By Royce West
Texas Senate
I join millions of Texans and Americans in offering my most sincere condolences; first to the families of the victims of the horrific shooting that took place at Robb Elementary on yesterday. My thoughts go out also to all those who were able to walk away from yesterday’s senseless tragedy.
They are victims too and their lives are changed forever.
The entire Uvalde community I’m certain, remains in shock and trauma and will be for years to come. School, city and law enforcement officials are left searching for answers about what happened Tuesday and what they could have done differently to prevent the massacre of innocent children, two teachers and others wounded.
It is an unenviable situation for all involved with many hard and trying days ahead. As a society, we should all be somewhat ashamed when our children may rightfully say that they are afraid to go to school.
Less than two weeks ago, African Americans were targeted in Buffalo, New York. The same weekend, there were fatal shootings and multiple injuries at a Houston flea market. One person was killed and five were shot at a church function in California the same day.
Since yesterday, I have already been asked numerous times what I or other lawmakers are going to do to end or even slow, gun-related deaths and violence.
A good start would be made by all of us as elected officials getting on the same page in admitting to a problem that is so obvious that it is blinding. But I ask us as Texas policymakers to take a hard look at what we have done over the last several sessions, including in 2021, that will actually make Texans feel safe. Personally, I don’t feel safer knowing that neither a license or training is required to publicly carry a firearm in the state where I and my family live.
Today’s reporting that two, AR-styled assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition for them were legally purchased in-person by the troubled 18-year-old shooter last week. WHY? We all now know the answer!
Public safety should not have devolved into the highly partisan issue that it has become. But too sadly, it has. I am calling on my Republican colleagues here in Texas and those in the halls of Congress to help all of us, our children, our brothers and sisters, our parents and grandparents, friends and loved ones, find a solution to a problem that literally, we cannot live with. We are all either part of the solution or part of the problem.
