An 18-year-old man shot dead 21 people in a Texas elementary school last Tuesday.

He killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers with a semi-automatic rifle and fired more than 130 shots during the attack, according to investigators.

But Texas Senator Ted Cruz did not want to get involved in a discussion about gun law reform after the shooting in Uvalde.

Sofia Dreisbach

North American political correspondent based in Washington.

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He found another problem: "You want to talk about how we could have prevented this horror?" He asked journalists two days after the crime.

"Look, the perpetrator entered the school here the same way as in Santa Fe: through ... an unlocked back door." To make schools safer, there needs to be a single door into the building with armed police officers standing at it .

In 2018, a 17-year-old man shot and killed ten people at Santa Fe High School in Texas.

Cruz had canceled his heavily criticized personal appearance at the annual event of the gun lobby NRA last Friday.

However, the Republican sent a video message in which he again spoke out in favor of gun ownership and against tougher gun laws.

The investigators in Uvalde first reported that the perpetrator got into the school through the misconduct of a teacher.

She opened and blocked the back door, giving him access.

But a week after the massacre, the Texas Public Safety Authority, following a few others, had to correct this account as well: the teacher closed the door behind her.

However, this "did not lock as it should," said a spokesman on Tuesday.

That would now be investigated.

"False information spread"

According to media reports, a video shows the teacher removing the stone in front of the door and slamming it shut.

By then, according to her attorney, she had called 911 because she heard the perpetrator shooting.

Texas law enforcement said in a statement Tuesday that a large amount of "false information" had been circulated in connection with the attack.

The argument that spending money on safer school buildings instead of stricter gun laws has been made time and again by many of the traditionally gun-friendly Republicans.

JD Vance – with Donald Trump's support of surprise winners of the Republican primary in Ohio – also warned of “simple solutions” in a statement following the Uvalde massacre.

Whatever the final outcome of the investigation, “many will call for a large-scale confiscation of weapons.

That would be a mistake.”

Instead, he suggested, among other things, that only one entrance with armed officers be set up in schools.

"This will do a lot more for the safety of our schools than empty moral sermons from politicians." Joe Biden's spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, made it clear this week: "The President does not believe in the isolation of schools."

The day after the crime in Uvalde, Texas Deputy Governor Dan Patrick also spoke out in favor of only one entry and exit in schools.

This could be "one of the solutions".

"If he [the perpetrator] had needed three minutes to find this open door ... the police were there pretty quickly." body who tried to stop the perpetrator.

But 19 armed police officers had waited around three quarters of an hour in front of the classroom where the perpetrator had barricaded himself with the children to wait for reinforcements.

An official from the public security bureau admitted that the senior official made serious mistakes in this regard.

When the special operations team arrived, they opened the locked door - with the janitor's key.