Alisyn Camerota Tells GOP Rep, ‘Texas Can Act When It Wants to Protect the Unborn,’ So ‘Why Not Protect Living, Breathing 10-Year-Olds?’
CNN’s Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell pressed Texas Republican state Rep. James White about his state’s policies on firearms on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, an 18-year-old gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The massacre has prompted some to call for gun control legislation.
“What if anything should the Texas legislature do in response to what happened in Uvalde yesterday?” Blackwell asked.
White replied by recounting the details of the shooting.
“Mr. White, I’m sorry to interrupt,” said Camerota. She pointed to recent restrictions the state legislature has placed on abortion rights and asked why it does not act with the same speed in this instance:
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?
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 by defending Texas abortion laws by saying, “We have something called the Constitution.” He pivoted and said the state needs to look at its mental health system.
“There’s no evidence there’s a mental health issue,” Blackwell shot back. “The governor has said there is no known connection to mental health illness.”
White replied that “deranged is a state of mental health.” Blackwell pressed on and asked White if lawmakers will “look at the guns.”
“We always look at the firearms,” said White. “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.”
Camerota noted the shooter is dead.
“Sir, you can’t convict him – because he was killed.”
White went on to say that school security should be enhanced in the states’ schools.
Watch above via CNN.
