CNN correspondents Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell spoke with Texas Republican state Representative James White on Wednesday about the latest mass shooting.
On Tuesday, a gunman murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The weapons used by the killer were purchased legally under Texas gun laws.
You can see the interview here:
Several clips of highlights from the exchange also went viral on social media.
Blackwell asked White:
"What if anything should the Texas legislature do in response to what happened in Uvalde yesterday?"
Ignoring the question, White began listing well-known details from the shooting.
Camerota interjected:
"Mr. White, I’m sorry to interrupt. We know those details."
"What we want to know is what your solution is. And the reason I ask is because we’ve all seen how quickly and creatively Texas—your local legislature—can act when it wants to, say, protect the unborn embryo."
"Why not act with that alacrity to protect living, breathing 10-year-olds in this school behind me?"
Camerota added:
"Use that same blueprint that you used for your abortion law."
"Make there be waiting periods, make them have to come back to the scene more than once. Make them have to answer questions."
"Why can’t you protect living 10-year-olds?"
White responded:
"We have something called the Constitution.”
The Texas Republican didn't explain how the Constitution prohibits protecting live children, but not unviable embryos.
Constitution was written in the Colonal days, we had a foreign adversary on our land so every family had the right to protect themselves. No foreign adversary is on US soil now our Military, Fed/Local Law Enforcement protect families today.
2nd Amendment needs modifications NOW!
— ⚡️Kingdom of Champions⚡️ (@1KingChampion) May 26, 2022
White then turned to familiar pro-gun mass shooting rhetoric about mental health, saying:
"What we really need to be looking at is—whether it’s in Buffalo, whether it’s in Uvalde—is these young men, for some reason, that have some very disturbed emotional state."
"We need to look at our mental health system."
Undeterred by White's tap dancing, Blackwell stated:
"There’s no evidence there’s a mental health issue. [Republican Governor Greg Abbott] has said there is no known connection to mental health, uh, illness."
White claimed it was still about mental health, but Blackwell pointed out it was only the NRA—who gave White a 92% pro-gun rating—making claims about mental illness, not law enforcement or Texas' Republican governor.
Blackwell stated:
"[The NRA] say that this was the act of a lone, deranged criminal, [but] there was no evidence that there was mental illness."
White—not catching Blackwell's point the NRA's press releases are biased—just parroted the NRA's wording as proof, saying:
"Deranged is a state of mental health."
Ignoring the NRA rhetoric, Blackwell asked White if Texas lawmakers—who passed legislation to weaken gun control in the state—will "look at the guns."
White replied:
"We always look at the firearms."
"But at the end of the day, we’re gonna look at the people who do these acts, we’re gonna convict them, and we’re gonna punish them."
However Camerota informed White his solution was a nonsolution.
She said:
"Sir, you can’t convict him—because he was killed."
"Along with 19 children in the school behind me."
Unwilling to admit easy access to high powered weapons might be a factor, White then blamed school security for the latest school massacre.
People are fed up with Republicans who stick to the NRA script after every mass shooting.
Republicans: “Thoughts and prayers “.
NRA: “Thoughts and prayers “.
Nothing else to say here, is there?
— Craig Bruce (@CraigBruce1968) May 25, 2022
This is why they will never do anything pic.twitter.com/xE9SVumde0
— Gregory9 #NeverAgain (@Gregory9) May 25, 2022
i dont know what is more puzzling Alison asking an almost hard hitting question or that guy referencing how placing reasonable requirements on purchasing a gun is a constitutional issue and stripping a woman of her civil rights is just likeTuesday? WTF
— Stacey Justus (@sjustus5) May 26, 2022
Funny, he says, "no one has the RIGHT to tell him how to protect his family" in regards to gun possession but they won't protect women's RIGHTS!!
— iamjustme (@chrisg4ever) May 26, 2022
Big props to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell, going OFF on a Texas Rep. James White.
Just grilled him on how Texas can find a way to so easily put restrictions in place to make abortions impossible but can’t do same to make it at least hard to obtain assault rifles.
— J.P. Spencer (@JohnathanPerk) May 25, 2022
The NRA has graded members of Congress on their devotion to unrestricted firearm access for decades.
Based on his responses in the wake of a school massacre in his own backyard, White earned his 92% grade.
In 2021, tapes from 1999 of an NRA meeting to create a mass shooting PR strategy were leaked. Gun sales increase after mass shootings thanks to those efforts and red states further relax gun control.
In 2019, a White nationalism motivated mass shooting occurred in El Paso, Texas. But in June 2021, Texas GOP Governor Abbott signed into law seven measures to expand gun rights, one of which allows Texans to carry a handgun without training, a background check or a license.
