Families of Uvalde mass shooting victims urge Texas to set higher age limit on guns

AUSTIN — Parents who lost their children in the Uvalde school shooting begged state lawmakers on Tuesday to raise the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles, saying the law would have stopped the teenage gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers.

“Tess didn’t have a choice in life or death. But you as leaders have a choice of what my daughter’s life will be remembered for,” said Veronica Mata, whose 10 year-old-daughter was killed in the shooting. “Will she die in vain or will her life have saved another child?”

The families made their emotional pleas in the first legislative hearing on major gun control measures since the massacre last May. But their push to raise the purchasing age from 18 to 21 faces long odds amid Republican resistance, including from Gov. Greg Abbott, who has questioned the constitutionality of such a move.

After hours of testimony that stretched into Wednesday morning, the House Select Committee on Community Safety did not take a vote on whether to advance the bill. The session ends next month.

In Uvalde, officials said the gunman legally bought his weapons days after turning 18. The raise-the-age bill by Rep. Tracy King, D-Batesville, applies to semi-automatic rifles that are capable of accepting a detachable magazine and have a caliber greater than .22. Police officers and members of the military would be exempt.

Gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association and a trade group for the firearm industry, opposed the legislation they said wouldn’t stand up to legal scrutiny.

“We represent 18-, 19- and 20 year-olds who are not mass shooters,” NRA lobbyist Tara Mica said. “We defend the Constitution.”

Stephen Willeford told lawmakers that he used an AR-15 to protect his community when he confronted the gunman in the 2017 Sutherland Springs massacre.

Meanwhile, Democrats pushed back on the legalities of the bill, saying the case law isn’t settled.

“There’s nothing that prevents us from joining that conversation in the legal world about where the boundaries are when it comes to the Second Amendment,” Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said.

The bill’s immediate fate hinges on the committee’s Republican majority, whose members mostly didn’t let on to where they stand. Throughout the hearing, several members rested their heads in their hands, or wiped their eyes during the families’ tearful testimony.

In wake of mass shootings, the GOP-led Legislature has generally rejected calls for gun control and instead focused on mental health resources, school hardening and student discipline. On Wednesday, the Senate passed a wide-ranging bill focused on school safety.

Texas lawmakers also steadily loosened firearm laws, including doing away with the need for a license or training to carry a handgun in public.

Moody, who unsuccessfully pushed for gun control legislation in the wake of a mass shooting that targeted Hispanics at an El Paso Walmart, accused the Legislature of wasting time.

In an emotional speech, he revealed the Uvalde shooter used blood to smear the message “LOL” on a whiteboard in one of the classrooms.

“His message to us wasn’t anger or hatred, just something flippant. He celebrated that he could do what he did. That’s his critique of us because we let this happen,” Moody said. “We can’t waste more time doing nothing.”

Since the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, victims’ families have been a constant presence at the Capitol.

Wearing shirts and holding signs with photos of their loved ones, they’ve held regular news conferences urging legislators to change laws they say enabled the shooter and to hold police accountable for waiting almost an hour to breach the classroom.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, San Antonio Democratic Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, thanked the House for having the conversation in a public hearing.

He noted none of the related bills have received that treatment in the Senate.