Texas Attorney General calls for more conceal carry laws in the wake of deadly church shooting

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
(Image credit: Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images)

In the wake of the deadly shooting Sunday in the small Texas town of Sutherland Springs, the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton predicted this would not be the last gun massacre.

"This is going to happen again," Paxton told Fox News Sunday.

But, he said, one way to prevent such a tragedy in the future is for more people to have conceal-carry guns.

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"All I can say is that in Texas at least we have the opportunity to have concealed carry," he said. "And so if it's a place where somebody has the ability to carry, there's always the opportunity that gunman will be taken out before he has the opportunity to kill very many people."

After reportedly killing 26 people at the First Baptist Church, the suspect, identified as 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley, was shot after a car chase with police. However, it is not clear if he shot himself or if he was shot by police.

Texas has some of the most lax gun laws in the country. In 2015, state legislature passed open carry and campus carry laws. And earlier this year, Texas legislators approved a law that dropped the handgun license application fees by $100.

After a man drove a rented pickup truck down a crowded bike path in New York City on Oct. 31, killing eight people, some called for stricter gun laws in the state.

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for his part, said he was proud of the strict stance the state takes on guns. "New York State passed some of the smartest gun laws in the country," he said in a press conference on Nov. 1.

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Lauren Hansen

Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.