“We want to end school shootings, but we cannot do that by making false promises,” Abbott said.
Abbott also said he opposed “red flag” laws, saying that those laws “would deny lawful Texas gun owners their right to due process.”
O’Rourke, meanwhile, did not back away from comments that he made as a 2020 presidential candidate, in the wake of the racially motivated mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart in 2019, that he would seek to confiscate assault-style rifles such as AR-15s and AK-47s. But he said as governor, he would be “focused on what we can get done.”
He said that would include raising the age minimum to purchase such firearms to 21, implementing universal background checks and enacting “red flag” laws.
“This is the common ground,” he said, citing conversations with Republican and Democratic voters, as well as families of those slain in Uvalde.
— Eric Bradner in Abbott and O’Rourke clash over gun restrictions in lone Texas gubernatorial debate
