GUN REFORM STILL LONG WAY OFF A YEAR AFTER SHOOTING IN TEXAS
▶ Families of those killed in Uvalde school attack vow to fight on despite lack of political action
A year after 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the campaign to pass gun reform in the US continues, with mass shootings a daily threat.
Efforts to bring about change have been fraught in Texas, where the Republican hold on the state legislature has frustrated families of the Uvalde shooting victims pushing for more gun control.
“The Texas legislature has refused to do what I think the public in large part has been demanding them to do, which is to take responsible action,” said Christian Heyne, vice president of policy at Brady United, a gun control advocacy group.
There appeared to be a glimmer of hope this month when two Republican politicians in the state broke ranks to advance a bill to raise the minimum age to buy semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21.
But optimism among activists faltered when a key deadline was missed and the bill is now not expected to pass.
“We will regroup, re-strategise and come back stronger,” said Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter Alexandria Aniyah Rubio was killed in the Uvalde shooting.
Brett Cross, whose son Uziyah Garcia was also killed in the attack, was removed from the state capitol for disrupting the session in which the deadline for the bill passed.
“The issue is, while Uziyah’s voice may have been eternally muted, mine will not,” he said.
The bill “may have died, but our hope has not”, he said.
Polling by the Texas Politics Project shows a majority of voters in the state support raising the legal age to purchase a gun.
“Look at the juxtaposition, of the courage that these families who have lost everything, who are in mourning … fighting day in and day out, getting kicked out of the legislature while trying to fight for these policies to protect future children,” Mr Heyne said.
The prospect of gun reform in Texas appears bleak, but Mr Heyne refers to gun laws passed in Virginia, years after a 2007 university shooting, as an example that activists in Texas can draw inspiration from.
There was some progress when Texas state politicians passed a bill that would send juvenile mental health cases to the public safety department – a step that could improve federal background checks.
“I think there’s a road map there that we should pay attention to as Texas continues to get incremental victories,” Mr Heyne said. Incremental reforms have been introduced in states including Washington, which became the 10th in the country to pass a ban on most assault-style weapons, including the AR-15 – a weapon used in many mass shootings.
Other states, including Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota, passed a series of gun safety laws aimed at expanding background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of people deemed dangerous.
Maryland and Hawaii have also passed laws to restrict the access to guns in certain areas, although the National Rifle Association
has challenged Maryland’s leaders in court.
Major federal reform cannot happen in the current political climate, with Republicans certain to block any move considered an infringement on constitutional rights.
US President Joe Biden has called repeatedly on Congress to “do something”.
“Nineteen children and two educators should be with us today,” Vice President Kamala Harris said yesterday. “They should still have birthdays to celebrate, graduations to plan, lives to look forward to.”