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Gunman Sent Chilling Text Messages Before Shooting; 19 Children, Two Teachers Killed In Texas School Shooting; Investigators Release Details On Gunman's Rampage; Republicans Largely Dismiss Talk Of Reforming Gun Laws; U.S. Senator Begs Republican Colleagues To Pass Gun Reforms. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired May 26, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[00:00:51]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
We begin with a small Texas community and a nation in mourning as the investigation into Tuesday's deadly school shooting raises new questions about why it happened and how law enforcement responded.
Vigils are underway in Uvalde, Texas for the 19 children and two teachers gunned down inside Robb Elementary School by an 18-year-old high school dropout. Others have been leaving flowers and balloons at a makeshift memorial outside the school in the mostly Latino community not far from the border with Mexico.
A friend of the government says Salvador Ramos had a history of fighting which can be seen here in video obtained by CNN.
Texas authorities report he had no criminal record, no known history of mental illness.
We have more now on the investigation from CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: I'm going to shoot an elementary school.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That was one of the chilling messages the Uvalde gunman sent to a 15-year-old girl in Germany, at 11:21 Central Time in Texas, just 15 minutes before the shooting at Robb Elementary School.
ABBOTT: Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday.
LAVANDERA: The 18-year-old gunman drove to the elementary school where he would kill 19 children and two faculty members, just two days before they were heading out for summer break. Before the school shooting, the gunman wrote messages that foreshadowed the carnage he was about to inflict.
ABBOTT: I'm going to shoot my grandmother. I shot my grandmother.
LAVANDERA: The suspect t is described by Texas investigators as a dropout of the local high school. After crashing his grandmother's truck in a ditch, officials say he entered the school building and classrooms shooting children and teachers.
ABBOTT: Officers with the consolidated and the school district, they approached the gunman and engaged with the gunman at that time. The gunman then entered a back door and went down two short hallways and then into a classroom on the left hand side.
LAVANDERA: Investigators say from the moment the shooter engaged with the campus officer outside the elementary school, until he was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent inside a classroom, it was an ordeal that lasted 40 to 60 minutes. Police, state troopers, and even parents went around the school, breaking windows, trying to help children escape.
Adolfo Hernandez has a nephew at the school.
ADOLFO HERNANDEZ, NEPHEW SURVIVED SHOOTING: We saw the teacher get shot and another kid get hit in the face.
LAVANDERA: You saw another classmate get shot in the face?
HERNANDEZ: We saw it all from across the hall.
LAVANDERA: The gunman barricaded himself inside the elementary school.
CHIP KING, UVALDE, TEXAS FIREFIGHTER: It was probably 30 minutes after we arrived, after I arrived, I know that the shooter was neutralized.
LAVANDERA: Posing with rifles, the gunman lived at his grandparents' home, just blocks from the school.
On Tuesday, after he shot his grandmother, he took her truck and hit the road, driving without a license.
STEVEN MCGRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: He crashed the vehicle at that point. And then, he exited. He exited with a backpack. He took a rifle with him. He went towards the west side of the campus.
LAVANDERA: He had two assault style rifles purchased legally for his birthday, days apart within the last week.
ABBOTT: He used one weapon, which was an AR-15.
LAVANDERA: He also bought 375 rounds of ammunition. One rifle was left in the truck. The other rifle was found with him in the school, along with seven 30-round magazines. Investigators also found a backpack with several magazines full of ammunition near the entrance to the school.
The gunman's motive is still unknown.
LAVANDERA (on camera): What is still not clear is what happened in that initial moment were the gunman approached the school and confronted by the school police officer. We are told that shots were not fired in that moment, a DPS, a Texas State Trooper official tells CNN tonight that in that moment, the gunman dropped his backpack and then ran inside the school.
But there hasn't been a real explanation yet as to why the officer didn't fire at the gunman before he went inside the school, killing 19 students and two faculty members, Ed Lavandera, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.
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[00:05:03]
VAUSE: Slowly we're learning more about the lives of the 19 children and two teachers who were shot dead by a lone teenager with a semi- automatic.
One of the teachers is Irma Garcia, a wife and mother of four children. Garcia's nephew told The Washington Post Irma died shielding students from gunfire.
Amerie Jo Garza was just 10 years old. Her father told CNN's Anderson Cooper how he learned that his little girl was never coming home from school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGEL GARZA, DAUGHTER KILLED IN SHOOTING: So, I got confirmation from two of the students in her classroom that she was just trying to call authorities and I guess he just shot her. How do you look at this girl and shoot her? Oh, my baby. How do you shoot my baby?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: All of the dead were in the same fourth grade class, all 19 young lives described as precious that teachers said to be dedicated and caring.
More now from CNN's Lucy Kafanov.
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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are the faces of the future, lost to a nation's violent present.
Jose Flores, Jr., a fourth grader full of energy, his father said, ready to play until the night.
Uziyah Garcia, a 10-year-old who loved football and video games.
Lexi Rubio, a little girl who wanted to go to law school, just like her mother. Lexi Rubio's family overcome as they recall her sweetness and to plea that her life has impact. FELIX RUBIO, LEXI RUBIO'S FATHER: All we can hope is that she's just not a number.
KAFANOV: Lexi is one of 19 children that were all gunned down in a fourth grade classroom, whose parents held on to hope that they would hold their children once gone.
Amerie Jo Garza's father, Angel, wrote on Facebook, it's been seven hours and I still haven't heard anything on my love. Please, help me find my daughter.
This morning, the heartbreaking update. She's been found. My little love is now flying high with the angels above, Garza wrote. Please don't take a second for granted. Hug your family, tell them you love them. I love you Amerie Jo.
10-year-old Javier Lopez had a smile his mother says she'll never forget. He was among the honor roll students who attended an award ceremony the morning of the shooting.
HAL HARRELL, UVALDE SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT: As I look at their pictures, you can just tell by their angelic smile that they were loved, that they loved coming to school. And they were just precious individuals.
KAFANOV: The community also mourning two teachers. Eva Mireles, 44 years old, loved running, biking, and being with her family.
Undoubtedly her, her family says she died protecting others.
AMBER YBARRA, EVAN MIRELES' COUSIN: She was a vivacious soul. She spread laughter and joy everywhere she went.
HARRELL: These two teachers, I would say are the corner stone of that campus to some great degree. They are two beautiful souls.
KAFANOV: Mireles' daughter writing an open letter to her mother: I am so happy that people know your name and that they know what a hero looks like. I want to thank you, mom, for being such an inspiration to me. I will forever be proud to be your daughter. My sweet mommy, I will see you again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAFANOV (on camera): Thursday was supposed to be the last day of school but the families in our story are now planning funerals instead of summer vacations.
Others are anxiously awaiting news about their injured loved ones. We are outside of the University Hospital here in San Antonio where four patients were airlifted on Tuesday evening, three little girls and one 66-year-old woman who is the shooter's grandmother, authority say he shot her in the face before fleeing heading towards that school.
We know that two of the girls a nine and 10-year-old are listed in good condition or at least we're on Wednesday afternoon. The 66-year- old and another 10-year-old were admitted in critical condition downgraded to serious, but still fighting for their lives.
Lucy Kafanov, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.
VAUSE: With us this hour now for more on the investigation is Juliette Kayyem, a CNN national security analyst who served as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. And welcome back, Juliette.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: So, it took up an hour for law enforcement to stop this shooter, it's an hour. Lieutenant Chris Olivarez, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety has details about the initial police response, here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. CHRIS OLIVAREZ, SPOKESMAN, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: The initial group of officers that were on scene at that point, they're at a point of disadvantage because the shooter was able to barricade himself inside that classroom.
There was no -- there was not sufficient manpower at that time. And their main -- their primary focus was to preserve any further loss of life. So, they started breaking windows around the school and trying to rescue, evacuate children and teachers.
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VAUSE: So, just back out there, there wasn't sufficient manpower? You know, what happened to the policy of you know, first responders on the scene engaged the shooter.
KAYYEM: Yes, it's a complicated timeline for two reasons. One, is there's some interaction before he even gets into the classroom and authorities are being kind of vague about what that interaction is.
But he's in -- they're saying he's engaged by a school security official, but still he makes his way in. Then, once he's in, he's able to barricade himself. We've learned now that all the -- all the kids in the teacher died in the same room.
For some period of time without, you know, a basically a rush or if you know, are they waiting for support, are they waiting for backup? And so, there's just a lot of different explanations of this timeframe.
And I don't -- I don't say this as someone, you know, sitting on the sidelines, you know, I'm going to judge this. I think it's just very important that we get this narrative right and understand what happened only because we live in a society where this could happen again, and there's things that we can learn.
So, it's hard to see -- one can question it without sitting in judgment, we just need the right answers at this stage for the families of course, but also for future incidents.
VAUSE: We also now know that the shooter had a ton of ammunition both with him placed at the school, he was wearing body armor. But what seems incredulous is that this 18-year-old who owned a semi-automatic AR-15, for less than a week, was able to hold off more than 100 federal officers from various agencies, the most came from Customs and Border Protection, which had more than 20 agents on scene, that doesn't include local law enforcement. This is a one 18-year-old.
KAYYEM: Yes, I mean, you know, and this is where, you know, are they -- are they trying to keep him in there because they're evacuating the school. They're just trying to protect everyone else.
At that moment, they don't know if he's alone. And we have to give them that -- you know, that concern. Are there others that may be in the school? Because a lot, you know -- you don't know if he has a co- conspirator.
And look, this is just serious weaponry. I mean, as you described, it is just at this stage we -- there is no purpose for the kind of weaponry that an 18-year-old can get their hands on relatively quickly.
You know, this is essentially his birthday gift to himself, and all that ammunition, and therefore becomes semi invincible for some period of time.
The body armor clearly protected him. We'll want to learn more what the body armor, was it hit? How many times? How was he able to survive some bombardment from federal authorities?
VAUSE: So, the shooter did give a warning kind of about what he was about to do. This is according to the Texas governor, the government posted three messages on Facebook, the first with these private messages came 30 minutes before the killing spree. Here's the governor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBOTT: The first post was to the point of, he said, I'm going to shoot my grandmother.
The second post was, I shot my grandmother.
The third post, maybe less than 15 minutes before arriving at the school was, I'm going to shoot an elementary school.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So, Facebook says the postings were private one to one messages, which came to light after the attack. But would they have been covered by something like a red flag law like the one Greg Abbott refused to sign the government back in 2018?
KAYYEM: Yes, so it depends on if his family had come forward before that. So, I thought it was a little bit premature for the governor to make such sweeping statements because clearly, the investigation is ongoing.
The governor saying that there was no hint of what was about to happen except for these three Facebook postings.
Well, that I mean, depends on how you want to describe hints at this stage. I mean, obviously he buys a weapon intended to kill. He's buying lots of ammunition.
We at CNN have testimonials from family and friends from the past who described an isolated, bullied person who becomes more isolated over time. So, there do appear to be warning signs.
VAUSE: The warning signs -- those warning signs sadly were missed. Juliette, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time.
KAYYEM: Thank you very much.
VAUSE: After the break, a simple question with no easy answer. Why can't the U.S. Congress pass tougher gun laws? Why are so many Republicans opposed to gun reform?
Plus, former Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke takes his protest and anger directly to the state governor. More on that when we come back.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about getting rid of AR 15? Why are these semi-automatic rifles necessary now?
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): People want to talk about banning specific guns, they should propose that but it wouldn't prevent these shootings. The shooting would --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Banning a weapon like that?
RUBIO: I mean, they could commit the crime with a different weapon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Senator Marco Rubio there with a widely debunked argument that other weapons could cause the same carnage as an AR-15.
The Senate Minority Leader on Wednesday called the shooter a maniac, suggesting mental illnesses to play (INAUDIBLE) has been no ill such diagnosis of the shooter.
However, the Senate Majority Leader pointed out that every country deals with mental illness, but only in the U.S. do the mentally ill have access to so many guns.
CNN's Jessica Dean reports now from Capitol Hill. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The absolutely horrific shooting that we saw in Uvalde, Texas has done nothing to move some Republicans here on Capitol Hill, especially in the Senate, where gun legislation has been stalled for a very long time now, unable to get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate and go back to the house. And that is where things remain.
[00:20:11]
DEAN: There's absolutely no indication that Republicans are budging right now on getting much of anything pass. And it remains very unclear if and when Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would even put it on the floor for a vote.
We tried to talk to a number of Republicans today about why they're opposing any sort of gun legislation. And a number of them simply wouldn't answer any questions.
There are some, like Mitt Romney or Pat Toomey who are open to some very narrow gun laws that would be focused on background checks.
But again, getting to that 60 number seems very, very unlikely. And you can see the exasperation from a lot of people on the Democratic side, especially Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy who has been pushing for this and told us yesterday, he's willing to bend over backwards, do whatever it takes to find something, some sort of common ground legislation that can move forward.
But again, that simply has not percolated here in the U.S. Senate. We also talked to Senator Joe Manchin about blowing up the filibuster that would allow them to move forward with simply 50 votes on this. And he says that while he's willing to do what it takes to move legislation forward to a 60 vote minimum, he said he's simply not willing to blow up the filibuster at this point even for this legislation.
Jessica Dean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Jessica Levinson is a professor of law and government at Loyola Marymount University, and host of the Passing Judgment podcast.
Yes, it's good to see you even under these circumstances. So, thanks for being with us.
Jessica, in the hours following the mass murder of little kids in a classroom at school, the senator from Connecticut, very similar tragedy took place a decade earlier, took to the floor, literally begging Republicans to do something. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I'm here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.
I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything that I may support but there is a common denominator that we can find.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: 19 dead kids in Texas, 20 dead kids at Sandy Hook, 15 dead kids at Parkland, the list just goes on. And Senator Murphy can beg all he wants. But it seems when it comes to any kind of gun reform, Republican lawmakers, especially in the Senate just refuse, why?
JESSICA LEVINSON, PROFESSOR OF LAW AND GOVERNMENT, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: I think there are a lot of reasons why we can think about the fact of how senators keep their jobs. And that largely depends on raising an enormous amount of money and the gun lobby is still very powerful.
I think we can also look to where senators support these, I think, frankly, illogical lack of gun control. And that is typically in smaller states where you see far fewer people represented, which is a long way of saying that the American public by large majorities supports sensible gun control.
But because we have the Senate, which is this really anti majoritarian institution, where a few senators hold enormous amount of power, even though they might not represent a lot of people. They can stall this type of legislation.
We've seen this for decades now. We carry kids out of schools in body bags, and we do nothing about it. And if it didn't happen after Sandy Hook, after Columbine, after the tragedy in Texas, I think it still won't happen again. It shows that there is a systemic problem in the Senate. There's an institutional issue here.
VAUSE: Republicans agree something has to be done. Only often this something involves more guns, lots more guns, especially in schools.
Here's the junior senator from Texas Republican Ted Cruz.
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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): We know from past experience that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is arm law enforcement on the campus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The truth is there's not a lot of data one way or the other, but there was a study from Texas State University 2019 looking at 25 school shootings and found none were brought to an end by unarmed staff guards or police officers returning fire. These shootings most commonly ended when the shooters were restrained by unarmed staff.
Somehow, Republicans have embraced this idea is that because it appeals to the base, and so it doesn't have to be true? LEVINSON: You know, it's really interesting that we apparently would trust these teachers to be armed. But we wouldn't trust them to determine the curriculum of our students. It's really interesting when we decide to trust teachers and when we don't.
And so, this idea that if we just have more guns, if we just have more guns in schools that will keep us safer. What I would say is all evidence to the contrary, let's look at other Western democracies, where they think what's happening to us is ludicrous.
[00:25:11]
LEVINSON: Let's look at what happens when there's a tragedy in England. And they just say no more, and they're sensible gun control.
The idea here that just providing more guns to people who are not even law enforcement, but are charged with educating our children is somehow going to keep us safer.
Again, all evidence to the contrary, we know that the Second Amendment limits the amount of gun control that we can have. But we also know that the Second Amendment is not a suicide pack. We know that even Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, very conservative justice, wrote in that famous opinion, expanding gun rights, we can still have sensible measures.
VAUSE: Well, during a nationally televised address, President Biden talked to the years which have passed without any meaningful gun reform, and his frustration, and anger were clear, here he is.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don't tell me, we can't have an impact on this carnage. The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons, it's just wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, when Sandy Hook failed to move the needle in gun reform, it seems something broke, a lot of people just seem to accept the fact that Congress would do nothing. And I think you touched on this, you don't think it'll be any different this time, do you?
LEVINSON: I don't think it will be any different. And I can't believe that I'm saying this sentence. But really, when it is OK to turn on a television and watch children be carried out of their school in body bags and nothing happens, then I don't understand why the next time anything would be different, particularly in a world in which we're more polarized, we're more dug in.
We're going to see, frankly, a version of I think what we see -- what we're going to see with respect to abortion, which is we're going to live in very different states. We live in states like California, the moment this happened on the floor of the legislature, there were more gun control measures, and then we'll live in states like Texas. Gun control is not going to solve all of the problem. But we know that if we can solve any part of the problem, that's what we should try and do and we will just see, again, a patchwork of states, two very different Americas and people will have two very different experiences.
VAUSE: Yes, it really is deepening the divide -- the division so much more than it seems with each passing day. But Jessica, as always, it is great to have you with us. Thank you.
LEVINSON: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, the National Rifle Association plans to hold its convention as scheduled on Friday in Houston, Texas just days after the school shooting. And former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to speak at a leadership forum on the event. Attendees though will not be permitted to carry guns during his address because of requirements made by the U.S. Secret Service which actually still protects Mr. Trump.
The NRA is calling the convention one of the most politically significant and popular events in the country. Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz both from Texas where the shooting took place are also expected to address the conference.
A lot more on the school shooting after a short break. We go live to Uvalde, Texas as the sun (PH) community tries to come to grips with an unspeakable tragedy.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Thirteen minutes past the hour. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN.
[0032:48]
New details are emerging about the moments immediately before an 18- year-old murdered a classroom full of children and teachers in West Texas. Nineteen children, aged 9 to 10, and two adult teachers, died in Tuesday's massacre at Robb Elementary in the town of Uvalde. Seventeen people were also wounded.
We're learning the gunman, Salvador Ramos, was initially engaged by police as he arrived at the school. But Ramos was able to barricade himself inside a crowded classroom, and then began shooting.
Vigils for the victims who were held in various places on Wednesday. One local official told CNN's Anderson Cooper he believes the tragedy will strengthen a grieving community.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD GARZA, UVALDE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Our community may have differences, but in a time of need and a time of crisis, people of Uvalde unite. And that's what's good about this. If there's anything good about this, it's going to, I think, bring our community together. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Chris Nguyen joins us now from Uvalde, Texas. So Chris, there's been a lot of new information that we're getting over the past 24 hours or so. There are, Chris, these reports that some parents were begging police to go into the school and engage with the shooter. So what more was known about that, as well as the timeline of the police response?
CHRIS NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning.
Officials tell us the gunman was in the school for up to an hour before law enforcement answered the room where he barricaded himself and then killed him.
We are learning tonight that there are appears to be about a 30-minute lull between the time when the gunman opened fire and when he was in a standoff with law enforcement. Officials saying that they needed to come up with a tactical strategy.
And this appears to coincide with the reports that we've been hearing about those parents who wanted to rush into the school to save their children.
VAUSE: We've seen these vigils now for the victims. Flowers have been left at the school there. There will be a lot of difficult days ahead for this community. So one day on, how are they now dealing with this tragedy?
NGUYEN: John, this is a very close-knit community. They are just trying to process their collective grief right now. We have seen people come to the school throughout the day to show their respects to the fallen, dropping off flowers and stuffed animals at the memorial that has been set up in front of the school.
[00:35:15]
The common sentiment that we've been hearing from folks is just how unfair all of this has been. Unfair because these kids had the rest of their lives ahead of them. Unfair because these kids were, many of whom were just in the fourth grade and were two days away from finishing the school year. And then looking ahead to what was supposed to be a joyous summer break.
It's going to take a long time for this community to heal from this tragedy. This town, roughly 90 miles West of San Antonio. Population about 16,000 people. So it is certainly not a stretch to say that everyone here in this town likely knew someone who is directly impacted by this tragedy -- John.
VAUSE: Chris, we appreciate the update. Thank you for that.
We'll take a short break. When we come back, CNN heads into the forests of Kharkiv, where Ukrainian troops are trading artillery fire with Russian soldiers. Back in a moment.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. Well, another mass shooting in the U.S. has been met with shock and disbelief around the world. And even amid a brutal war with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took time to express his condolences for those affected by the Texas school shooting. He spoke during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This is terrible, to have victims of shooters in peaceful times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The latest now on Russia's war on Ukraine. The Ukraine foreign ministry says that it's condemning a move by Moscow which makes it easier for Ukrainians in some occupied reasons to obtain Russian citizenship.
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday streamlining the process for issuing passports. He was also seen in video released by the Kremlin making a rare visit to a military hospital. Putin, wearing a medical gown, spoke with soldiers wounded in the fighting in Ukraine.
This as the fighting on the ground continues. Ukraine reports an intensive offensive by Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine as they attempt to seize the key town of Lyman in the Donetsk region.
In the Luhansk region, Ukraine says there's been fierce battles around one of the cities there, with one military official saying shelling has increased exponentially.
And in the Kharkiv region, officials say two people were killed, seven injured by Russian shelling on the town of Barakiya (ph) in the front lines.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more now on the fighting around Kharkiv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The forests around Kharkiv know no peace. We're just 15 minutes Northeast from the city center, and the Russians are on the other side of the hill.
Here, it is a fight on foot, waged with vast, cumbersome guns.
WALSH: You can see here when Kharkiv is being shelled every night, the sheer volume of shells that entails here.
WALSH (voice-over): This must have been beautiful here three months ago, now pillaged. Artillery in the place of birdsong. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WALSH: He's just saying, you can see how they live like pigs and died like pigs. It's the kind of hatred we're seeing a lot of.
WALSH (voice-over): The back and forth of high explosive rattles in the pines. Like so much of the war, the battle for Kharkiv isn't over; it's just slightly out of sight, yet no less vicious or intense.
WALSH: These kind of forests, it's extremely hard for them to know exactly what these noises are, whether it's them firing at the Russians, 100 meters away, or the Russians firing back.
WALSH (voice-over): Dusk brings escalation again. At all points North of Kharkiv that we saw over three days traveling, the same picture of Russian persistence.
Even here, as we get closer to their border, the rumble is constant. The fight for Kharkiv now also one about protecting Russia.
DMYTRO, UKRAINIAN SOLDIER: Yesterday and the day before yesterday, we -- we were attacked by tanks, hard artillery and helicopters. We hit one helicopter, and they're afraid of us.
WALSH: You smile when say they're afraid.
DMYTRO: Yes.
WALSH (voice-over): But there's no room for grinning further Northeast, where Ukraine is losing ground it won just days earlier.
Russia has moved into the next town up, Rubizhne, in the hours before we arrive, the ruins fresh, still smoldering.
And here, that means the constant bewildering shelling has new, ominous significance.
"We don't know who's shelling," she says. "Maybe here and there and that. It's terrifying."
Not much has been spared here. Moscow hungry to cross the water and eager to punish.
WALSH: The bridge is blown, but it is across the river there that Russian forces have amassed, shelling here constantly and now, sensing the possibility of taking part of the neighboring town, Rubizhne.
[00:45:05]
WALSH (voice-over): The prospect of a long, exhausting battle of attrition and loathing, haunting Ukraine's second city. Even out here, where calm should flow free.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, outside Kharkiv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Republican lawmakers are calling for armed teachers and police officers at schools across the U.S., but does arming the faculty actually work? Coming up, a full hour from the Texas school shooting.
Also, was it a genuine protest by an outraged Texan or political theater of the race for governor? More on Beto O'Rourke's one-man stand, in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The Democrat nominee who will challenge Greg Abbott for the Texas governorship this November directly confronted his Republican opponent over the Uvalde tragedy.
[00:50:05]
Beto O'Rourke interrupted a news conference by Abbott and other Texas officials, demanding the governor take action to stop senseless gun violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETO O'ROURKE (D), TEXAS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: The time to stop the next shooting is right now, and you are doing nothing. You're offering us nothing when you chose not to do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you are out of line. Sir, you're out of line. Please leave --
(CROSSTALK)
O'ROURKE: -- to stop this from happening again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here. Get out of here, please.
MAYOR DON MCLAUGHLIN, UVALDE, TEXAS: I can't believe you're a sick son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that would come to a deal like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not the place to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: At that same news conference, Abbott argued that tougher gun laws, quote, "aren't really a real solution."
Well, the investigation into how a gunman was able entered the Texas elementary school was underway. Officials say a school resource officer was the first to encounter the shooter. But no shots were fired.
Now there are growing calls from some Republicans for more armed guards at schools. But are they effective? Tom Foreman has our report.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nationwide push for armed guards in every school began with Columbine High in 1999. The murders at Sandy Hook Elementary 13 years later reignited the cause.
WAYNE LAPIERRE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
FOREMAN: Now up to an estimated 20,000 armed school resources officers, SROs, are on-duty, paid for by close to $1 billion from state and local governments, hoping to stop violent attacks.
But the Justice Policy Institute's Marc Schindler says there's a problem.
MARC SCHINDLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JUSTICE POLICY INSTITUTE: Listen, I'm a parent of high school kids. If there was evidence to show that school police officers would make their school safer, I would be all for it. But at the end of the day, there's literally no evidence to show that police in schools make school safer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we've got shots fired. Possible shots fired.
FOREMAN (voice-over): At Stoneman Douglas High in Florida, security cameras recorded an armed SRO standing outside the building where 17 people were shot and killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My client is not pleading guilty, because he did nothing wrong.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Scott Peterson faces charges for his inaction, but says he just didn't know where the gunman was.
SCOTT PETERSON, FORMER SRO FOR MARJORIE STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: There is no way in hell that I would sit there and allow those kids to die with me being next in another building and sitting there. No way!
FOREMAN (voice-over): At Santa Fe High in Texas, armed SROs traded shots with the gunman and helped force him to surrender. But ten people were killed.
At Red Lake High in Minnesota, an unarmed guard confronted a shooter, only to be shot and killed himself. Nine died there.
So in Texas, the attorney general wants more than just officers.
KEN PAXTON, TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: We can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly, because the reality is we don't have the resources to have law enforcement at every school.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But the National Association of SROs says what's needed is more mental healthcare for students, more realistic expectations about how their officers can and do reduce violence.
MO CANADAY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS: If you've got a person with a weapon bent on killing people, you're probably going to lose some people on the front end. I just hate to say that. And our job becomes trying to contain that and stop further killing.
FOREMAN: Even some fervent defenders of armed officers in schools say they must be seen as part of a larger, coordinated effort, because one person with a gun has to be very good, very lucky, and often very brave to make a difference all on their own.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: During his weekly audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis joined other world leaders offering condolences for the victims of the Texas school massacre, as well as their families. He said his heart is broken, and he called for stronger gun controls to prevent similar tragedies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE FRANCIS, LEADER OF CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): I pray for the children and the adults who were killed and for the families. It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of weapons. Let us all make a commitment so that tragedies like this cannot happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Many countries have passed tough new gun laws after an episode of a mass shooting. In Tasmania, Australia, 1996, Australia banned rapid-fire rifles and shotguns and restricted licensing rules. Gun deaths fell by more than half within a decade. The gun homicide rate for gun is 0.2 per 100,000, compared to the U.S. rate of 4.1 per 100,000 people. That was after the Fort Arthur massacre.
In 1996, Dunblane massacre in Scotland prompted U.K. lawmakers to pass a ban on private ownership of all handguns in mainland Britain. The country now has some of the toughest anti-gun legislation in the world and the gun homicide rate, close to zero.
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In France, there's no right to bear arms, but hunting is a way of life. Strict licensing and regulation ensures that guns are not abused. The number of privately-owned guns dropped from 19 million in 2006 to 10 million in 2016.
Within a month of the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shooting in New Zealand, Parliament there voted almost unanimously to change the country's gun laws, banning all military-style semiautomatic weapons. They also implemented a new firearms registry and stricter rules for gun dealers.
According to the Small Arms Survey, the U.S. far exceeds other countries when it comes to civilian-held firearms per capita. In the most recent report, the estimated there are 120 guns for every 100 people, 400 million guns in all.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause, and I'll be back with a lot more news after a short break. See you at the top of the hour.
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