Santa Fe shooting finally broke governor’s refusal to address gun violence.

Abbott changed his tone after Santa Fe, but action must follow to keep Texans safe.

For a God-and-guns politician who in 2013 posted a Facebook image of a semiautomatic pistol nuzzled up against a Bible, Gov. Greg Abbott’s gun violence gatherings at the Capitol last week represent progress. At least, we hope so.

In three separate roundtable meetings, the governor heard from survivors and victims of the most recent mass shooting (as of this writing); from teachers, administrators and students; from police officers, security experts and mental health professionals; from gun-safety advocates and, in Abbott’s words, “those who hold our Second Amendment right in high esteem.” All of them doubtless want this deadly scourge to end.

There’s no question that Abbott shares that devoutly-to-be-wished objective, but until last week, he has been the typical “thoughts and prayers and nothing else” kind of politician. Could it be that listening to the pain and anguish in the voices of his fellow Texans last week actually made a difference? Again, we hope so.

“We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” Abbott declared at a press conference, just hours after a teenager wielding a pistol and a shotgun burst into a Santa Fe High School art class and began firing, ultimately killing 10 people, eight of whom were his classmates. A week later, in the wake of last week’s discussions, the governor said he and his staff would compile recommendations and craft a prioritized action plan.

The challenge is to hold the governor, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other elected officials to their public safety obligations. The task is to remind them daily that talk is no substitute for meaningful action.

Instead of ideologues and Second Amendment absolutists, maybe they’ve begun to listen to those who really have something to say about gun violence, including Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo.

“There are things that can be done. Everyone knows it,” the chief told Texas Monthly last week. “And I think therein lies the frustration with a lot of people, including a lot of my friends that are salt-of-the-earth conservatives, great people, NRA members, and wound up giving me feedback that say this is not what we signed up for; this is not why we’re supportive of the NRA. It’s not a zero-sum proposition.”

Acevedo, who has no compunction about speaking hard truth to the NRA and to craven politicians in its thrall, calls for universal background checks, including checks for those who buy from private sellers at gun shows. According to a recent study, 22 percent of guns are obtained in this country without a background check. Who can say whether their owners are felons or whether they pose a threat to others?

Requiring background checks is just one of several sensible measures we can take, measures that shouldn’t be controversial at all. In the wake of the Santa Fe High School shooting, in which the shooter used his father’s legally owned firearms, shouldn’t we require safe storage of guns? Is that somehow Second Amendment sacrilege? Guns that aren’t securely stored are just waiting to be found by curious kids, by troubled teenagers contemplating suicide, by burglars who’ll break in and steal them.

Texans should insist on so-called red flag laws that allow a judge to order the temporary removal of a gun from those who are a threat to themselves or others. Connecticut, Indiana, California, Washington, Oregon and Florida have enacted red flag laws. Why not Texas?

Texas should make sure that domestic abusers don’t have access to guns. Nearly half of women murdered in America are killed by a present or past lover, yet it’s still too easy for these people to acquire firearms.

To reduce gun trafficking, we should limit buyers in most cases to one or two gun purchases a month. We also should invest in gun buybacks to reduce the number of guns in this nation, which added 100 million since 1994. We should ban private ownership of military-style assault weapons.

No other developed nation on earth tolerates the pervasive gun violence that has become commonplace in America. No other nation accepts the killing of children as collateral damage.

Texas, of course, yields to no other state in its Second Amendment fealty — which means, ironically, that our elected officials are ideally situated to show the way toward reverence for life, respect for the Constitution and gun-rights common sense. Maybe, just maybe, the governor took the first step down that life-saving path last week. We hope so.