On May 24, a year will have passed since the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.
In those 12 months, Texas leaders have done precious little to address the scourge of gun violence. The doors to school buildings are always locked, just like Gov. Greg Abbott mandated after Uvalde. That’s roughly the sum total of our collective approach to slaughter.
Bills are sitting in state legislative committees in both the House and Senate Monday that probably won’t make it out, despite Saturday’s tragedy in Allen providing pressure to do so. And all tell the story of the paucity of the state’s approach to gun violence.
House Bill 2744, lobbied for by Uvalde parents and authored by state Rep. Tracy King (D-Uvalde), would raise the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic weapons that allow detachable magazines and have calibers greater than .22 from 18 to 21.
The House Select Committee on Community Safety voted 8-5 Monday to send it to the House, clearing a way for it to potentially be heard on the floor. It is still not expected to pass the House, and if it did, would likely not pass the Senate. Gov. Greg Abbott has already indicated he would not sign it if it got to his desk.
Even getting it out of committee was a struggle. Last month, Uvalde parents were kept waiting for hours to testify before the committee. It was left pending, stalling any progress.
The chair of the House Select Committee, state Rep. Ryan Guillen (R-Rio Grande City), initially refused to have a vote to send the bill to the House floor, even as recently as Monday morning. He told reporters that he wouldn’t call a vote because “the support is not there in the Legislature.”
But shortly before noon, Guillen called a meeting of the committee. Two Republican representatives—Sam Harless (R-Spring) and Justin Holland (R-Rockwall) joined with the six Democrats on the committee to vote for the bill.
But that’s just one bill, in one chamber. Two other stalled House bills would expand background checks and require the state to provide safe firearm storage information to parents. Any or all of those bills would provide momentum in addressing gun violence.
Another bill, HB 1147, would make it law that every student from third grade up would have to learn how to perform battlefield trauma care. Current law already makes it a requirement for children in grades seven and above to have such training. That’s where we are: teaching children to treat the inevitable.
The House did pass one bill related to guns recently. HB 3137 prevents cities and counties from passing any gun regulations of their own. It is headed to the Senate.
At 10 a.m. Monday, the state Senate Democrats gathered with the Uvalde families to urge their fellow lawmakers to pass bills they say address the myriad reasons gun violence happens.
In a statement before the press conference, state Sen. Roland Guitierrez, whose district includes Uvalde, said that he had filed several bills that addressed things like services for victims of mass shootings, more state and local accountability, school safety, mental health resources, and “commonsense gun safety measures.”
“So far, none of those bills have had a hearing,” he said.
Monday, as the Select Committee debated whether to hold a vote, state Rep. Jeff Leach, who represents the area that includes Allen, spoke on the House floor.
“There’s a lot we don’t know. But one thing I do know is this is happening way too much, and it doesn’t have to be this way. I don’t have the answers. I don’t have a bill in front of you,” he said. “I’m not sure there are any bills in front of us this morning, this session, that could have prevented this. I don’t know. I don’t know.”
In 2021, Leach co-authored HB 1927, which allowed permitless carry. During a Twitter argument after the Uvalde massacre, he said he would vote for the measure again “in a heartbeat.”
Since 2015, there have been at least 170 victims killed in mass shootings. Eight were killed in the massacre at the outlet mall in Allen on Saturday. In Uvalde, 21 were killed.. El Paso, Sutherland Springs, and Santa Fe had 23, 26, and 10, respectively. Odessa had seven. Dallas saw five officers killed in an ambush. Nine were killed in Waco. Eight, six, and four in Houston, Palestine, and Del Valle. (Another four were killed in a separate incident in Houston.) Mass shootings in Livingston, Channelview, Ponder, Robstown, Beaumont, Centerville, and Fort Worth killed 28 people, four in each incident. Plano had a mass shooting that killed eight, and Corsicana and Cleveland each had five.
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