Texas elementary shooting: 'What are we doing?' Senator Chris Murphy in desperate plea for gun action

An impassioned speech by a US congressman has captured the hearts of the nation, and the global outrage following a mass shooting at a school in Texas.

Authorities say the victim death toll from the Texas school shooting now stands at 19 children and two adults.

The latest figures come from Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The gunman also died.

A speech by the Connecticut Democratic senator, who came to Congress representing Sandy Hook, plead with colleagues across the house to do more to tackle gun violence in America.

Senator Chris Murphy’s speech has since gone viral amassing millions of views around the world.

He opened the speech asking “What are we doing here?” after learning of the shooting in the school just hours before.

He asked: “Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this? This isn’t inevitable. These kids weren’t unlucky. This only happens in this country and nowhere else.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. who came to Congress representing Sandy Hook, begged his colleagues to finally pass legislation addressing the national gun violence problem as the latest school shooting unfolded Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool, File)

“Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking they might be shot that day. Nowhere else do parents have to talk to their kids as I have had to do about why they got locked into a bathroom and told to be quiet for five minutes just in case a bad man entered that building.

"Nowhere else does that happen except in the United States of America and it is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue.”

He concluded the speech urging senators to work together to find a solution saying: ““Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.

"I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything I support but there is a common denominator that we can find.

“There is a place where we can achieve agreement, that may not guarantee that America never ever again sees a mass shooting, that may not overnight cut in half the number of murders that happen in America, that will not solve the problem of American violence by itself, but by doing something, we at least stop sending this quiet message of endorsement to these killers whose brains are breaking, who see the highest levels of government doing nothing, shooting after shooting.”

The 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School saw 26 victims killed with 20 of the victims in that attack aged between five and six.

Efforts by politicians to change US gun policies in any significant way have consistently faced roadblocks from Republicans and the influence of outside groups such as the NRA.

Robb Elementary School has an enrolment of just under 600 students, and serves students in the second, third and fourth grade.

The tragedy in Uvalde was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and it added to a grim tally of mass shootings in the state that have been among the deadliest in the US over the past five years. There have been 27 school shootings in 2022 in America alone.