of Public Safety to hand over his records of his shooting investigation. The families of the victims “deserve to know the full, unchanging truth about what happened that day,” a Democratic lawyer wrote in the lawsuit.

Bleiberg reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

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