The gunman who shot dead 19 young children and two teachers in the Uvalde mass shooting had taken more ammunition into Robb Elementary School than a US soldier takes into a wartime battle, it has been revealed.
Gunman Salvador Ramos legally bought two AR-15 rifles and 1,657 rounds of ammunition in the days after his 18th birthday on 16 May.
Just eight days later, on 24 May, he entered Robb Elementary School with one of the rifles and carried out one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at a press conference on Friday that investigators found 315 rounds of ammunition inside of the school.
In total, 142 were spent cartridges – meaning the gunman fired 142 rounds at his victims and around the school.
Another 922 rounds were found outside of the school but still on school property, with 22 of those spent cartridges.
In total, 18-year-old Ramos had 60 magazines – 58 in and around the school and at his crashed vehicle, and two others at the home he shared with his family.
By contrast, an average US soldier would usually take just 210 rounds into basic combat.
A law enforcement source told CBS News that a soldier would usually take seven magazines, each holding 30 rounds, into combat.
This volume of ammunition would be the amount used to prepare for a huge gun battle.
Calls are growing in the wake of last Tuesday’s massacre for US lawmakers to pass gun reform legislation and put an end to the surge in mass shootings devastating communities across the country.
In the last two weeks alone, dozens of families have been torn apart by gun violence.
Just 10 days before the mass shooting that left 21 dead in Uvalde, a white supremacist shot and killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
Texas has some of the most relaxed gun laws in the whole of the US.
The gunman was legally able to buy the two AR-15s and over a 1,000 rounds of ammunition as soon as he turned 18.
Last year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott relaxed gun laws even further in the Lone Star State, allowing most Texans to carry handguns openly in public without any training or a permit.
Long guns, such as the weapons used in last week’s attack, could already be carried without a permit.
Mr Abott – and other Republicans – have come under fire over the state’s lax regulations in the aftermath of the shooting.
Democratic candidate for governor Beto O’Rourke confronted him during a press conference on Wednesday telling him that the massacre was “totally predictable” after the state refused to implement gun control laws.
The governor was then met with boos and jeers on Sunday as he joined President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the memorial outside Robb Elementary School.
While Mr Abbott cancelled an in-person speech at the NRA conference over the weekend, he still sent a pre-recorded message to the crowd where he continued to claim that gun laws don’t stop “madmen” from carrying out shootings.
On 24 May, Ramos shot his grandmother in the face before driving towards Robb Elementary School in the family’s truck.
He abandoned the vehicle in a ditch close to the school and entered the building through a door that was propped open.
Once inside, Ramos barricaded himself in a classroom where he shot dead 19 students and two teachers.
He was finally shot dead by Border Patrol agents after officials stormed the classroom.
The Justice Department has launched a probe into the handling of the situation after local officials admitted that critical mistakes were made.
Officers on the scene hung back, taking more than an hour to enter the barricaded classroom while gunshots continued to ring out and desperate children trapped inside called 911 begging for help.
