Texas Democrat calls for hearings on Uvalde school shooting

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, is calling for hearings on Capitol Hill to examine last week’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

“We will look comprehensively at Uvalde and the incident that occurred last Tuesday,” Jackson Lee told The Washington Post.

“We have children murdered as though they were at battle,” she added. “And that is not fitting of this nation.”

Jackson Lee, who represents a district a few hours away from Uvalde, attended a church service with President Biden and first lady Jill Biden in the city over Memorial Day weekend, the Post noted.

The Bidens visited Texas on Sunday to pay respects to the 21 people killed in the school shooting and attended a Catholic Mass honoring the victims.

In the wake of the school shooting, the president stated last week that the country should have “common sense” gun laws that will have “no impact” on the Second Amendment.

“The Second Amendment is not absolute. When it was passed you couldn’t own a cannon, you couldn’t own certain kinds of weapons,” Biden said one day after the massacre. “There’s just always been limitations.”

A bipartisan group of senators also began meeting last week in an effort to reach compromises on gun legislation.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who is leading those talks, tweeted that he has “been on the phone today w Republican and Democratic Senators trying to find the common denominator on a gun violence bill.”

“Senator [Majority Leader Charles] Schumer [D-N.Y.] has given us just over a week to find a compromise. This time, failure cannot be an option,” Murphy added.

The group is expected to meet Tuesday via a Zoom call, with discussions on expanding background checks and red flag laws possible.