Texas House ‘honors’ Uvalde shooting victims and dishonors them with inaction on gun bill (Editorial)
Nikki and Brett Cross take a quiet moment to themselves to visit Uziyah Garcia’s memorial at the Town Square while attending a Get Out the Vote rally, Saturday evening, Oct. 8, 2022. The couple raised their 10-year-old nephew Garcia as their own son. He was one of 19 children and two teachers killed in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary.Sitting in the Texas House's lofty gallery Tuesday, Brett Cross looked down and set his eyes on one particular lawmaker.
Like many families of Uvalde victims, Cross has traveled to the state Capitol every Tuesday for several months, speaking to anyone who would listen to his pleas to pass the bill. He was among the group of victims' relatives who waited more than 13 hours to testify in support of the bill during a committee hearing two weeks ago. And yet, the bill has seemingly stalled, even as the deadline for House committees to advance bills and resolutions looms on Monday.
Consider a chilling fact: had this bill, HB 2744, been in place, the Uvalde children and their teachers would likely still be alive today. As state Rep Rafael Anchia reiterated at the Uvalde families' press conference:"The murderer in this case had tried to obtain high powered weapons — AR-15s, multiple clips, at 17-years-old tried to do a straw purchase, getting another person to buy that for him. And guess what? The gun safety laws worked.
What these families want is for the bill to be fully heard by at least one chamber of the Texas Legislature. They want to sit, again, in the gallery and watch as lawmakers who support the bill go to the back microphone to fight for it, loudly, passionately, so all of Texas can hear. They want lawmakers to keep their promises about moving the bill.
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