Texas Gov. Greg AbbottTexas Gov. Greg Abbott put the blame for mass shootings directly on mental health issues – not guns – after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde.
What he didn’t mention, though, was just a month before he had cut $211 million from the state department that oversees such services in the Lone Star state.
After Uvalde, Abbott is doubling down on his stance that mass shootings are an issue of mental health and not gun access.
— KSAT 12 (@ksatnews) May 31, 2022
From San Antonio’s KSAT:
“We as a state – we as a society – need to do a better job with mental health. Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and do something about it.”
Those are the words of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott just days after an 18-year-old high school student massacred 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
However, in April, Abbott slashed nearly $211 million from the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), which oversees mental health services in Texas.
Oops…
Perhaps if you’re going to double down and say THIS issue is the problem – not guns – then maybe you shouldn’t have slashed the state budget for the HHS commission.
You don’t want to fund the department that oversees these things, but you don’t want to restrict access to guns…so what will you do, Gov. Abbott?
Six mass shootings have occurred in Texas during Gov. Abbott’s g tenure. Between the 2019 shooting in El Paso and this week’s massacre in Uvalde, the governor has lowered the legal age to purchase a gun, and signed permit-less carry legislation into law.
If you’re going to say Texas needs to do “a better job” addressing mental health, don’t cut hundreds of millions from the HHS Commission.
In 2020, the Texas Tribune reported the state of Texas ranked 50th in the country in terms of addressing mental challenges.
Texas Gov. Abbott says the Uvalde school shooter had a "mental health challenge" and the state needed to "do a better job with mental health" — yet in April he slashed $211M from the department that oversees mental health programs. https://t.co/psXFaffu4q
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 26, 2022
https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/1531710083410927617
“The reason for mass shootings is lack of access to mental health resources!”
– Greg Abbott, the same person that cut $200 million from the department that provides mental health resources for the “border crisis”
— Ariana Afshar (she/her) (@progressivebrat) May 31, 2022
6 mass shootings occurred in TX during @GregAbbott_TX’s tenure. Between the 2019 shooting in El Paso and this week’s massacre in Uvalde, the governor:
▪️ lowered the legal age to purchase a gun
▪️ signed permit-less carry legislation
▪️ slashed funding for mental health programs pic.twitter.com/YBR5darEu8— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) May 26, 2022