Congressional Democrats who have blamed Republicans and a lack of gun control laws for the Tuesday school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, pushed a bill that would have banned federal funding for school police in 2020.
The Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act (CNCSA), introduced by Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy, Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith along with Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Jamaal Bowman in July 2020, would have prohibited federal funding from being used for police in schools. Some of the bill’s supporters are among those most vocally critical of conservatives for failing to pass legislation they believe would protect children.
Bowman blamed Republicans for the children’s deaths, called them “cowards,” referred to the GOP as “the party of death” and said Republicans were controlled by their donors.
“Republicans in the Senate helped kill a classroom of children,” he wrote. “This makes 214 mass shootings this year alone — all of which they are complicit in.”
Murphy, a longtime advocate for gun control, demanded that his colleagues “pass laws that make this less likely” in a Tuesday speech.
“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all of the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority, if your answer — as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives — we do nothing?” he asked.
Warren said the Senate needed to pass gun control legislation after the shooting and appeared to blame Republicans for blocking reforms.
“We’re sick and tired of gun violence, and we cannot let one political party block any solutions,” she wrote. “Our children deserve better.”
Smith also expressed outrage over a lack of gun safety laws Tuesday.
“The blockade of gun safety bills has caused an untold number of unnecessary deaths in this country,” she wrote.
Murphy, Warren, Smith, Pressley, Omar and Bowman did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
