President Biden is calling on Congress to pass an “assault-weapons” ban following a shooting at a shopping mall in Texas that killed eight and wounded at least seven others on Saturday.

“Yesterday, an assailant in tactical gear armed with an AR-15 style assault weapon gunned down innocent people in a shopping mall, and not for the first time. Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House on Sunday.

“Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables. Republican Members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough,” the president continued. “Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe.”

Republican governor Greg Abbott attended a vigil in honor of the victims on Sunday and dismissed calls for further attempts at gun control in an interview. “We’ve seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws as well as shootings in states with very strict gun laws,” Abbott told Fox News.

The shooting came just hours after a heated discussion on gun control unfolded in the State House in Austin.

“Children are dying and we need to protect them and stop with this partisan BS because we’re not doing anything. We’re hurting every Texan when we don’t legislate properly,” Democratic Representative Jarvis Johnson said during an impassioned speech.

“Because you’re booing me off because I don’t have an R by my name. It is time to legislate! Children have died in this state and you guys are sitting here and joking and thinking this is a joke! This is not a joke – this is real. Children every day are dying,” Johnson shouted above heckles from the Republican-controlled House.

The shooting comes a week after Francisco Oropesa, an illegal immigrant who had been previously deported several times, shot and killed five of his neighbors in Cleveland, Texas, a town north of Houston, after they asked him to stop firing his gun in his yard.

Biden ordered flags flown at half-staff in honor of the victims of the mass shooting.