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Convoy of school buses lead protest for gun control outside Sen. Ted Cruz's home

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Posted at 12:28 PM, Jul 14, 2022
and last updated 2022-07-14 16:25:38-04

Gun control activists are leading a procession of school buses to Sen. Ted Cruz's home in Texas.

The organization, Change the Ref, says the 4,368 empty seats on the school buses are meant to honor the children who have recently died from gun violence. The buses feature items that belonged to the victims, including clothing, awards and books.

Manuel Oliver, who founded the organization, plans to deliver a letter from his son, who was killed in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Joaquin wrote the letter after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, approximately five years before he was killed in a school shooting. The letter asks why people are opposed to background checks.

In response to the protest, Sen. Cruz's office released a statement:

Senator Cruz is committed to enacting policies that would stop school shootings. To that end, he introduced legislation to double the number of school resource officers, hire 15,000 school-based mental health professionals to ensure there is early intervention to identify and help at-risk kids, to provide significant resources for enhanced school safety, and to improve the gun background system and prosecute persons who try to illegally buy guns.

Oliver has been active in trying to convince lawmakers to strengthen gun laws. He attended a bill signing in Washington this month after a bipartisan group of lawmakers passed major gun reform laws for the first time in decades.

He was kicked out of the event after shouting that they need to do more.

Oliver defended his decision to speak up on ABC's The View.

"We didn't want to be celebrating the fact that it's been 30 years without passing any bill," he said.