Texas students to their NRA-tied governor: 'We’re dying on your watch'

On the day that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hosted a “round table” discussion in the wake of last week’s school gun massacre, students from around the state shamed him for not taking real action to save lives.

“We are dying on your watch. What will you do about it?” the students demanded in a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle.

Done in conjunction with Everytown for Gun Safety, the students’ ad directly attacked Abbott for refusing to break with the NRA and effectively address the need for gun safety.

“Our job is to be good students. Your job is to keep us safe. You have failed at your job,” they wrote in an open letter to Abbott. “Like so many politicians cozy with the NRA, you have steadfastly opposed any reasonable measures that might protect us from gun violence. Instead, you’ve signed dangerous policies to force public colleges in Texas to allow guns on campus and make it legal to openly carry firearms in public.”

Tuesday’s ad comes less than a week after the shooting at Santa Fe High School outside Houston, in which 10 people died. According to a running count from CNN, this was the 22nd campus shooting thus far in 2018 in which at least one person was injured or killed.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was derided for suggesting that too many exit doors, as well as abortion and video games, were to blame for the massacre.

Anything to avoid pointing a finger at the NRA.

The Texas students said the Longhorn State has suffered through at least 20 mass shootings since January 2009. Last year, 26 people were killed during a rampage in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Unfortunately, the level of gun violence in the state comes as little surprise. Under Abbott, Texas has some “of the most lenient gun laws in the country,” the Wall Street Journal notes, as the GOP and the NRA have worked in unison to make it easier and less expensive to obtain gun licenses.

In 2015, Abbott famously tweeted that he was “embarrassed” that Texans didn’t buy even more guns.

I'm EMBARRASSED: Texas #2 in nation for new gun purchases, behind CALIFORNIA. Let's pick up the pace Texans. @NRA https://t.co/Ry2GInbS1g

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) October 28, 2015

It was an incredibly tasteless message for any public servant to send, given the extraordinary costs associated with gun violence around the country, and in Texas specifically.

No wonder the NRA spent more than $419 million in 2016 to help get Trump and other Republicans get elected.

And no wonder students in Texas are demanding Abbott start prioritizing their lives over the NRA’s deadly agenda.