Uvalde mayor says focus should be on mental well being, not gun control in wake of school shooting

May 25, 2022

UVALDE – A day after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 kids and two adults at Robb Elementary School with a gun he bought legally, Uvalde Mayor Don McLoughlin stated the focus should be on mental well being, not gun control.

In an interview with Amy Robach on Good Morning America, McLoughlin known as the shooter a “sick individual.”

“Everybody comes in and talks about immediately, ‘We want to do gun control. We want to sanction the gun lobbyist. We want to sanction this and want to sanction that,’” McLoughlin stated. “But you know what? Why don’t you politicians get off your butts and let’s talk about mental health and let’s do something.”

McLoughlin advised GMA that his coronary heart was damaged for the households and the children. He stated the necessity for mental well being resources is one thing “we’ve been screaming about for a long time in our communities.”

“The city donated land. We’ve been trying to get this mental health hospital built here,” McLoughlin stated. “When we have kids that are suicidal or kids that have thoughts like this or even adults, we have no place to take them.”

After Tuesday’s shooting, President Joe Biden delivered an urgent call for brand spanking new restrictions on firearms. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer swiftly set in movement a pair of firearms background-check payments.

“Please, please, please damnit – put yourselves in the shoes of these parents just for once,” Schumer stated as he opened the Senate.

McLoughlin stated he wasn’t in opposition to expanded background checks however wasn’t for including any gun restrictions, saying “if a bad guy was going to get a gun, he’s going to get a gun.”

“Right now, we’re spending billions down here on the border. What if we took that money and built facilities where we could treat the people in our home country? We got homeless people on the streets that have mental problems. We have kids that have mental problems, especially coming off a pandemic,” McLoughlin stated. “Everybody taps a horn and wants to beat the drum, but nobody wants to address the core problem, and that’s mental health. Until we do that, this is going to continue.”

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated there have been no recognized mental well being points with the shooter, who was recognized as Salvador Romas, 18, and stated there have been no indicators main as much as Tuesday’s occasions apart from a couple of posts on social media earlier than the shooting.

But Ramos’ classmates stated he expressed “aggressive” and disturbing habits in the previous. He not often attended school and didn’t socialize in the city of about 16,000, they stated.

His social media posts confirmed him boxing or coaching for combating, or with knives and weapons. Once, he confirmed up at school with deep cuts on his face. When requested about them, he stated they have been self-inflicted, the classmates stated.