Texas GOP officials respond to elementary school shooting by calling for more guns and security in schools

• Texas Republican officials responded to the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde.
• State Attorney General Ken Paxton said he wanted "law abiding citizens armed and trained."

Two top Republican officials in Texas responded to the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde by declaring their opposition to tightening gun laws and calling for more security, including guns, in schools.

At least 19 children and two adults were killed in the mass shooting in Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. The shooter, who died at the scene, was carrying a handgun, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity magazines, police said.

Police said he purchased the weapons shortly after turning 18, when there are few legal restrictions in Texas on purchasing or carrying firearms.

The attack has renewed calls from Democrats and gun-control advocates for tighter gun laws to be passed in the state and federally, with Texas having some of the weakest gun laws in the US.

But in the wake of the shooting, Texas GOP officials refused to countenance tightening access to guns, calling for improved school security instead.

In a Tuesday interview with the conservative Newsmax TV channel, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the right response was to ensure more people had access to firearms to stop shootings.

"People who are shooting people, who are killing kids, they're not following murder laws so they're not going to follow gun laws," he said.

"This idea that if you ban guns from law-abiding citizens, somehow these people that kill people, they're going to follow the gun law but won't follow the murder laws, is somewhat ridiculous."

"So it makes no sense to me. I'd rather have law-abiding citizens armed and trained so that they can respond when something like this happens because it's not going to be the last time."

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also rejected calls for tighter gun laws, suggesting that more armed police should be stationed at schools instead.

"We know from past experience that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus," Cruz told MSNBC.

And in a Tuesday interview on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that the right response was to "harden the targets," or improve school security.

"We have to harden the targets so that no one can get in ever except though one entrance, maybe that would help, maybe that would stop someone," he said. "But it's really bigger than that, Tucker. We're a coarse society, we're a society that's just at each other's throats all the time, and we're better than that as a nation."

In impassioned remarks after the shooting, President Joe Biden called for Congress to finally act and tighten gun laws, and curtail the influence of the gun lobby.

Yet Carlson on his show accused the president of seeking to "politicize" the tragedy.

In the wake of two mass shootings in Texas in 2019, authorities in the state faced pressure to introduce more restrictions on the purchase of firearms. In response, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill aimed at closing "loopholes" when people report suspicions that someone may be planning a mass shooting.

But he has since weakened the state's gun laws, having signed a bill less than a year ago that allows citizens to carry a handgun without a license.