Texas House may consider bill to increase age requirement for semiautomatic rifle purchases
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Shooting in Allen, Texas
Here’s everything we know about the May 6, 2023 mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets mall.
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Chants of “shame on them,” “raise the age” and “do your job” echoed through the Texas Capitol on Monday as protesters demanding gun safety laws gathered following Saturday’s mass shooting in Allen.
Circling the first floor rotunda of the Austin building, people held signs with messages for lawmakers.
“Give us gun control not prayers!” read one.
“It’s the guns” said another, written on brown cardboard.
Chief among their asks — particularly among the family members of children killed in the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022 who were at the Capitol Monday — is raising the age for buying semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21.
The family members have wondered for weeks whether a bill raising the age would get a committee vote, and on Monday they got their answer when the House’s Select Committee on Community Safety advanced the bill on a 8-5 vote. The bill heads to the full House floor for consideration, but it must first be set on the calendar for debate by a separate committee.
“We are not done. This is a first step and it’s a win, but now we’ve got to go and get it through calendars,” Brett Cross, whose son Uziyah was killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School.
It’s just one of the proposals advocates say are needed to help prevent mass shootings.
“We need stricter background laws,” Cross said in an interview with the Star-Telegram. “Any responsible gun owner is for it, because if I go out and get a gun, another gun, then I can, because I’m not afraid of any of these background checks.”
He added that “red flag laws,” also called extreme risk protective orders, are needed.
“These Republicans want to make it about mental illness, yet they won’t do anything to remove the guns or keep the guns out of the hands of these people that they’re trying to blame it on,” Cross said.
As the Legislature finishes its final weeks, few details have been released about the gunman in Allen, his motives and how he obtained the weapon used to carry out his attack. Witnesses have said the gunman was dressed in black with a tactical vest. The FBI is reportedly investigating whether the shooter was interested in white supremacist ideology.
The gunman was 33, which means he may have been able to legally purchase the firearm used in the shooting.
“I believe in the coming days the public will be much better informed about why and how this happened and that will inform us as Texas leaders about next steps to take to try to prevent crimes like this from taking place in the future,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a Monday border security news conference in Austin.
Gun bills in the Texas legislature
A House bill regulating private firearm sales, including background checks on certain sales, and another that creates a three day waiting period for firearm purchases weren’t voted out of the select committee on Monday, the deadline for House committees to pass House bills.
In the Senate, gun safety bills proposed by Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat, include age restrictions on buying ammunition, a database for ammunition bought in bulk, high risk protective orders that would allow law enforcement to remove firearms from people who are a risk to themselves and others, required liability insurance for firearms and safe storage requirements for guns. None have had a committee hearing, according to a news release from his office.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Trey Martinez Fischer said during a Monday news conference that there are procedural rules that can be used to revitalize bills.
“We have three weeks, and we need to spend every single minute of every single day not giving up on them,” he said, gesturing behind him to a row of people whose loved ones were killed in the Uvalde shooting.
Some of the family members had welling, red eyes as they stood with photos of children killed in the attack, light reflecting off of tears on their cheeks.
Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate took turns addressing reporters, calling for gun safety measures.
“I ask and I beg and I pray for my Republican colleagues to grow some strength,” said Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Missouri City Democrat, urging Republicans to look at polls that say most voters in Texas support polices like raising the age for purchasing AR-style guns, universal background checks and “red flag” laws. He added, “We can’t kick the can down the road. No more lives lost without taking action.”
Rep. Craig Goldman a Fort Worth Republican who chairs the House Republican Caucus, declined to comment.
Gov. Greg Abbott, in an interview over the weekend, focused on the need for mental health care in the state.
He said the state is working to “ address that anger and violence at its root cause, which is the mental health problems behind it” and said the Texas Legislature is preparing to allocate an additional $3 billion to mental health initiatives.
“At the state level, this is something we’ve been grappling with over the past year,” Abbott said on Fox News Sunday. “There are some potential easy solutions, such as passing laws that we are working on right now, to get the guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and increase penalties for criminals who possess guns.”
The House has passed some gun-related bills, including one that would let high school students get elective credit for taking a firearm safety course and another that would make it a state jail felony to acquire a firearm they intent to give to someone they know is prohibited from having one. A bill to increase the penalty for felons who unlawfully possess a firearm passed out of the House on Friday.
Rep. Stephanie Klick, a nurse and Fort Worth Republican, noted efforts related to training programs and residency slots for mental health professionals. On access to guns, she said often times, those who carry out mass shootings were not supposed to be eligible for access to guns.
Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Fort Worth Republican declined to comment, and texts sent to other Tarrant County House Republicans were not immediately returned.
‘It doesn’t have to be this way’
Rep. Jeff Leach, whose district includes the Allen outlet mall that was the site of Saturday’s shooting, took the mic at the front of the House chamber to address the attack in his community.
As some have criticized calls for prayers from lawmakers amid calls for action on gun safety, Leach said he will never apologize for praying for those affected.
“I want to allow time before responding, as we so often do in these situations, responding with talking points or reactions, political statements,” he said. “There will be time for debates and deliberation and responses.”
There’s still a lot that’s unknown about the shooting, Leach said.
“But one thing I do know is that this is happening way too much, and it doesn’t have to be this way,” Leach said. “I don’t have the answers. I don’t have a bill in front of you. I’m not sure there are any bills in front of you this morning, this session that could have prevented this.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. But I do know that it doesn’t have to be this way, and I also know that if there’s any deliberative body anywhere in this world that can discuss and deliberate on these issues thoughtfully, all of the potential solutions that we discuss … it’s this House.”
This story was originally published May 8, 2023 at 10:10 AM.
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