The sight of a 10-year-old Uvalde school shooting victim allegedly won’t change Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) stance on an assault weapons ban.
Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the mother of Alexandria Aniyah “Lexi” Rubio — who was among the 19 students and two teachers killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in May — tweeted that she and her husband Felix met with Cruz on Wednesday to discuss gun legislation.
Mata-Rubio, whose daughter was described as a “driven, athletic, intelligent and fun” fourth grader, wrote on Twitter that she shared the last photo of Lexi with Cruz. The photo showed her daughter, Lexi, in a child-sized casket.
Mata-Rubio said she asked Cruz to “protect his constituents” by supporting a federal assault weapons ban.
“He declined,” Mata-Rubio wrote. “Instead, he said he supports increasing law enforcement presence on school campuses.”
A spokesperson for Cruz told The Texas Tribune that “he saw firsthand the pain and grief that the unspeakable violence at Robb Elementary school caused” during his meeting with the family.
Mata-Rubio said she and her husband agreed to the meeting with Cruz because they wanted him to share his plan for safer schools to their face, The Texas Tribune reported.
She said Cruz suggested more money for mental health workers as well as school resource officers, according to the newspaper, yet she disagreed and said more law enforcement in schools doesn’t mean children will be “protected.”
“After meeting with them, Sen. Cruz went to the Senate floor to fight for his school safety legislation,” the spokesperson said.
“Unfortunately, Senate Democrats blocked it with no explanation of why they don’t support doubling the number of police officers in schools, hiring 15,000 school-based mental health professionals, and increasing the physical security for children in schools.”
Twitter users remarked on the Texas senator’s stance while others called him heartless for the exchange.
Mata-Rubio delivered a “tearful testimony” about her daughter in front of the House Oversight Committee in June and called for stricter gun control measures, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Mata-Rubio said the couple also talked with representatives for other GOP senators. She estimated the couple’s meeting with Cruz couldn’t have been over five minutes.
“While they obviously, probably don’t support the bill, they just had more questions and were more sympathetic than our meeting with Ted Cruz,” she said. “That was really disheartening because this is our representative.”