Texas school where teen gunman killed 19 children and two teachers to be demolished

THE primary school in Uvalde, Texas, where a teenage gunman killed 19 children and two teachers last month will be demolished, the city’s mayor said, as legislators in Washington paved the way for limited gun reforms.

Mayor Don Mclaughlin announced the decision to knock down Robb elementary school at a council meeting, saying: “You can never ask a child to go back or teacher to go back in that school ever.”

In a separate Texas state senate hearing into the May 24 shooting, Steven Mccraw, director of the department of public safety, said the onsite commander made “terrible decisions” and the police response was “an abject failure” in which a commander put the lives of officers over those of children.

He said officers could have “neutralised” the shooter within three minutes of him entering the building. “There was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armour to isolate, distract and neutralise the subject,” Mr Mccraw said. Instead, the gunman was in the school for more than an hour, killing children in their classrooms while police waited in the hallway.

In Washington, a group of senators has reached agreement on a bipartisan gun violence bill. The legislation would toughen background checks for the youngest firearms buyers, require more sellers to conduct background checks, and toughen the penalties for gun traffickers. It would not, however, raise the minimum age for people to buy an assault-style weapon to 21.