The Uvalde, Texas, elementary school where 19 students and two teachers were shot and killed by a lone gunman in May, is set to be demolished, said the local mayor. .Don McLaughlin, during a Tuesday council meeting, told attendees it was his "understanding" Robb Elementary School will be demolished and a new school will be built for the nearly 600 students, according to reports from The Guardian. .“My understanding — and I had this discussion with the [school district] superintendent — is that school will be demolished. You can never ask a child to go back, or teacher to go back, in that school ever,” McLaughlin said without indicating when the demolition would begin..McLaughlin made the comments amid growing outrage surrounding the delayed police response during the massacre on May 24 when the 18-year-old gunman, identified at Salvador Ramos, gained access to a classroom in the elementary and proceeded to shoot 19 students and two teachers..Officers arrived on scene and waited for 70 minutes before storming the school and shooting the gunman. .Texas Public Safety Chief Steve McCraw, during a state hearing of the investigation, slammed Uvalde police chief Pedro Arredondo who held back officers from entering the scene saying Arredondo "decided to place the lives of officers over the lives of children." .“The officers had weapons — the children had none. The officers had body armor — the children had none. The officers had training — the subject had none,” said McCraw..Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez launched a lawsuit on Wednesday against McGraw's department with the aim to force the agency to release records containing information on the response by officers at the elementary school during the tragic shooting. .Gutierrez said he is looking to dispel what he called "misinformation and outright lies" from statements submitted by officials that have evolved throughout the investigation. .“The state of Texas failed 21 Texans, their families, and countless others touched by the tragedy,” Gutierrez said..“We must not fail these families again with cover-ups and misinformation.”.On May 24, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at the home they shared before speeding off in a truck. He crashed the vehicle near the elementary school a short time later..While law enforcement was in pursuit, Ramos managed to enter the school and barricaded himself in a classroom terrorizing dozens of students and the their teachers. Officers waited 70 minutes to storm the school while the gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers before he was killed by police..The school shooting, along with the racially-motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, just 10 days earlier where 10 black people were targeted and shot, have prompted officials to push for more gun control legislation in the US. .In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on May 31 announced his government's plans to suspend the sale, importation, and ownership transfer of handguns with the proposed legislation contained in Bill C-21. The announcement prompted a gun buying frenzy across the country.
