Nearly three years after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children at Robb Elementary School, parents from Uvalde are continuing to push state lawmakers to enact what they call “common-sense” gun safety measures, including a “red flag” law and legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase semiautomatic rifles.
Hundreds of Texans joined them in marching to the Texas Capitol and meeting with lawmakers Thursday — many bringing their own stories of gun violence.
College student Mireya Rodriguez was working at an outlet mall in the Dallas suburb of Allen on May 6, 2023, when she heard gunshots ring out in what became a shooting rampage that left leave eight shoppers dead and others injured, she told rally attendees from the Capitol’s south steps.
Michelle Scherer, left, and Beverley McClure participate in Thursday’s Texas Gun Sense Advocacy Day March at the Capitol. Demonstrators carried shirts symbolizing a death from gun violence in Texas.
“I’ll never forget the sounds of rapid fire, gunshots, people screaming, sirens blaring from every direction,” Rodriguez said. “It wasn’t until I was leaving the mall — after having seen the deceased gunman myself — that I realized I survived a mass shooting.”
The shooter killed Rodriguez’s friend that day.
“I’m using my second chance to take to make a difference in this world, because ending gun violence is our generation’s fight,” said Rodriguez, a University of Texas at Dallas student.
As part of the day of advocacy, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, announced he was filing several proposals to restrict access to guns. Senate Bill 1657 would increase the minimum age from 18 to 21 years to purchase AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles. His omnibus bill, SB 1658, would authorize judges to strip firearms from people who pose “an immediate and present danger” to themselves or others.
Gutierrez emphasized that Florida, a deep red state, has a law allowing for extreme risk protective orders, also known as a “red flag” law, while Texas does not. Florida conservatives championed the legislation in the wake of the 2018 Parkland High School mass shooting.
Had such a measure been in effect in Texas, Gutierrez, whose Senate district includes Uvalde, said the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary might never have occurred.
“I wouldn’t be here before you today, and these families wouldn’t be here before you today, if someone would have said, ‘This seems strange, this looks weird that this kid is buying all these guns and this ammo,’” and a red flag law was in effect, he said in at a news conference outside the Senate chamber.
‘Covered in blood’
Deep in the crowd at the rally Thursday, a group of young Texans from Houston listened. One of them, 17-year-old Adrian Sanchez, had been shot two years earlier, the bullet fracturing his arm and grazing his side.
He had a gun with him that day. Sick and in pain in the weeks afterward, he thought about revenge, Sanchez told the American-Statesman. But he has changed his perspective now. He came to the rally with the group Forgotten Third, which aims to prevent gun violence and recidivism among underserved youths in Harris County.
“Sometimes, you got to learn how to grow up and be an adult,” Sanchez said. “I had to let it go.”
Judy Ward hangs shirts, each representing a Texas gun violence death, on a display Thursday ahead of the Texas Gun Sense Advocacy Day March.
Texas has some of the most gun-friendly laws in the country, including permitless carry, which lawmakers passed in 2021. Texas Republicans emphasize that law-abiding citizens have the right to bear arms and defend themselves under the Constitution.
Members of the GOP-controlled Legislature have consistently opposed expanding gun restrictions in the state, opting instead for legislation requiring additional proactive and defensive security measures at schools. A 2023 law requires every school district to hire an armed peace officer for every campus, for example, though most districts have not complied, citing a lack of dedicated funding for the additional staff.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, backed by family members of victims of the Robb Elementary mass shooting, speaks at a Capitol news conference Thursday about proposed legislation to try to curb gun violence.
Undeterred, Gutierrez and several Senate Democrats serving as co-sponsors are proposing several gun restriction bills including a measure that would create a mandatory three-day waiting period for certain firearm purchases; a proposal to require the state to compensate parents whose children die in Texas school shootings; a bill to ban 3D-printing of guns; and legislation to designate May 24 “Victims of the Uvalde Shooting Day.”
“It’s not normal to see a little girl covered in blood,” Gutierrez told gun safety advocates at First United Methodist Church in Austin on Thursday morning before rallygoers walked to the Capitol. “Not normal to see her shoes all over the place, strewn about. … It’s not normal that this happens to us in our country every day. It’s not normal.”
Republican leaders in the past have contemplated tightening gun restrictions after mass shootings, with Gov. Greg Abbott asking lawmakers to consider a “red flag” law in 2018, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick saying he was “willing to take an arrow” from the National Rifle Association to push for expanded background check requirements in 2019. However, Abbott distanced himself from the proposal later.
While Gutierrez’s proposals are unlikely to pass, the senator said he still hopes they’ll be heard in committee. He asked that Republicans who support restrictions call and write their representatives, noting statistics show that the majority — around 70%, according to Pew — of American GOP voters support minimum age increases for gun purchases.
Flanking Gutierrez as he announced the bills were the parents of three Uvalde children who died in the elementary school massacre: Uziyah Garcia, Tess Mata and Lexi Rubio. Their parents have become vocal advocates for firearms restrictions since the 2022 shooting, making several visits to the Capitol during the 2023 legislative session and addressing Congress in Washington.
Brett Cross, the father of Uziyah Garcia, said it was “extremely frustrating” to be at the Capitol once again, asking for many of the same reforms that they did in 2023. But, he said, they aren’t going to give up.
“I don’t care how many times we get told, ‘No,’ we will continue to come back,” Cross said. “Because, unlike these representatives in our government, we actually care about children. (And) because no matter what we say or do, we can never bring our kids back, but we can help protect other kids.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Uvalde parents, Texans against gun violence demand change in Texas
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