give further information on the shooting. Gun laws were not mentioned. Abbott said that mental health in the community was the root cause of the event. Beto O’Rourke, who was running for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022, approached the stage and said, "The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing." Abbott responded that it was a time for "healing and hope" for the victim's families, not "our agendas." Rather than attend the annual NRA meeting on May 27, Abbott published a YouTube message. He did not mention the sale of assault rifles, but said that gun laws have not been effective, noting that the shooter broke two gun laws the day he committed the multiple murders. It is a felony to possess a gun on school property, and "what he did on campus is capital murder. That's a crime that would have subjected him to the death penalty in Texas", Abbott said. Jade Helm 15 On April 28, 2015, Abbott asked the State Guard to monitor the training exercise Jade Helm 15 amid Internet-fueled suspicions that the war simulation was really a hostile military takeover. In 2018, former director of the CIA and NSA Michael Hayden said that Russian intelligence organizations had propagated the conspiracy theory and that Abbott's response convinced them of the power such a misinformation campaign could have in the United States. Religion In 2015, Abbott signed the Pastor Protection Act, which allows members of the clergy to refuse to marry same-sex couples if they feel doing so violates their beliefs. In 2017, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 24, preventing state or local governments from subpoenaing pastors' sermons. The bill was inspired by an anti-discrimination ordinance in Houston, where five pastors' sermons were subpoenaed. Also in 2017, Abbott signed House Bill 3859, which allows faith-based groups working with the Texas child welfare system to deny services "under circumstances that conflict with the provider's sincerely held religious beliefs." Democrats and civil rights advocates said the adoption bill could allow such groups to discriminate against those who practice a different religion or who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, and LGBT rights groups said they would challenge the bill in court. In response, California added Texas to a list of states to which it banned official government travel. Immigration In November 2015, Abbott announced that Texas would refuse Syrian