all a very good and safe night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thank you all for staying up late with us. i will see at the end of tomorrow. e end of tomorrow i'm coming to you live from outside robb elementary school in, you validate texas, -- here i'll be honest with you, the thing that strikes me when you walk around this town, main street is just up there is how normal everything feels. the final days of school were canceled here yesterday, but it's graduation season here. there are big photos of local graduates, on signs outside of city hall, outside of businesses. driving down main street in uvalde, texas, you wouldn't know something so terrible's happened just blocks away.

two blocks away, life looks as it normally does. but something terrible did happen here. this community, this small community lost 21 of its people right here at this school, everything has changed forever, this will never be a normal spot again. this school, this town, becomes yet another name on a list that no one wants to be on. tonight, a vigil here in uvalde, texas is underway, it's paying tribute to yesterday's victims we will have much more throughout the show tonight, about the victims, the people who lost their lives. 19 children, and two teachers at robb elementary, we're still learning the identity of some of the children who were killed. they were eight, nine, ten years old. all of them in the same fourth grade classroom, murdered with their teachers. let me bring you up to speed with what we know at this point about how this massacre unfolded, as well as some of the things that we don't yet now.

this is the series of events laid out for us by texas law enforcement officials, and the texas governor greg abbott, who briefed reporters today. the shooter was an 18 year old high school drop out from uvalde. at about 11 am he apparently wrote in a facebook private message that he was going to shoot his grandmother. he then did shoot his 66 -year-old grandmother in the face at our home. unbelievably, she was able to get to a neighbor's house and the police were called. -- spoke with that neighbor, take a listen. >> i heard two bangs, two shots. i looked around, i couldn't see anything. all of a sudden, the door opens, and he comes out. he had a duffel bag and a backpack, puts it in the truck, gets in the truck, and he didn't drive, so he was trying to get it out of gear, out of

park, and he couldn't do it. some way, i guess he stepped on the brake and it came up, and took off. there is rocks flying all over. then she came out, and i saw she was all bloody. >> you're talking about his grandmother. >> his grandmother. she came out, and she told me, she called me beto, look at what my grandson did. i said let's get out of the street, come over here, we got her out, and my wife called the ems and the police. and between me and my wife we got her back there and put her in there. we heard shots, and we were afraid that he would come back. >> you heard the shots from the school?

>> well, we heard shots back here, here we didn't know if it was in the school or not. between me and my wife we said, we decided we'd bring her in. and then the police came in real fast, and they took her out with the immense out there and they took her away. >> miraculously, the shooter's grandmother is still alive, but she remains hospitalized. the gunman and then crashed his grandmother's pick up truck outside of the school, outside of robb elementary school. unarmed school resource officer confronted the man outside of the school, it's still not clear whether gunfire was exchanged at that point. what we do know, is that the shooter made it inside the school through a back door and the school resource officer as well as two uvalde police officers followed him inside. those two officers were wounded in an exchange of gunfire. the gunman locked himself inside a fourth grade classroom, and he began shooting the children and the teachers. eventually, a specialized

tactical team from the u.s. border patrol that happened to be nearby, we're not terribly far from the border with mexico, that team arrived. they got into the classroom, they killed the gunman, the shooter may have been inside the school for more than an hour before he was killed. there have also been conflicting reports on whether he was wearing body armor. he carried out the attack with one of two ar style assault rifles that he bought in the days immediately after his 18th birthday, on may 16th. late into last night, parents were still learning whether their children were among the victims. the carnage inside the classroom was apparently so bad, the parents were being swabbed for dna, so that their children could be identified. today, in uvalde, the texas governor greg abbott was joined by state officials and the states senators at a press conference about the massacres. they were pressed by reporters on how they could prevent something like this in the future. remarkably, they mostly said, that they had already done all that they could. we they talked a great deal about the bills that they passed three years ago, not gun

control bills, mind you, but bills to quote, hard in schools. like funding armed security officers at schools, requiring districts to provide bleeding control stations, essentially battlefield tourniquets in accessible locations on school campuses. of course, there was an armed officer at robb elementary school, that did not stop the shooter from killing 21 people. president biden addressed the shooting today saying, quote, the second amendment is not absolute. the idea that an 18 year old could walk into a store and buy weapons of war designed and marketed to kill is, i think, just wrong. he said that he and the first lady will travel to texas in the coming days to meet with the families of the victims. again, tonight, uvalde, gathered in a vigil for the victims and their families as this community seems to come to terms with its loss, and wonders what comes next. joining me now here in uvalde, texas is tony plohetski, he's an investigative reporter for

the austin american-statesman, you and i have unfortunately aside history, you and i met in texas is at the scene of another mass killing, it was at a church. it happens, and we have thoughts and prayers, and we have calls to do something. more often than not, we will talk about examples where change does come, but more often than not it doesn't come. what's happening in the state? , what's the discussion that's happening about these killings? >> i think we just saw how high the temperature is, with beto o'rourke, a gubernatorial candidate, walking up to the stage during the governor's news conference today, and saying that essentially he has blood on his hands. it was an extraordinary moment between the sitting governor of the state of texas, and a gubernatorial candidate. >> and he got escorted out? >> yes, after some tense words were engaged by officials on

the stage, and beto on the floor. i think across the state of texas, people are having the same conversation that, frankly, they have done in 2019 at the shooting at the walmart in el paso. in 2017, after the shooting in sutherland springs. and that is, what's truly can be done? how can the state and lawmakers here in texas strike a balance between observing second amendment gun rights, and keeping the people, and particularly the children of our state safe? >> tony, let's talk about what we don't know yet. we have a lot of information about what happened yesterday. we're not so sure on the front and about what happened, where the shooter was, how it got, there what's happened when he first got in. obviously, we learn more as we saw at the border patrol, the tactical unit came in and that's how it ended. there is still a lot more investigating to do about this. >> there certainly is, and oftentimes after something like this happens, there is a deep desire for motive. people truly want to understand

exactly why a person would have done what they did. i have learned one fact from law enforcement officials, and that is that the gunman's grandmother apparently worked at this elementary school, but that her employment stopped in may 2020. so, officials are trying to determine whether there is some connection there, or what exactly that connection is. but you certainly know, and i know from covering mass shootings, and other major crimes like this. that sometimes the real meaning dies with the person. so, that very well maybe what happened here. >> tony, thank you, i hope one day we will not meeting circumstances like this. it's kind of the story of america these days, where we're running into each other like this, tony plohetski is an investigative reporter with the austin american-statesman. we're slowly learning the names of the victims of this mass shooting, as their neighbors and their family gather together to grieve the incalculable loss of their

loved ones. throughout the show we're gonna be saying their names, and sharing just a little bit about each person, each life lost ten year old althia ramirez, loved to draw. her father said she wanted to be a artist, rojelio torres'aunt says he was hardworking, he was helpful, he was ten years old. eliahna garcia family said she loved to dance place for us. tess marie mata was a fan of ariana grande and the houston astros. the family says she was saving up for a trip to disney, ten -year-olds -- alendrina rubio and received a good citizen award, just hours before the shooting. well today the city of buffalo laid to rest the retired police officer aaron salter. when a gunman came in and killed ten members of the community, including salter himself.

aaron salter fired at the gunman multiple times, but the gunman was wearing a tactical helmet and a bulletproof vest. the deputy police commissioner of buffalo remembered aaron salter as, quote, just a good person. a good person with a gun, who lost his life trying to stop a mass murder. 1700 miles away from that funeral in buffalo, here in uvalde, texas, officials have confirmed that an armed school resource officer was president when another alleged shooter arrived at a local elementary school. the picture still emerging for what happened next, but we know that the alleged gunman was able to enter the school, and was not subdued until sometime later, after the carnage that killed at least 19 children and two adults, had already ensued. america has experienced two horrific mass shootings in ten days, in each case armed men were present who tried to stop the shooters. aaron salter lost his life in the process, but the massacre

still happened. that reality should be enough to finally dispense with the ridiculous anti gun safety bro mind, that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. and yet, texas republicans response to the massacre is familiar. one that says, more people with guns always, more people with the guns. >> there's no doubt we need to do more to keep children in school safe, we know from past experience that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe, is armed law enforcement on the campus. >> we can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators. >> texas republicans have repeatedly and consistently pushed policies to increase the number of guns in their state. just a year, ago the texas governor, greg abbott, signed seven bills into law, all designed to make it easier to purchase and carry a gun in texas.

on friday, texas senator ted cruz and governor greg abbott are scheduled to speak at it nra annual convention in texas. texas's other senator, john corden was also scheduled to speak at that event, but he pulled out at the last minute claiming he's got a scheduling conflict. well, the voters of texas continue to support those leaders, if the response to those tragedies is to push for more guns, and more hands, in more places. joining us now is rachelle garza, she's a democratic candidate for texas attorney general, who is challenging the republican incumbent ken paxton, whom you just heard talking about how texas should be army arming teachers. >> thank you for having me here. >> what do you think about attorney general paxton solution, it's not far off from most state level republicans in the state that the answer to problems like this is more people with guns, more security, heartedly these places, blood banks, things like that, or not

dealing with the fundamental underlying problem. >> i think that's absolutely the wrong solution, he has not given us any sort of help for these communities. look, i'm a fifth generation texan, i love texas, i grew up hunting, and i knew know how to use guns safely. we need to do better, we need to have better policies that are here to protect communities we can't go on like this. i'm a new mom, i just had a two month old little girl, and i'm fearful for the day that i have to send her to school, -- >> it's weird, right. that's the safe space in somebody's life, that's the place where your kids are supposed to go, and come out unharmed. >> that's right. i come from a family of public school teachers. i know that the solution is not to arm them. we need to make school safer. and ken paxton is too busy worrying about his indictment, his fbi investigation, to actually come up with solutions that will help people. that is why i'm running for

this office, to unseat this person who does not care about our families and does not provide solutions to what we are seeing here uvalde in. >> the overwhelming majority of americans believe in some types of common sense gun reforms like background checks, red flag laws, things like that. what do you do to convince people? you are in a state where, more than other states, people take their second amendment rights very, very seriously. it is in the constitution and it is their right. >> yeah. >> -- the narrative has become, democrats will take your guns. people who want gun reforms are going to take your guns. how do you have that conversation? you must have people in your family and your constituents who worry that this stuff leads to gun confiscation's. >> look, i am a civil rights lawyer and i believe in a responsible gun ownership. as i mentioned, i did grow up hunting. i am a texan, i love texas and this is part of our culture. i also grew up with a father

who is a judge. and i had to learn how to use guns for protection. so, i understand these things. but what we saw here -- this is not texas. and this is not -- i mean, we need to do better. we need to do better by protecting our children. this community is very much like a community that i come from. and it is deeply heartbreaking for me. my heart breaks for these families and my heart breaks for the children that i saw watching all of this news. because what is the future that they are going to go into? this is why we have to hold politicians accountable. >> what is doing better look like to you? are there tangible examples? because, if you win, this falls into your purview. what does it look like? how do you stop things like this from happening. because we don't fully know yet why things like this happen. everyone has a different answer. it is a mental health issue or it is someone playing too many video games, whatever the case may be. but what do you do about it? because people get their hands on guns and then they do bad things. lots of people have their hands

on guns and do not do bad things. how does reconciling this feel like to you? >> we need to have a conversation and bring everyone to the table. texas has the most permissive gun laws in the country. we just passed permit-less carry. we have constitutional carry. these, obviously, are not the policies that will make us safer. so, we really need to look at licensing. we need to look at responsible gun ownership how to properly use a firearm, making sure that people do not use these weapons to harm people. there are policies that we can put in place. but we do not have that conversation -- >> do you believe that that is true, though? do you believe that you can do something that does not infringe on second amendment constitutionally protected rights that can slow down and lessen these types of incidents? because there are so many of them. >> i know. i know that everyone in this country and everyone in this state is just absolutely

exhausted of waking up in the morning and hearing about this horrific loss of life. as i mentioned, i worry about my daughter. i worry about the future she is going into. that's why i got into this race. i want to make sure i am protecting her and the next generation. and we can come up with policies that are going to protect people. there are solutions. we just have not had a conversation. >> thank you for being with us, i'm sorry for the loss that you have suffered. >> thank you. >> rochelle garza is a democratic candidate for texas attorney general. look, i guess the question i was just asking is that it is hard not to feel defeated by this idea of their not being a solution. if you feel defeated by the idea that nothing can be done about gun killings, even after a mass shooting that killed little children, then i think it is incumbent upon us to think again. when we come back, we will talk with someone who has achieved a pretty big victory over a gun manufacturer. that is just ahead. but first, i want to talk more about the victims.

the victims of this shooting. ten-year-old jose flores loved baseball. he got an award for making the honor roll just hours before he died. and annabell guadalupe rodriguez was a quiet child, an honor roll student who was close friends with her cousin and classmate jacklyn it cazares. both girls were killed. we will be right back. both girls were killed we will be right back. to be clear, we have never been accused of being flashy, sexy or lit. may i?

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attorney's office to pursue justice for everyone. but like so many of my colleagues, i resigned in protest because chesa boudin interfered in every single case and failed to do his job. the office is absolutely in disarray right now. chesa dissolved my unit prosecuting car break-ins. now criminals flock to san francisco because there are no consequences. we can't wait. jackie speier leaves big shoes to fill. recall chesa boudin now. i rose through the ranks to captain in the army.

expanded access to education as a nonprofit leader. had a successful career in business. and as burlingame mayor during the pandemic, raised the minimum wage, increased affordable housing, and preserved our bayfront open space. i am emily beach. i'll take my real-life experience to get things done for us. i approve this message, and all these shoes too. joining me now is ronald garza, a county commissioner here in uvalde and a lifelong member of the community. commissioner, you are not just a lifelong member. like many people here, you are multigenerational and from here. your grandfather -- your father? >> my father. >> he was a teacher at robb elementary school and you described it to me like a desert. the trees that were there, they were not there. they are pecan trees. >> yes, pecan trees. >> and your father planted them?

>> yes, when he arrived in 1965, there was not a single tree here at all. he got three foot high pecan trees on his own and planted and watered them every day after school. >> so, you are really deeply connected here. >> yes, i went to school here myself. >> tell me how the community is dealing with this. i drove in today and it is small. it is a small place. it is busy and it is a small place today. 21 people died, and everyone must know them. >> it is a small tight-knit community, that comes up a lot these last few days. and we are grieving. we are mourning. and we are so tight-knit as a community that my two neighbors across the street -- one of them lost a grandchild. my other neighbor lost her daughter-in-law, who was a teacher here. that's how close knit a community we are. we are grieving.

but we are dealing with it. >> when i was coming down main street, i saw the graduation pictures of high school students. >> yes. >> and i saw the pride that the community takes -- in the idea that people graduated from high school. the photographs line the street. and there's billboards in front of the school and in front of the city hall. i couldn't imagine the irony of that, that you are celebrating the people who made it through high school and 19 of these people -- they died. >> you know, a lot of good students have walked the hallways at robb elementary school. we have educators, professors, lawyers, doctors that have come out of this school. what can we say about the teachers? they have dedicated hours and days to help students, to make that student a better person. this one tragic incident that happened yesterday does not define our community. it does not define robb

elementary school. our community is a great community. we may have some differences. but when a crisis comes up like this and when there is a need, our community unites. >> what about the differences around guns? again, coming down main street, while i saw those pictures of students, i saw gunshots and there's a person's pick up truck advertising that you can get your gun license from him. and you can talk to him. and i said, what do you think about here that they are training people to use guns and a few blocks away that there was this killing? it did not strike him as unusual. >> in our area it's deer country. it brings in money to our community. we get a lot of hunters. however, if you do a poll here in uvalde, the majority of people would say -- and the majority of people i have talked to say -- why do we need automatic weapons? shouldn't there be more gun laws?

and more rules in place to ensure that incidents like this do not occur? when is this going to stop? it is not going to until congress takes action. will it work? we'll passing more laws and rules work? well, it cannot hurt. because doing nothing is not helping our country. >> what do you say to the argument -- >> a lot of people here have guns. >> that's correct. >> what do you say when people say, it is not us. we are law-abiding gun users. we don't harm anyone or shoot anyone. everyone who does these things, they say, is mentally ill or motivated by something else or something highly specific. do you have that discussion with your constituents? >> yes, i do. >> you have it with your friends and family? >> yes. there is that saying that says, guns don't kill people, people kill people. but in the end, it is that

individual that went and purchased it. purchased that rifle and used it. that automatic rifle to commit these crimes. our current system and current laws are not working. and look what happened here yesterday. they are not working and congress needs to do something. i think that the polls show that the majority of americans want stricter gun laws. and this is a perfect example of why we need them. >> commissioner, thank you for joining me. we appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you. >> we wish great healing for you in the community. >> thank you so much. commissioner ronald garza's uvalde county commissioner. we will next talk to someone who won after taking on the gun industry. but first i want to talk to you more about the victims. eliahana cruz torres loved softball and was looking forward to the last game of the season.

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president donald trump, texas senator ted cruz, we , we now, it's easy to lose hope when you see republicans not changing their behavior at all after a tragedy like this, but it's important to remember that when elected leaders won't budge, apply pressure. this was the former florida governor, rick scott, speaking at that same big annual nra event in 2017, that was a year after the pulse nightclub shooting in orlando, they killed 49 people. there he was on stage in an event held by the nra, which consistently gave rick scott an a+ rating, and ran ads supporting scott in election after election after election. but then, there was the shooting at marjory stoneman high school in parkland, florida. 17 people were killed, 14 others were injured. the political aftermath of that shooting, could have easily been just the same empty gestures that we've seen from

republicans time and again on this issue, but it wasn't, not totally, this was florida governor rick scott in 2018, three weeks after that shooting. and what you see him doing there, he's signing a law that raises the minimum age for all gun purchases in florida from 18 to 21. it also added a three-day waiting period for buying a gun, and banned the bump stock attachment that retrofits a rifle so it fires almost as fast as a fully automatic weapon, where you pull the trigger once and multiple bullets come out. that bill that rick scott signed, was the first piece of successful gun control legislation in florida, in more than 20 years. and the nra bumped rick scott down from an a to a c. now, was that florida legislation perfect? no, not by a long shot.

but if it existed in texas, yesterday's shooter would not have been able to casually buy the guns the way he did. so, how did that florida legislation happen? how did the nra's preferred candidate, an a+ defender of its cause end up adopting a common sense gun reform? it was the activists. the activists that came out in support of doing something. they came out of the marjory stoneman douglas shooting, the kids made it happen. they kept the issue in the spotlight, they made it one that scott could not ignore, even if he wanted to. this is a great example of how pressure works. politicians can afford to alienate some voters to keep the nra happy, but at some point that has to give. it is easy to feel that there is no way to make progress on this issue, particularly in the last ten days. but recent history tells us the change is, in fact, possible. that's not all, by the way, since 2018, 14 states have

passed what are called red flag laws. these are the states. they allow loved ones or the police to petition the courts to confiscate firearms from people who might be at risk of harming themselves or others. that too came about because of public pressure. and earlier this year, remington, the manufacturer of the ar-15 style rifle that the shooter at sandy hook elementary used to kill 20 children, six school employees, and his mother, remington settled a lawsuit with families of the victims of that massacre for $73 million. it's believed to be the largest payout by a gun manufacturer in a mass shooting case, and was particularly notable because for well over a decade, federal law has essentially shielded the entire firearms industry from litigation. now, the family of one of the victims of the buffalo mass shooting may use that lawsuit as a roadmap to seek justice for themselves. so, progress is possible, it takes an awful lot of effort, but it is possible. joining us now is joshua koskoff, the attorney who got

that groundbreaking settlement from remington for the families of the victims of the sandy hook massacre. thanks for joining us tonight, i hope that you can help our viewers understand the basis of your lawsuit in sandy hook, how it might be a road map for holding manufacturers of weapons, including the ones used in the buffalo supermarket shooting, responsible. >> i'd be happy to, ali. when we focus on the lawsuit, something i learned in the research and investigation of that case: ar-15s were always available in america. when you and i were growing up, you can get an ar-15, but we didn't grow up in the age of mass shootings. and all of that changed sometime around the mid 2000s, when private equity money came in from new york, and they decided they would build and revitalize the gun industry by courting purchases of ar-15s,

instead of having consumers seek out ar-15s, ar-15s were selling about 100,000 units a year in 2005, by 2002. 1 million. and what we found -- >> wow. >> yeah, wow is right. the reason why we're seeing all this mass shooting, it's not mental illness, as the governor of texas says. the nra, or the acolytes. when you and i were growing, up there was also mental illness, there was also kids getting bullied, there is also all these things. these kids were not being courted to sell combat weapons by the gun industry. why weren't they being courted? not because the gun industry is a particularly ethical industry, but because they couldn't court them. they couldn't court them, because natural barriers were in place that prevented kids

and teenagers from getting access or information on the weapons. what we learned, is that a change in the mid 2000s, as money comes in, and they said -- a greater market for them, by courting these users through the modern means of courtship for marketing, this is the internet. and now it's going around the parents, we don't know what kids are looking at, and the kids are getting courted by these companies, and that led to this explosion in sales. that led to this exponential increase in mass shooting. it was a simple cause and effect to draw, when we saw the information. but i think it's really surprising to learn that this is an old product, the ar15. it hasn't changed one bit. -- >> it hasn't changed, the audience has changed. and one of the things you learned in this case, and addition to getting cash, part

of the settlement that you achieved was remington agreeing to release thousands of pages of internal company documents, including plans for, as you just described, how they marketed the weapon in particular that was used in sandy hook. what do you do with those documents? what did you learn from them, what did you do with them? >> essentially explain this to your listeners. the incidents of mass shootings that we're seeing today, is not a coincidence, it's not because all of a sudden the country became full of mentally ill people. it's because of this concerted effort by the gun industry, to sell as many ar-15s as they could to an expanded market, notably to hook kids and teenagers growing up. we think about the 18 year old who perpetrated this terrible shooting yesterday, the day he turned 18 he knew the weapon he was getting. why? because the company has been

courting him for years, through the internet, through first person shooter games, i think the public will see exactly what was going on, and will answer a lot of these questions of people are asking today. >> joshua, thank you for joining us tonight, -- the families of the victims of the sandy hook massacre. we appreciate your time. one way to change things is for politicians to run on the issue of gun reform and to win, coming up next we're gonna talk to a congresswoman who did exactly that. but first, i want to tell you a little bit more about the lives that were lost here in uvalde, texas. 11 year olds jailah nicole silguero, her relatives said she loved to dance. her smile would bring energy into the room. her and her cousin jayce carmelo luevanos were babies, they were the babies of the family. jayce liked to make his parents a pot of coffee every morning, he was ten years old. xavier javier lopez was a kid

who liked to dance with his brothers and his mom, she saw her ten year old for the last time at the schools awards ceremony on tuesday. the more information i found, got me more curious. it showed how much my family was really rooted in campbell county. we discovered that our family has been in new mexico for hundreds of years. researching my family has given me a purpose.

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worth of gun control measures failed and stalled in congress across multiple administrations. but we do know that the vast majority of americans support things like universal background checks. we've seen candidates run on platforms that are dedicated to gun

reform, and they've won. candidates like lucy mcbath, democratic congresswoman from georgia, who got into politics after her son jordan was shot and killed by a white man who was angry about the music he was playing back in 2012. she became a gun control activist in 2018. after the parkland shootings in florida, she ran for congress and she won, flipping a seat that was historically held by republicans. last night, she won her primary for reelection, she sponsored two bills that passed the house, that would have expanded background checks, and closed some loopholes. when we have a senate that hasn't even taken up those bills, what can congress do? how do we make that sort of change happen? lucy mcbath joins me now. thank you for joining us, we appreciate having you here, congresswoman. yesterday, when you addressed your supporters after winning your primary, you spoke about

the shooting right here, at the school i'm at, robb elementary, you said we cannot be the only nation where one party sits on its hands, as children are forced to cover their faces in fear. how do you convince republicans -- i'm not going to say how do you convince people of it, because you don't actually convince people of that. the american people are on the side of tighter gun legislation but how do you convince republicans, particularly in the senate, to understand that and act on it? well just last week we were having these very same discussions about the lives that were lost in buffalo, new york. i actually have family that live in that community. we just cannot afford these shootings to circulate, in and out of our national dialogue, only to be forgotten before the next tragedy. these horrific acts of violence, they are just going to continue

to persist, with despicable frequency. if we do not have the courage to stand up and for our communities. we just have to continue to take immediate action. my colleagues in washington, we have to continue to we -- take immediate action, and just vote on measures to protect our communities and children, like the red flag bill that i have introduced in congress, and many other pieces of legislation that we are going to have to introduce, but in particular the red flag bill that i have sponsored, it's already been passed out of the judiciary committee, leader hoyer has already said that we are going to be taking this legislation on the floor in the coming week, when we get back to washington. we've got to pass this legislation and many more pieces of legislation, because peoples'lives are literally depending on these policies. >> so let me ask you about that, because these red flag laws are, in states at least, they get

some bipartisan support because they are no-brainer, right? if somebody is a threat and has done things that we demonstrate that they might be a threat, it is overwhelmingly towards women, by their spouses their husbands their partners. but it's easy for people to identify that, it's not without due process, a judge has to hear it. it makes sense. >> absolutely, we know that the states that have actually passed this legislation, such as florida, after the parkland tragedy, we recognize, statistically, that those homicide rates, they go down drastically. we know that in the states that have red flag laws, there are decreased numbers of homicides and murders, we know that these laws work, and that's the reason why it's so important that we take for this policy, that we make sure that we're doing everything that we can to

make sure that our community, our families, and our children are safe. >> congresswoman, i'm just showing our viewers right now, there's just a stream of people who keep coming in to the school, laying wreaths on the ground, they're balloons or things like that. i talked about one of the young girls who died, and how she likes playing with play-doh. these are children. you have a unique voice in this. you, like the parkland students, took huge grief from the tragedy and ded something with it. what do you say to the parents of these children, who have been killed here? would it devastating to thing to lose eight, nine, ten year old children. >> well, you know, ali, these are very, very kind of difficult moments that are so devastating for the families. so devastating for those that are left behind to pick up the pieces. and what i want to say is, i know that thoughts and prayers

are not enough, i know that there are not enough, and i know that our families continue to hear this over and over again, but i want to assure them that there are just an army of volunteers and grassroots movements, organizers, on actions for gun safety for america, my colleagues and i on the gun prevention task force in washington. we are moving, we are actioning, because i understand what it's like to lose a child, i understand what it feels like those moments after, when you recognize that your child is gone. and just for some of the most unnecessary reasons. and i understand that i will not rest, i will do everything in my power as many of my colleagues to make sure that no one suffers unnecessarily, because this is just horrific, it is a public health crisis,

and it must be dealt with. >> congresswoman, thank you so much for joining, us thanks for what you're doing in this battle, i'm gonna leave my viewers with a shot of somebody who has just laid another wreath at that memorial, we'll be right back with another interesting conversation. - common percy! - yeah let's go! on a trip. book with priceline. you save more, so you can “woooo” more. - wooo. - wooo. wooooo!!!!! woohooooo!!!! w-o-o-o-o-o... yeah, feel the savings. priceline. every trip is a big deal.

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three more victims, ten-year-old makenna lee elrod's family says she loved to go to school. irma garcia taught at the elementary for 23 years, she especially loved teaching children how to read. eva mireles was an educator for 17 years, she was known for her dedication to students, joining us now is -- villalobos a former employee --

the reason you're here, and this wasn't planned, but you, like those people who are over there, you went in remembrance, who did you know here? >> well, i worked with miss garcia. but, prior to her working here in uvalde, she worked 20 miles from here, she was my sons teacher. and my son had a hard time going to school, so she would buy him happy meals, and take him happy meals, and he would have lunch with her at school, she didn't do this for all the kids she did it for my son she would take him donuts and snacks, because he was just having a hard time, and she was just amazing with him. he just loved her so much, and she loved him so much. i don't doubt one bit that she stood right there in front of the government and said, you are not taking my kids, you're not gonna hurt my kids, because that's the type of person that she was. she was just amazing, and i just can't believe this. >> i'm sorry for your loss.

thank you for telling us a little bit about her, it does help us to hear the story of the people who lost their lives here yesterday. thank you i'm sorry. >> there are so many people here, who are leaving, things are coming, they're crying, they're grieving. it won't be enough, but that's what's happening here in uvalde, that's it for us, it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, ali. lawrence, good evening to you. and i know it's been a difficult hour of reporting for you there on the scene. for you to have spent so many weeks in ukraine so recently, now to be back in the united states covering the tragedy of death by gunfire again here -- >> it is hard, lawrence. thank you for that. we will see you on your show and i will see you tomorrow. >> thank, you ali.