On Saturday in Odessa, Texas, 36-year-old resident Seth Ator used a military-style rifle to open fire after a routine traffic stop. He first shot at Texas Department of Public Safety officials and then tried to escape in his vehicle, firing randomly at other pedestrians and drivers.
Seven people were murdered and 22 wounded. Ator was eventually killed in a shootout with officers.
It is the second mass shooting in August in Texas alone. But even that it not enough to make Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellconsider taking up any issue regarding gun reform, according to The Washington Post.
McConnell was asked during an interviewabout a House-passed bill to expand background checks on firearm sales. The bill has stalled in Congress since the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn.
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“Well, we’re in discussions about what to do on the gun issue in the wake of these horrendous shootings,” McConnell said in the interview. “I said several weeks ago if the president took a position on a bill so that we knew we’d actually be making a law, I’d be happy to put it on the floor.”
But without support from the current administration, the GOP will not take a solid stance on gun reform.
Just in August, three mass shootings claimed the lives of 38 people. Earlier in the month, back-to-back shootings at a Walmart in El Paso, and in a historic nightlife district in Dayton, Ohio, renewed the calls to pass stricter gun laws.
In an interview the Texas Tribune, Odessa Mayor David Turner said that “stronger mental health laws” would be a potential solution when the reporter asked him what more could be done to stop mass shootings.
When the reporter again asked what could be done, Turner said the community would “covet your prayers.”
