of a mass shooting. this one at an elementary school. in about a half an hour, we expect an update from greg abbott on yesterday's shooting at rob elementary school. police say the shooter, armed with an ar-style rifle and wearing the type of vest tactical teams use, entered the school, barricaded himself in a classroom, and opened fire. police say they eventually had to break windows to evacuate other students and staffers. as investigators continue to piece together what transpired, they're learning more about the suspect himself. they have identified him as 18-year-old uvalde resident. >> no friend or girlfriend that we can identify. it's hard to identify what caused or sent this individual to, you know, complete this heinous act, this evil act. it shows you pure evilness with this individual going into a school, barricading himself inside a classroom, and shooting children and teachers. >> meanwhile, in washington flags are flying at half-staff outside the white house the day after president biden demanded we turn the pain into action. chuck schumer said the senate will not vote quickly on new gun bills. opting to see if a bipartisan solution could be reached in the wake of yesterday's tragedy. >> sadly this isn't a case of the american people not knowing where their senators stand. they know. they know because my republican colleagues are perfectly clear on this issue. crystal clear. republicans don't pretend they support sensible gun safety legislation. they don't pretend to be moved by the fact that 90% of americans, regardless of party, support something as common sense as background checks and the vast majority of gun owners support the background checks bill. >> hard to believe that more time is going to somehow create a situation in the senate there to get something done. let's focus on the ground right now. kerry sanders is joining me from you value day, texas. kerry sanders, you're on the ground there. we're learning about the victims. we're learning the names. what else have you learned today? >> well, do a little shoe leather reporting here. walking the streets. i believe pretty close to confirming this that the gunman lived just three blocks from the school here with his grandmother. i mean, it's very close. we have a producer over there now trying to get a little bit more information to confirm that. the proximity of this is beginning to, i guess, take shape. as we know, so many of the kids walked to school here. it's very much a neighborhood school. there's no walls. they go on in. unfortunately that was a soft target for somebody with ill intent here. very much evil end. the investigation includes not only the department of public safety and the texas rangers, but you have federal agencies here, as well. you have the atf, alcohol, tobacco, and firearms and the fbi. we saw a short time ago, they're going door to door asking people for what they might have seen in recent days or weeks. something that might answer the question was this something that was rehearsed? something cased? did they look at the area? they would like to know that. of course, inside the forensic teams, many hours later, are still here doing work. all the victims' bodies have been taken out. there's so much more. and, of course, at the end of the day, they have probably the most difficult security video to ever look at. they have some security camera footage inside that will detail the horror of what unfolded here. meantime the authorities have been able to determine that the gunman was wearing, you know, we've been calling it body armor. it sounds like it was more some sort of tactical vest that maybe had sleeves where you can put in some protection. some armored protection. but, also, where you might be able to put a magazine with bullets, you know, so you can make the magazine and clip it into the weapon. the weapon, the authorities say it appears it was an ar of some type. all of this coming together -- well, let's listen to what the lieutenant had to tell me. lieutenant olivarez about what they're learning. >> in this case, we know for a fact it was confirmed he was wearing some type of tactical carrier. unknown if it was ballistic material. it goes to show the 18-year-old had the intent by having the weapon and this type of armor and tactical vest and the intent going into the school and completely shooting anybody that was in his way. >> reporter: chuck, the folks who live in this community, especially parents who had children in the school that were unharmed, have been making a parade here with flowers, balloons, and tears in their eyes trying to pay their respects. there's a church not too far from here where people are gathering randomly. no set schedule for worship. to get together to pay their respects to the loved ones and as we've seen, sadly in so many other communities, parkland comes to mind, this will last a lifetime. so those neighbors who are hugging their friends will need to be there probably for the rest of their lives because this is just that difficult to imagine. >> like sandy hook. there's a question whether the elementary school can be used again. i'm curious, kerry, have you learned about the security procedures the school had in place? they have the automatic locking doors and things like that. clearly they had cameras. >> reporter: we know they have a school resource officer here. that's essentially a police officer on campus. but as we've seen, you know, you need to be the right place at the right time. there were two other officers who responded but even still it was not something they could take him out that quickly. so it appears there may have been a lag in time which lead to more deaths here. >> kerry sanders on the ground for us. thank you. let me bring in tom winter. i think you have confirmation. there's been some question about was the school always the target? you seem to have confirmation on this. >> that's correct, chuck. i want to preface it with three things, before i continue. so we're as transparent as possible. people understand where the information is coming from and understand the parameters of the information. i'll start there. it's an ongoing criminal investigation into the horrific events that happened yesterday as often the case in the investigation barely 24 hours old at this point. the information i'm about to share with you is subject to change, as new information comes up, eye witnesses are talked to, and the forensics information comes forward. to the best of our knowledge, and they are in that is my colleagues pete williams, andrew blankstein and myself based on multiple local and federal law enforcement officials, they're telling us the following things as of 1:00 p.m. eastern time. first off, to your point, the school was always the intended target. it was not something where an accident occurred or something involving law enforcement got him to this point. there was some speculation as to whether or not this elementary school was always the intended target based on where the investigation stands now, yes, the school was the intended target of the person who did the shooting salvador orlando ramos. second thing, as of this hour, there's no determination on the motive of the shooter why he did this. not that presumably anything they could develop to a motive would make sense to the rest of us. but at this point, still no sort of motive has been determined. regarding the guns -- i think there's a lot of questions about this. the headline here is that the guns all appear to be purchased legally. we're talking about ar-15 style, as kerry alluded to. according to multiple officials, those two weapons are a smith & wesson m & p 15, an ar-15 style. the second is a ddmv 7. a smaller manufacturer. not as commonly known. the question is, when were these two guns purchased? on separate days? the same day? which day was it? without getting into a 20-minute conversation on how this is determined the fact it involves literal paper work and the type of information in the way it is developed. we don't know specifically what day it is. there was a suggestion by a state lawmaker in texas it was his birthday. we're not quite sure if that's the case. so it could have been later. it could have been separate days. we're trying to get to the bottom of that based on the law enforcement investigation. only one of those ar-15 style weapons was taken inside, we're told. one was left outside. perhaps outside of his vehicle. there was some reports and suggestion online and it frequently happens in the shootings that the mother may have been involved in this either at the school, the shooter's mother at the school, an employee of the school. we're told at this point it doesn't appear to be true. all is subject to change, chuck. that's the most granular information we have at this hour. >> and, tom, to clarify about the timing of the purchase of the guns. he turned 18 nine days ago? >> may 16th. >> so he purchased them sometime may 16th or later. >> correct. >> other than that we don't know the exact day. >> correct. >> all right, tom winter. catherine, you heard that new information. i think about what you have spent your time doing over the last decade developing, helping develop this active shooter program. you look at this and we're learning more about the gunman, you know, you're hearing stories. he was bullied in school and things like that. sadly this is going to feel like a familiar story, isn't it? >> it is. it's a common story in my head. it keeps me up at night on a regular basis more than it ever did. even when i was in the fbi for 20 years. that's the frustrating part, for sure, chuck. but you're right about this. especially the school shooters. the research that i authored at the fbi back when i was there showed that middle school shooters shoot in their own middle school and high school shooters shoot in their own high school. it's, obviously, very uncommon to have a shooting in an elementary school. it's very rare situation. i think if anything, they should be confident in that it's not a common thing. school shooters are the younger ones and oftentimes it's because they came from that school or live near that school district. so we're seeing exactly what we expect to see. >> so when you look at sort of how -- i mean, the first thing i think of is he just turned 18 and immediately can buy guns. without any sort of training or any sort of mental check. forget a background check. you look, how many will we have before we ask ourselves about why we made it so easy for younger folks to get their hands on weapons like this >>well, there's no question we live in a kind of a gun culture. right. our culture is very ingrained in it and, you know, i have a podcast. my copodcaster is from new zealand she's like what are you doing every there every time something happens. i get that. they had two terrible shootings and they eliminated. they changed the culture in their country. australia did the same thing. in this country, we have this culture of guns that persist and it starts at a young age. i mean, i watched "gunsmoke" and i listened to the heros and the guys in the white hats riding down and fixing everything, you know, the lone ranger and all of that. if i date myself. so we live in a different culture. we raised -- we've raised our kids to be that way. also, you know, historically it's a country that has war not that long ago from a historical perspective and foreign troops on our soil and revolution. people aren't going to -- aren't willing to get rid of the guns very quickly. i don't see that changing the way it changed in australia where they confiscated 650,000 guns. i mean, keep in mind, too, chuck, we have probably an estimated 20 million assault-style weapons in the united states. i don't know who is buying those back. it's probably not coming out of the u.s. budget. >> you've developed the programs to deal with active shooters. is this a school security issue or a gun problem? >> you know, i think it's not one or the other. i know you may say you're backing up. no. it's not one or the other. it's not this or that. school security is important. my gosh, columbine high school their budget was $8 million for school security and the city supported it with another $4 million. school security is a big business. you can't -- you can put, like in florida they passed a law that said there has to be an armed person on every school campus. that's great. parkland is a multibuilding campus. one or two people with guns may or may not be there to help. i know they can be. that saves a child or an adult, that's worth it but i don't think school safety is a single answer. >> we had an armed security guard at the grocery store in buffalo and the gunman had tactical gear. we saw, i mean, sadly these school -- these mass shooters they're learning from each other. they're coming better prepared. >> absolutely. >> there's an online forum for them to learn. >> exactly. they're learning from each other. there's no question about that. when people say, well, we need to hardin the targets. we need to get more guns the. not only are the shooters in the schools, the oxford probably had the gun in the backpack when he walked into school that day. so the harden ing the targets isn't going to do it. not that it doesn't help. i think schools should have doors that lock from inside the classroom instead of outside. i have a daughter who is a teacher. she has to step outside with a key to lock her door. it makes me very happy. but the other things account. i mean, we are a gun culture. we have a lot of guns here. i think we need to come up with some sort of stew that is a different set of -- a different set of rules for guns as part of the problem. a different set of rules for mental health issues. >> all right. i appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. we'll keep covering this story. as we mentioned, we're expecting a press conference coming up shortly from uvalde as texas governor greg abbott will be speaking. when it begins, we'll bring it live. what will it take for gun reform to happen on the federal level of this country. you're watching "meet the press daily." you're watching "meet the press you're watching "meet the press daily. still got it. 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"shoot it, camera, shoot a movie!" and so our humble team saves the day by working together. on miro. jackie speier leaves big shoes to fill. 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. welcome back. in the days following a mass shooting, we collectively seem to ask the same question. what does it take to pass gun reform in this country. but as we search for future answers, we should also look back at how a state like texas has made it easier for most anyone to bear arms. most anywhere. since 2007, there have been at least -- wait for it, 25 bills signed into law in texas that loosen restrictions on guns. let me scroll through some of them. you'll see every one of them here. we can start in the year 2007. then governor rick perry signed the stand your ground bill into law allowing for the use of deadly force in protecting property. a few years later, in 2011, texas passed a law that limited the gun restrictions employers can place on their premises. in 2013, there was a new program that allowed certain school employees to arm themselves. there have been at least 78 school shootings in texas since it was created. 2016 was the ability to openly carry firearms and allowed concealed carry ron college campuses. in 2019, the state allowed for firearms in houses of worship and, again, loosened restrictions on guns in and around schools. the most recent and most extreme lifting of restrictions all came in last year. texans now do not need a license or training to carry a handgun. the minimum age to buy one is 18. the new laws make texas a state that will shield it from gun reform states. that's the state of texas. i'm joined by robin thomas. robin, as i read all those laws, we both know those will argue they passed those laws in order to give people more opportunities to protect themselves, if there was a shooter at church. or protect themselves if there was a shooter. that's about the only rational i can think of those would argue for what we see here. texas has loosened gun laws. i mean, they passed a bill last year to allow hotel guests to store and carry firearms. they seem to continue to find ways to loosen restrictions on guns. people wonder why there's no action on the federal level >>well, chuck, it's the biggest fallacy of all that having more guns around is going to make us any safer. if that were true, it would be the safest country in the world. texas would be one of the safest states. what the facts tell us is looser gun laws, more guns in the hands of civilians, and in this case, completely untrained, unbackground checked civilians only makes our communities less safe. only puts our children more at risk. arming teachers, arming guards it raises risk of our children being exposed to gun violence. it doesn't make them safer. the big lie, the fallacy about guns making you safer has, unfortunately, lead to so many shootings in this country and now school shootings, as well. until the american people are willing to actually look at the facts and hold our elected officials accountable for the truth, this is going to continue happening. >> so we have this issue where on the federal level there's paralysis and that's a feature to some. not a bug when it comes to gun laws. we've seen many red states. they're moving aggressively in this directi