Newsom calls out Texas Gov. Abbott after shooting: 'Why we need federal gun safety laws'

Julia Johnson

May 07, 04:50 PM May 07, 04:50 PM

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) called out Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) on Sunday after the Texas governor brought up California gun death statistics in a WHD News appearance following a fatal mass shooting in the lone star state.

"I think that the state in which the largest number of victims occurred this year is in California, where they have very tough gun laws," Abbott told WHD News Sunday host Shannon Bream.

NINE DEAD INCLUDING GUNMAN IN MASS SHOOTING AT TEXAS MALL COMPLEX

Newsom, who revealed last week that he watches WHD News every morning, did not take kindly to Abbott's invoking of California in the wake of the tragedy in Allen, Texas.

"Texas’ gun death rate is 73% higher than CA’s," the California governor claimed in a tweet on Sunday.

On Saturday, a gunman opened fire at a Dallas, Texas area mall, killing eight people and injuring at least seven others. The shooter, identified as Mauricio Garcia, was killed by a police officer.

“Our hearts are with the people of Allen, Texas, tonight during this unspeakable tragedy,” Abbott said in a statement that night. “I have been in contact with Mayor Fulk and DPS Director McCraw as well as other state and local leaders and offered the full support of the State of Texas to local officials to ensure all needed assistance and resources are swiftly deployed, including DPS officers, Texas Rangers, and investigative resources.”

In his Sunday morning WHD News appearance, Abbott said, "At the state level, listen, this is something that we have been grappling with over the past year, and there are some potential easy solutions, such as passing laws that were working on right now to get guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and to increase penalties for criminals who possess guns."

He added that "we need to recognize a reality. What we've seen across the united states over the past year or two — and that is an increased number of shootings in both red states and blue states."

"We've seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws as well as states with very strict gun laws," Abbott told Bream.

"Here is a clip in which @GregAbbott_TX: 1) Conveniently leaves out the fact that Texas’ gun death rate is 73% higher than CA’s. 2) Accidentally points to exactly why we need federal gun safety laws," Newsom Tweeted afterward.

It is unclear where Newsom's statistic comes from. When using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2021 regarding firearm death rates by state, Texas's rate is about 54% higher than that of California — not 73%.

The data is mixed on gun deaths by state in 2023. However, assessments are in agreement that both Texas and California have the top two highest amounts of total gun deaths so far this year.

The two are also the largest states by population in America. In 2022, California was home to around 39 million people, while Texas boasted around 30 million residents.

Abbott further said that "one thing that we can observe very easily and that is there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that's taking place in America. And what Texas is doing in a big-time way, we are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause which is addressing the mental health problems behind it."

He acknowledged that "Texas had been lagging in addressing mental health for years, and that's why over the past three sessions, we've added almost $25 billion to address mental health. We're in the waning days of a session right now where We will be adding even more funding, about $3 billion, to address mental health needs in the state of Texas, especially in rural Texas and especially for children in schools."

It is unclear what Abbott is including in his assessment of Texas adding $25 billion to address mental health.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the governor's office but did not receive a response.

In a tweet prior to the segment, Newsom said, "This is your reminder that @GregAbbott_TX cut $211 million in mental health funding."

Newsom is likely referring to a move by Abbott's administration in April 2022, when he authorized the transfer of General Revenue funds to programs within the Office of the Governor Strategy A.1.1., Disaster Funds.

"These transfers are meant to support the deployment of the National Guard with $465.3 million and to support border operations in other state agencies with $30 million," the governor wrote in a letter at the time.

About $211 million of the transferred funds came at the expense of the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

Notably, in June 2022, in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, an additional $105.5 million was announced by the Texas government for school safety and mental health initiatives.

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This included $5.8 million for the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT), $4.7 million for the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to increase Multisystemic Therapy (MST), $950,000 for the HHSC to expand Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) teams, and "up to $5 million to be used by the Hill Country Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities (MHDD) Center to assist in evaluating mental health services in the Uvalde community and preparing a needs assessment for the legislature."

However, it's still unclear where Abbott's $25 billion figure comes from.