Beto O’Rourkedid not hesitate on Wednesday when a heckler seemingly mocked his speech for stricter gun laws in Texas following the elementary school shooting in Uvalde 11 week ago.
The former presidential hopeful — who is currently a Democratic candidate for governor, trying to defeatRepublican incumbent Greg Abbott— has been vocal about the outrage he felt over the shooting at Robb Elementary Elementary School, where 19 students and 2 adults were murdered on May 24.
Speaking out about the matter again early into his speech at a town hall held in the city of Mineral Wells, Texas, O’Rourke was quick to clap back at an Abbott supporter who laughed at his description of the killing.
“It may be funny to you, motherf—–, but it’s not funny to me,” O’Rourke, 49, said.
Video of the 80-minute town hallwas shared to O’Rourke’s social media accounts, a clip of his rebuttal later going viral on the web. The crowd in the room seemed to support O’Rourke too, erupting into applause and giving him a standing ovation.
Prior to the outburst, O’Rourke acknowledged Abbott’s supporters at his speech, even directing attendees to cheer them on for coming.
“I want to hear everyone. And I know there are some folks who will not vote for us in this next election — that’s okay,” he said. “My responsibility as your governor is to treat and serve everyone equally. So, I want to hear a round of applause for these Abbott supporters who are here.”
He continued, “You’re welcome to join us and we’re glad that you’re here.”
Beto O’Rourke.Alex Scott/Bloomberg via Getty
The laughter came his way while O’Rourke discussed the changes he was going to make to gun laws in the wake of the shooting.
After the giggles, and his expletive-laced response, O’Rouke continued on as if it had never happened.
“We’re going to make sure that our kids who are starting their school yea right now, that they don’t have to worry about somebody walking into their school with a weapon like this,” he promised. “That we take common sense steps, we find the common ground — Democrat as and Republicans, gun owners and non-gun owners alike. And make sure that, at a minimum, we raise the minimum age of purpose from 18 to 21 for an AR-15, that we have a universal background check for anyone who wants to buy a gun in the state of Texas, and then we have a red flag law.”
“We’ve had 5 of the worst mass shootings in US history in this state in the last 5 years just under Greg Abbott,” O’Rourke said. " You either accept that we are inherently evil and violent and deadly and love to kill each other and slaughter children where they sit, or that there is something that you and I can do together, regardless of the differences between us. That’s where I am right now."
Beto O’Rourke, Greg Abbott.Scott Eisen/Getty, Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo
This isn’t the first time O’Rourke made headlines with his disappointment in the current administration’s actions regarding gun violence in his state.
“The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing,” O’Rourke said. “You said this is not predictable? This is totally predictable!”
O’Rourke’s surprise appearance kicked off a flurry of activity, with several officials on stage, including Cruz, yelling back at the Democrat with profanities and at one point calling him, “pathetic.”
As he was being led away, O’Rourke could be heard saying, “This is on you, until you choose to do something different. This will continue to happen. Somebody needs to stand up for the children of this state or they will continue to be killed, just like they were killed in Uvalde yesterday.”
Abbott, who took office in 2015, later called the shooting “intolerable.” During his time in office, Abbott has backed several measures to loosen gun laws during his time in office, includingseven signed into law last June.
source: people.com
