Phelan forms gun bill vetting panel
House Speaker Dade Phelan formed a new committee on Thursday to consider all gunrelated proposals this legislative session.
The House Select Committee on Community Safety will be chaired by State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Rio Grande City Republican who switched parties last year after serving in the House as a Democrat for 20 years. The group will debate all firearm legislation, from storage and sales rules to criminal penalties for gun crimes. Phelan said the committee will also address gun safety proposals that have emerged after recent mass shootings, including last year’s massacre at a Uvalde elementary school. There, a teenage gunman used a legally obtained assault-style rifle to kill 19 children and two teachers.
“The Texas House intends to do everything in our power to keep children and classrooms in our state safe,” Phelan, a Beaumont Republican, said in a news release. “While there are many factors related to this wideranging issue that our chamber will discuss during the legislative session, such as mental health, social media and school safety, a necessary component to this conversation will be related to firearm safety.”
The 13-member committee, vice-chaired by Houston Democrat Jarvis Johnson, includes members from the existing Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee; those who served on an investigative committee after the Uvalde shooting; and others who represent areas that have experienced mass shootings.
It is unclear what kinds of gun safety bills the Legislature may seriously consider this session. Families of shooting victims have been rallying at the Capitol in recent weeks to support raising the age to purchase an assault-style weapon from 18 to 21, which Gov. Greg Abbott and other GOP leaders have opposed.
Many Republicans have outright rejected any attempts to roll back firearm access, saying they would infringe on Second Amendment rights.
Before the Uvalde massacre, 23 people were shot and killed in a racist attack at an El Paso Walmart in August 2019. Weeks later, eight people died in a spree shooting in Midland-Odessa.
Texas is also approaching the five-year anniversary of the shooting at Santa Fe High School that left 10 dead. In 2017, a gunman killed 26 people at a Sutherland Springs church.