Shootings in New York City are also on the rise, numbering 296 for the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021. Gun crimes have risen in major cities with strict gun laws, too- a rise in shootings in Chicago left more people dead in 2021 than in any other year in a quarter century. Gun homicide rates in the state have risen 90 percent in the last decade, rising every year since 2011. Texas ranks 15th for weakest gun laws of the 50 states, according to the Giffords Law Center. 'We as a government need to find a way to.do something about it.' Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. 'We as a state, we as a society, need to do a better job with mental health. He said he asked a group of Texas sheriffs what the 'problem' was, claiming they told him: 'We have a problem with mental health illness in this community.' Our job is to come up with real solutions we can implement.'Ībbott laid blame for the school shooting instead on the 'mental health crisis' the state was facing. 'What you're talking about its not a real solution. 'People need to realize- who think well maybe we can just implement tougher gun laws, it's gonna solve it- Chicago and LA and New York disprove that thesis,' the governor said. There are real gun laws in California I hate to say this but there are more people who were shot every weekend in Chicago than in schools in Texas.' 'I know people like to try to oversimplify this,' Abbott said during a news briefing on the shooting Wednesday after he was asked whether there are any new gun laws he supports. Greg Abbott denied that gun control was the answer. The NRA convention comes on the heels of an 18-year-old gunman killing 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde - just about four hours away from where the convention is being held. The group reportedly walked over to the gun control protesters after they were denied entry into the NRA Convention