The parents of 10-year-old Alexandra "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio, one of the 19 children killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting declined an invitation to meet with Gov. Greg Abbott, saying their daughter did not like the Republican leader.

Parents Kimberly and Felix Rubio told the New York Times that they were asked by Abbott's office on Wednesday if they wanted to meet with the governor but had no interesting in doing so. "My first thought was, ‘My Lexi doesn’t even like him," Kimberly told the Times. “She was really little, but we talked about this stuff at home.”

The parents are now calling for the state to ban the purchase of AR-15 style weapons, like the one suspected gunman Salvador Ramos is accused of using to kill 19 children and two teachers at the elementary school on Tuesday. Felix, an off-duty sheriff, told the Times he thinks his department will go against him for supporting such measures.

“We live in this really small town in this red state, and everyone keeps telling us, you know, that it’s not the time to be political, but it is — it is,” Kimberly told the Times. “Don’t let this happen to anybody else.”

“We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again.”

— President Biden, in remarks on the shootings in Boulder, Colo., March 23, 2021

Whether the Clinton-era ban on assault weapons, pushed through the Senate by Biden, was effective has long been a subject of interest for politicians and researchers — and The Fact Checker. Every few years, usually after a mass shooting, we find ourselves digging into the research to see whether there is fresh evidence to bolster the claims of Democrats that the ban was effective.....

The Pinocchio Test
Biden said the 1994 law brought down mass killings. The biggest hurdle for him is that correlation does not necessarily equal causation. But Biden also was careful to cite both the ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines — and new research increasingly supports the idea that restrictions on LCMs were effective in reducing the death toll when the law was in effect.

Moreover, recent research also supports the contention that mass shootings have increased since the law expired. What once was a hunch, unsupported by rigorous research, has now been largely confirmed. Biden did not say that, but it helps bolster the case that the law was more effective than originally understood.

If Biden had suggested the decrease in deaths was large, as Clinton did two years ago, he might have been in line for at least One Pinocchio. But we will leave this unrated. The body of research now increasingly suggests the 1994 law was effective in reducing mass-shooting deaths.

The Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed on Friday it had asked Tesla chief executive Elon Musk about irregularities in how and when he disclosed his investment in Twitter.

In a letter dated April 4, the day Musk’s investments in the company became public through a filing, the regulator asked him why he listed his stake as passive while making public statements about the company. It also asked him why he missed a 10-day deadline for disclosing his investment.

Musk changed his investment status to active the following day.

The letter confirms that the SEC is investigating the circumstances of Musk’s purchase of Twitter shares, which began in early 2021 and has culminated in his deal to take over the entire company for $44 billion. The investigation could lead to a fine, but is unlikely to affect the deal itself. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in May that the SEC was investigating Musk’s purchases.