Uvalde gun safety bills to be heard in committee Tuesday, but have uphill battle

SAN ANTONIO - It has been 328 days since 21 lives were lost in Uvalde.

Since then, the families of the victims have fought for change.

"What these people are fighting for are common sense laws to where it never happens to any other child again,” Senator Roland Gutierrez, who’s district includes San Antonio and Uvalde, said.

At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the House Community Safety Committee, which was created in the aftermath of the massacre, will hear and debate 18 bills - including HB 2744 which would raise the minimum age to buy certain assault rifles to 21.

“Many people in leadership right now are stuck having cultural wars in the United States,” Gutierrez said. Gutierrez has been a confidant and mentor for the families as they learn to navigate the political waters. “This is a problem, we have 18-year-olds buying assault rifles, and that needs to change.”

Most of the families supported and lobbied for by the Uvalde families.

"The families have worked really hard,” Gutierrez said. “Lobbying members of the House, lobbying a few in the Senate, and lobbying a few on this committee."

Two members of this committee know the Uvalde families and situation better than others: Reps. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and Democrat Joe Moody, D-El Paso.

Moody and Burrows were on the Robb Elementary Investigative Committee which produced a report that, even 8 months later, is still the most complete account of what happened on May 24th.

“The people of Uvalde went through an unimaginable tragedy, and while the state has reacted to it, this week’s hearing is our first opportunity to be proactive on it,” Moody said in a statement. “This is where we have an opportunity to show the families still mourning that we’ve heard them, we’re fighting for them, and we’re going to do something to keep something like this from happening again.”

But political science chair at the university of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Jon Taylor says, with the way the states politics are situated, it is going to be hard for these bills to get very far.

"I don't think any of them are going to make it out of committee,” Taylor said. “And even if they make it out of committee, I don't think they are going to see Abbott's desk."

Taylor said getting a hearing in general is a win because it starts conversation even if the legislation does not pass.

“Is it going to get not just emotional but possibly charged and heated? Absolutely,” Taylor said. “But that, in turn, plays to at least to people's emotions, to people that think about perhaps, if it's not this time around, perhaps next time around when the legislature comes [back] or even nationally that there are certain things that we should be doing to try to get a handle on certain kinds of firearms.”

Taylor also says, though, that this could be an attempt to pacify the families.

"One could make that argument that they are throwing them a bone, and this is them saying 'we are giving you a day. Here is your day to talk about this legislation. You know and we know that it's not going to pass but we are giving you the chance to air your grievances.’"

Ahead of the vote on Tuesday, Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde, is telling everyone to call their representatives and urge them to vote yes on HB 2744.

“When the tragedy in Uvalde occurred last year, I heard loud and clear what the families had to say: that an 18-year-old should never have been able to even get his hands on an AR-15 in the first place – and that this needs to change,” said Rep. Tracy King, author of the #RaiseTheAge Act. “We need to protect Texas children and raise the age to buy an assault rifle in our state – just as we have with handguns – from 18 to 21.”