Obama points finger at GOP, gun lobby in wake of Texas shooting

Former President Obama issued a scathing statement following the shooting at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday, pointing a finger at the Republican Party and the gun lobby for their soft response on tougher gun measures. 

“Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed, reading stories, singing lullabies—and in the back of their minds, they’re worried about what might happen tomorrow after they drop their kids off at school, or take them to a grocery store or any other public space,” Obama wrote in a Twitter thread on Tuesday, also expressing his condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the incident. 

“Michelle and I grieve with the families in Uvalde, who are experiencing pain no one should have to bear,” he wrote. 

“We’re also angry for them,” he added. “Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook—and ten days after Buffalo—our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies.”

“It’s long past time for action, any kind of action. And it’s another tragedy—a quieter but no less tragic one—for families to wait another day,” he wrote. 

“May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds,” Obama concluded. 

The shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is the deadliest school shooting since the one that took place in Newtown, Conn., during Obama’s presidency in 2012.

Obama’s remarks come as Texas authorities said Tuesday that 18 children and three teachers were killed following a shooting at Robb Elementary School. 

Local authorities identified the suspect as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, saying that he entered the local elementary school and opened fire, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) saying at an earlier press conference that Ramos was shot and killed by authorities responding to the incident. 

The massacre at Robb Elementary School happened a week after the mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets location in Buffalo, N.Y., which resulted in the deaths of 10 people and injuries to three others. 

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also ripped into his Senate colleagues who refuse to take meaningful action on gun reform following the school massacre. 

“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate, why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job of putting yourself in a position of authority if your answer is that, as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing?” he said on the Senate floor Tuesday. 

“What are we doing? Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this. … This isn’t inevitable. The kids weren’t unlucky. It only happens in this country,” he said.