DALLAS — While there is growing pressure on the governor to call a special session in the aftermath of the Uvalde massacre, the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas says he doesn’t think there’s a need right now.
“I think legislation is best done when the causes of the tragedy in Uvalde are fully investigated and we find an actual solution that would have prevented that specific incident in Uvalde,” Matt Rinaldi said on Inside Texas Politics.
In a new Quinnipiac University poll released last week, 51% of registered Texas voters said they thought stricter gun laws would help to decrease the number of mass shootings, 58% supported stricter gun laws in the U.S., and 73% support raising the legal minimum age to buy any gun to 21 years old nationwide.
Rinaldi says the Republican Party of Texas opposes any new restrictions.
Watch the segment below:
“We don’t support any new restrictions of gun laws because we don’t think it will work to make Texas safer,” he said. “And, of course, if you ask that question differently, and instead of gun safety say gun restrictions, I think you’ll get a pretty similar result. It all matters how you phrase the question.”
The same Quinnipiac poll also showed that 47% of Texas voters want a nationwide ban on assault weapons.
And it showed a tightening in the governor’s race following the Uvalde massacre.
Forty-eight percent of Texans said they preferred Gov. Greg Abbott, while 43% backed Democrat Beto O’Rourke. In December, those numbers were 52% and 37% respectively.