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The United States is in shock after a Texas elementary school shooting. Shortly before the attacker shot 21 people, he announced his actions on Facebook, Texas Governor Abbott has now announced. 

According to Governor Greg Abbott, the shooter at an elementary school in the US state of Texas announced his plans on Facebook shortly before the crime. He initially wrote that he would shoot his grandmother, Abbott said at a press conference. His second post was that he shot his grandmother.

About a quarter of an hour before arriving at the school, Abbott said that the 18-year-old wrote that he was going to shoot at an unnamed elementary school. According to him, the shooter had no criminal record. However, it is uncertain whether the gunman had any entries as a young person. That still has to be determined. Mental illnesses are not known. 

The grandmother survived

The governor also announced that the gunman shot his grandmother in the face - she survived. At school, he then broke into a classroom connected to another. His weapon was an AR-15 assault rifle. The 18-year-old killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde near San Antonio before he was shot dead by police.

The AP news agency reported that the death toll could rise, citing federal investigators. Some elementary school students were injured, and at least one 10-year-old child is still in critical condition.

Perpetrator fired hundreds of times.

So far, it is known that security officers at the elementary school in Texas tried to stop the assassin immediately before the crime. The 18-year-old managed to gain admission to the school anyway. Investigators said he wore bulletproof clothing and fired hundreds of times. This is all preliminary information. According to police spokesman Chris Olivarez, the perpetrator shot all of his victims in a single classroom. All the dead were found in a room where the shooter had previously barricaded himself. 

Police Chief Pete Arrendondo asked for patience. The focus is on the fate of the bereaved: "Our investigations are not yet complete. If we can inform the families, then we will do so. That is our priority, so please wait."

O'Rourke: "You're not doing anything."

Governor Abbott attributed the crime not to easy access to guns but increased mental illness. He argued that 18-year-olds in Texas have been able to buy guns for 60 years, but there has never been a school massacre on this scale.

Democratic politician and governor candidate Beto O'Rourke blamed Abbott for the act of violence because of his attitude to gun laws: "You're not doing anything," the former presidential candidate said during the press conference to the conservative governor. "That is your responsibility."

Biden reacts in a speech to the nation.

US President Joe Biden called for stricter gun laws after the new act of violence. "As a nation, we have to ask ourselves when we will stand up to the gun lobby in God’s name," Biden said in a speech to the nation from the White House. "The idea that an 18-year-old boy can walk into a gun store and buy an assault rifle is wrong." Biden made it clear: "I'm tired of it. We have to act." According to media reports, the shooter bought the weapon used in the crime about a week ago, shortly after his 18th birthday.

 Since the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Connecticut state ten years ago, there have been more than 900 incidents of reported shootings on school grounds, Biden said. You can't prevent every tragedy with stricter gun laws - but these laws have positive effects.

In his speech, Biden also remembered his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, and his daughter, who was killed in a car accident in 1972. "Losing a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped out," he said. Biden had just returned to Washington from a trip to Asia. The US President immediately ordered the flags to be lowered to half-mast on all public buildings in the US up to and including Saturday.

Senator: "Why are we here?"

The US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, also reacted in horror to the massacre at the school in Texas and addressed moving words to his Senate colleagues. "What are we doing?" asked the Democrat in the US Congress. "Why do you spend so much time running for the United States Senate? Why bother trying to get that job (...) when you answer that while this carnage increases and our children are running for their lives?" he asked, visibly struggling to keep his composure. "Why are we here?"

US Vice President Kamala Harris also called for new policy measures. "Enough is enough," Harris said. "As a nation, we must have the courage to act". Steps must be taken to ensure that such crimes don't happen again, Harris said - without getting specific. "Our hearts keep getting broken.” Several Democrats are calling for stricter gun laws after the bloodbath in the small town of Uvalde.

The President did not announce any concrete initiatives. Because he needs the US Congress to change the laws, he can't do that alone. But even if MPs from his party, the US Democrats, were to introduce bills into parliament, it would not be clear whether they would find a majority in favor this time. In the Senate, the majority is not sufficient for a fundamental change.