courtesy texasmonthly.com

Many Texas gun right supporters raised their eyebrows last week when, in his press conference from Santa Fe, Governor Greg Abbott had this to say about where we go from here:

“So, beginning immediately, I’m going to be working with members of the Texas Legislature, but also with members of our communities from across the state of Texas to begin with roundtable discussions beginning next week where we will assemble all stakeholders to begin to work immediately on swift solutions to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again,”

If you didn’t know any better, you might think those were the words of someone like Dannel Malloy, Andrew Cuomo or even Rick Scott.

“We want to hear from parents, we want to hear from students, we want to hear from educators, we want to hear from concerned citizens, we want to hear from those who hold the Second Amendment right in high esteem, and we want to hear from everybody who has an interest in what has happened today so we can work together on putting together laws that will protect Second Amendment rights but at the same make sure our communities and especially our schools are safer places.”

Abbott then mentioned that ideas under consideration would include more resources (read: money) for armed security in schools, faster background checks and figuring out how to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. Whatever that means. It’s already legal for districts in the state to allow teachers to carry concealed weapons.

But in case you hadn’t noticed, Texas isn’t Florida, let alone Connecticut (a fact that even the New York Times has managed to deduce). Republicans control every branch of state government and Abbott’s been a frequent, dependable and vocal promoter of gun rights and the Second Amendment. He’s supported both open carry and campus carry in the state and signed both into law.

So following up on his speech on Friday, the Governor’s planned a series of roundtable meetings starting tomorrow.

From Tuesday through Thursday, Abbott, a Republican, will meet at the Capitol with shooting survivors, students, parents, teachers and advocates on both sides of the gun debate. Tuesday’s discussion will seek input from school administrators and law enforcement leaders on ways to improve school security. …

The lawmakers will hear from prominent statewide leaders — Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath — as well as local school officials and law enforcement agencies working with districts to create safety programs. Other experts on school design and active shooter response plans were asked to attend.

Our guess is that the result of these meetings will be a white paper and possible legislation aimed at making schools harder targets. Restricting outside access, use of metal detectors, adding more armedSchool Resource Officers and encouraging more districts to allow teachers, administrators and other employees to carry firearms, if they wish.

As for anything even approaching what the Florida legislature and Governor did following Parkland — raising the minimum age to buy firearms, banning bump fire stocks and instituting a three-day waiting period on long gun purchases — you’ll probably sooner see the Governor propose a bill outlawing barbecued brisket and Lone Star Beer.

As The Times noted,

“Florida is a swing state,” said Calvin Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “You start with the understanding that Florida is a purple state in which Democrats and Republicans are both competitive. Texas is a deep-red state, in which the Republican Party is in complete and total control. They don’t feel that partisan electoral heat.”

Here’s the Governor’s official statement about the roundtable meetings he’s just released:

Governor Greg Abbott today announced he will host a series of roundtable sessions, beginning tomorrow, to generate solutions that improve safety and security at Texas schools and in our communities. The roundtables will include voices from across Texas, including parents, teachers, students, legislators, and interest groups that advocate for and against further gun regulations. Additionally, the roundtables will include opinions from school administrators that allow the arming of teachers and those that do not, as well as experts on matters of school safety, mental health, law enforcement, bullying, and more. Victims, educators, and family members from Santa Fe, Sutherland Springs, Alpine and Italy, TX are also being invited to participate in a roundtable discussion later this week.

The first roundtable will be held on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at the Texas Capitol, and will seek input from education and law enforcement leaders on how to improve security in Texas school districts, as well as strategies that benefit our communities. Participants will include administrators from school districts that participate in the School Marshal Program, as well as administrators from school districts that partner with local law enforcement, and more. Further details on tomorrow’s roundtable will be distributed immediately.

“I am seeking the best solutions to make our schools more secure and to keep our communities safe,” said Governor Abbott. “I look forward to hearing from all sides of the debate, and from expert perspectives on these issues. Working together, we can ensure a safe learning environment for students and safer communities for all Texans.”

Additional roundtables will be held on Wednesday, May 23 and Thursday, May 24 at the Texas Capitol. More details about those roundtables will be issued a day in advance.

 

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

70 COMMENTS

  1. I predict Texas will come up with an actual solution and implement it. They will arm the teachers and secure the schools. The chances of any gun control coming out of this can be rounded to zero.

    • And I predict that will solve nothing either. You don’t solve a cultural problem, with a mechanical solution.

      • Well now… you theoretically could… But it would involve some pretty questionable shit…

      • Yes it would. The only reason these shooting are happening is because the places they occur are soft targets unable to defend themselves. Take away that factor and these shooters are going to realize their stunts are going to end quickly and swiftly.

      • Yes you can. Why is so difficult to set up security at a school that functions as well as the security at a casino or government building? They are soft targets and they need to become hard targets. I’ve been in dozens of places that would be highly difficult for a shooter to get into. Even my damn house is harder than a school. Furthermore, I would trust Greg Abbott’s way of dealing with this issue above anyone else in the United States.

        • Yes, we absolutely can make schools harder targets. But don’t expect a utopia. As I’ve stated before, if a bad guy/gal wants it bad enough, it wouldn’t be difficult to climb the school fence in the dark of night and conceal their weapons to be recovered the next day. School personnel including teachers need to be trained and armed. That would certainly mitigate mass casualties.

    • I predict they will come up with some more security, and some modest(but egregious) gun control proposals. Which will then fail to be enacted. Hopefully.

  2. He is from the government and he is here to help.
    My wife is a school teacher and the first thing she asks about all these school shootings is how the killer kids are getting in the school in the first place.
    Lots of controlled entrances and exits at America;s public schools.

    • Ask her how all the students get in there.

      I’ll tell you, FUCKING PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE.

      IF YOU SEND YOUR KIDS TO SCHOOL, YOU’RE PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE FOR MINIMAL BENEFIT ABOVE TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED BABYSITTING. BAN ALL THE HAZARDS YOU WANT, THE HAZARDS WILL LAUGH AT YOU AND CONTINUE TO WORK AT MAKING SURE SOME OF THEM DON’T COME HOME ONE DAY.

      • Which is why I think we should privatize all education. Let the free market take care of this.

        • You can freely send your kid to any private school you want, as long as you can pay for it. Or do you want free private schools. I don’t understand your point.

        • If I’m paying for private school, I shouldn’t also have to pay for public school for other people’s children.

        • There are a bunch of states in the US where you can get a refund. I don’t know if its all of them, but all 4 we’ve lived in, you can either get it refunded personally, or transferred to the school. This was between the mid 90’s and mid 2000’s, so before any voucher situation, but with voucher’s it works somewhat similar.

        • Private school isn’t so expensive that its out of reach unless you are trying to go to some kind of super special, for rich people only school. Home school is only a $1,000-$3,000 per year, depending if you want video classroom lessons or not. Its not so expensive that its out of reach. Teach kids some personal responsibility and they can put the video lesson in on their own and follow along. If you are too poor for the video lessons, get the books, and find the video lessons on the internet.

          I was taught at home from first grade through high school and my AFQT score ended up being 91, with a 131GT. I can pick my flavor of higher learning without having to worry about debt as well.

        • @Rick

          We had vouchers approved in Nevada, however, right afterwards the legislature turned deep blue and they’ve done everything possible to block it.

        • Might, maybe, cudda, wudda, shudda. Analysis paralysis. Do nothing, because nothing you can do is 100% safe and effective.

        • I’d rather the possibility of cross-fire than an unopposed walk-about massacre until the bad guy runs out of ammo.

    • Most schools around here have controlled entrance points. You have to ring a buzzer and a secretary unlocks the door for you. Usually only one controlled entrance.
      This is why she asks how does the killer kid with the long gun ever gets in the school in the first place?

      • It’s been several years since my son was in HS but all the doors were locked with an SRO officer and sometimes a uniformed cop. You were vetted by a guard before you could enter. I saw them (REALLY)kick a young black miscreant’s azz in front of the school. Not screwing around. All this south of Chicago…

      • Indiana Tom,

        My local public school district also has single controlled entry points at all schools. However, and this is a HUGE however, those controlled entry points are only controlled AFTER classes start. BEFORE classes start, pretty much all doors are wide open and anyone who looks like a student can walk into any entrance without anyone challenging them.

        Of equal importance: once classes are finished, all doors are wide open again. So, a student who intends to murder as many students as possible could simply bring in all manner of objects (archery, edge weapons, firearms, poison, explosives) after classes and hide the object/s for use the next day.

        • Forget objects. A kid can plow a car or truck into dozens of students waiting to board school buses and kill more than if he used a gun.

      • Indiana Tom,

        Yet another ginormously important detail that countless people have already mentioned: all the efforts to “harden” and “lock down” a building create choke points which create crowds of people outside of the controlled entry points. All security measures inside the building are thus utterly, completely, and totally ineffective when a spree killer simply attacks the crowd of people just outside the door.

        • “All security measures inside the building are thus utterly, completely, and totally ineffective when a spree killer simply attacks the crowd of people just outside the door.”

          Which has never happened. The inner city schools are “locked down”, yet there are no killing sprees of people waiting to get into schools. Your observations sorta sounds like those claims, years ago, that wearing tacticool clothing is a banner announcing, “shoot me first”. Which also never happened.

          Could an attack on people waiting in line happen? Yes. But we have no evidence of such at any public location where lines are present (notwithstanding the Rome and Vienna airports in 1985).

        • @ Sam You Are – Nikolas Cruz pulled the fire alarm in order to funnel kids into a kill zone inside and outside of the school. He appears to have intended on using the carnage as a get away scheme. He could have set up explosives outside and then called in a bomb threat and walked everyone into it.

          Schools are dangerous.

          • “Schools are dangerous.”

            Increased security at sporting events, concerts, and other things for which we accept the inconvenience. Schools should be security free zones, because….well…because. Let’s spend all that security money on teacher pensions, supervised nap programs, free food service for students and employees, more education regulations, larger administrative staffs. Hey, we can even take down the GFZ signs because schools would need no security measures.

            “Hey, hey. Go Away
            We don’t need no securitay”

        • Sam I Am,

          Spree killer attacks at schools are exceedingly rare and “secured” schools are also rare, especially historically. Thus it is not surprising that a spree killer has not yet attacked crowds at choke-points outside of “secured” schools.

          The fact remains that “securing” a facility does ZERO to protect people outside the “secured” area of a facility. The fact also remains that spree killers like to attack large, dense crowds of people. If securing schools creates crowds outside of the secure checkpoints, spree killers will simply attack there instead of inside.

          Note that terrorists have already begun moving in this direction. Reference the recent bomb attacks just outside a soccer stadium (Paris, Istanbul) and airport terminal (Brussels, Istanbul).

          • Are you imagining spree killers do not know inner city schools exist (which are generally quite compact compared to suburban schools)? The notion that just because something has not happened means it will happen seems circular. Even the Las Vegas incident did not target long lines of people waiting to pass through entry points.

            Fact remains that inner city schools are “hardened”, and we have had zero spree shootings there.

            Yes, every defense can be overcome by an offense. It seems you are reasoning that doing nothing is just as effective as taking no defensive action. Taken to the logical conclusion, carrying a firearm is futile because if you are attacked by multiple shooters, you will most likely lose the battle. If you are going to lose anyway, why be armed?

      • Bad guys love soft targets. As Rand paul pointed out that they are not shooting up the local Cop Store. My kids are grown. Hey, its your kids and your schools. Soft schools are the play stupid games and win stupid prizes.

        • Rand Paul should talk, he is a soft (spoken) target, it’s funny when midget douches bow up and pontificate.

  3. Close all public schools and send your kids to private school with adequate security or home school them yourself. Boom! Problem solved, problem staying solved! (And your kids will get a better education to boot.) Have a nice day!

  5. Why not metal detectors?
    They seem to be at just about every other government facility!

    DrDKW

      • “Why not metal detectors? They seem to be at just about every other government facility! DrDKW”

        “TSA

        TSA Theater = BS”

        I understand the pleasure in sloganeering, but still wonder….why don’t we see these mass shootings in inner city schools? Schools that are locked down, one or two entrances, metal detectors. Cant see that those schools are security “theater”. Is it the fact that high security works, or is there some other, yet undiscovered, factor?

    • OMGosh…
      I read “metal detectors” as “mental detectors”.
      LoL
      And therein lies a solution. Mental Detectors to pick out the bad apples from gun possession.
      And then we can be safe in Orwell’s World.

  6. But in case you hadn’t noticed, Texas isn’t Florida, let alone Connecticut (a fact that even the New York Times has managed to deduce). Republicans control every branch of state government and Abbott’s been a frequent, dependable and vocal promoter of gun rights and the Second Amendment. He’s supported both open carry and campus carry in the state and signed both into law

    ha…ya well as a Florida resident I can tell you that the SAME thing could have been said about Florida pre Parkland. Republicans CONTROL THE ENTIRE GOVT HERE….same as Texas. Republicans have super majority in both houses. Gov Scott was a vocal proponet of open carry and campus carry and “promised” to sign if they became law. Scott and pretty much every other Florida Republican was A rated by the NRA. The list goes on. Yet they still stabbed gun owners in the back.

    Florida is damn near as Red on paper as Texas…and the demographics are similiar. A few more years of increased immigration and more of those immigrants voting and it will be purple. And remember….saying Texas is the most gun friendly state in the country is a myth. There are plenty of states with much better and freer gun laws. Texas REPUBLICANS were dragged kicking and screaming to pass CCW laws(1995) and LICENSES open carry 2016. And even then you had a laundry list of places you couldn’t carry and any no carry signs at private establishments carried force of law(you carry there…you are arrested)…most states the most that will happen is you are asked to leave.

    So while Texas is gun friendly…..don’t kid yourself the Republcians there are any more reliable than here in Florida.

    • Texas hasn’t been on the leading edge of pro 2A issues. Its changed a bit in the last year or so, but compared to most of the west, not so much. Better than Colorado and the Pacific Coast, but that’s about it.

    • “…Florida is damn near as Red on paper as Texas…and the demographics are similar.”

      Well…… mostly.

      Tallahassee is pretty blue but it is both the Capital AND a College town so not surprising.

      Orlando is a solid purple so depending on who you cater too depends on how the vote would go.

      South Florida, on the other hand, is so Blue they need to make a new shade of blue to go on the maps. Broward County most of all. Saying you voted Republican can get you spit on. Even saying the word Trump gets a lot of folks actually foaming at the mouth.

      And here is the scary part…. I talk to people about politics, lots of people. We have lots of immigrants here and the ones who get papers and can vote (and maybe a few who can’t, but that is a different discussion) say they Vote Democrat because they think that means they are voting for Democracy. They honestly think that they are doing a good thing, that they are supporting the US by keeping it a Democracy and not a military Republic like wherever they came from.

    • As a long time Texas resident I can tell you that you are absolutely right. I have a CCW but cannot carry at work, while picking my kids up at school, at many businesses, or while taking my kids to their various games, rehearsals, etc.. My weapon spends more time in my car’s travel safe than on my hip these days.

  8. Any time there is a round table where the subject is guns, be afraid. Be very afraid.

    Any time there is a statement, or “round table”, or “conversation” about removing constitutionally protected rights without a constitutional amendment, be afraid. Be very afraid.

  9. Any of you old timers remember Brenda Spencer, a 17 year old.. She didn’t like Mondays, so one Monday morning, she shot up a school, the Principal, a police officer, teachers, etc. The point being, she never set foot on the school property, she did it from her parents home across the street from the school. Oh, and by the way, the assault weapon used was a Ruger 10-22. No matter what we do to prevent these shootings, they will continue. We can put in metal detectors. What happens when the determined POS shooter simply climbs the fence in the middle of the night and hides his weapons on the campus. If there is a way, the bad guys will find it. I’d love to hear someone come up with a way to stop it. They would become instant millionaires.

  10. For the Ultimate School security for the common folk *(aka, The Unwashed Masses.)*
    Would be to send YOUR kids to a local prison/ Correction Facility/ Penitentiary to receive a public education….For that will be the dystopian future YOUR kids will be ready for….When the Near-De-Wells finish “reasoning away” every constitutional amendment in the name of public safety…They can all experience what it would be like to be a political dissident….

  11. “Should Texans Be Worried About Gov. Abbott’s Gun Violence Roundtables?”

    Does a wild bear crap in the woods?

    If given the chance the natural republican reaction is to cave. It’s not if we should be afraid, it’s we should be holding his feet to the fire already. Unfortunately he’ll be swayed by the paid anti gun protesters bussed in from all over the country.

    He’s gonna stab us in the back. If I had to guess, he’ll pull what they did in Florida or Vermont or worse.

  12. “If you didn’t know any better, you might think those were the words of someone like Dannel Malloy, Andrew Cuomo or even Rick Scott.”

    You over looked Gov. Benedict Scott,RINO of Vermont.
    However he isn’t long for office as he will face a primary challenger .

    https://www.vermontgetsstern.org/#

  13. Remember literally EVERY piece of anti-gun legislation passed since February were promoted and signed by republicans who were supposedly pro gun.

    Doug Doucey in Arizona tried to ram gun confiscation legislation through in March. The houses had none of it. That and the tens of thousands of people that wrote and called. But Arizona is Sine Die now and even when it was rewritten to be a lot better for POTG it still stalled.

    Hope Texas does the same. Stop the republican gun control proposals cold that WILL be introduced by our so called allies.

  14. I think the state should require armed security, armed faculty that want to carry concealed, hardened schools and metal detectors. Schools refusing the armed security and faculty would loose all funding. This would keep the students much safer while they get their social indoctrination. Personally I favor home schooling and home college degrees.

  16. Politically, yes.

    The “(It won’t help but) disarm everybody (anyway.)” folks will show up with sound bites. Tag lines. Scripted little vignettes creating tension, then emotional relief from a non-solution. Rehearsed retorts, blaming and shaming anyone who proposes something other than “Disarm people who didn’t do thins!”

    The moments will get pulled out n flogged endlessly on party media.

    Politicritters drift with the current at hand. Yes, we should be worried because the “pro-” side never does their media relations homework. To start, if this is happening, the “pro-” people — by which I mean anti-stupid-disarmament — need to be out there setting the terms of the discussion right now.

    – Mental health.
    – Known wolves — how know was this guy?
    – Response times.
    – Do people know what to do in a fire, and drill in it? Great, how about BGs in the house drills?

    – Anti-gun cheapskates. What’s a range fee? What’s it cost in cop-time to charge or disarm a gun owner? How about we spend maybe half that much on protective measures. You know, doors that lock.

    – Hit them in the stupidity. Well, time for another “assault weapons'” ban, because that’ll help prevent an attack with … not assault weapons. Magazine size — this is why we’ve said all along that that one is dumb and symbolic at best.

    You aren’t trying to convince the anti’s there of anything. You are trying to make them look like schmucks. And convince the convincable undecideds. And especially let the politicritters there realize that they will have less backing, and look like schmucks to boot, if they go the “stupid anti” way.

    Here’s the thing. When somebody sets up a show trial — I mean “town hall” — it’s theater. Understand that it’s a setup. And as you show up, wave a gilded cape behind you & practice your body slams … “Just warming up for the show, like after that one in Florida. Oh, you’re serious? OK, let’s be serious.” Then every time the anti’s do some theatrical posturing thing, you get to say: “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought we were being serious.” Then hit them with something ridiculous and unfair.

  17. “Well, I understand that you prefer gun laws more like in France. Some of us disagree — if you can’t keep people from shooting at us, we’d like the option to shoot back. But I get why you prefer France’s results…”

  19. Holy house fires Batman. It looks like the Joker pulled one over on us this time. “Never mind that Boy Robin, my bat belts caught in my zipper”

  20. “Should Texans Be Worried About Gov. Abbott’s Gun Violence Roundtables?”

    With all the things we have to worry about, this is what’s keeping you up tonight? Damn, son, you’re drunk.

  21. It’s going to be hard to avoid some kind of Kabuki theater where the governor postures and looks for a way to “do something” that won’t cost him votes in either the legislature or with his constituency. I cringe at the word “stakeholders” because this means he not talking average or People Of The Gun but is, instead, talking about special interest groups like teacher’s unions and principal’s associations along with, of course, the Mom’s. If we’re represented at all you can damn well bet we’ll be in the minority. And don’t count on Abbot coming out 4 square in support of 2nd amendment rights if there is substantial gun-control advocacy represented among the “stakeholders”. If there is, the pressure on Abbott to come up with some kind of deal to make them happy so he can claim that his meeting was a success will be very strong. While I generally like Abbott, he’s a politician and politicans live to make deals. I can easily see him convincing himself that just a little more gun-control can’t hurt.

  22. Using the term “School Resource Officer” indicates that you’re in denial about the problem. We want School Security Officers!

  23. What Texans really need to be worried about is the rapid expansion of Austin. Tons of progressives are looking at Austin and thinking ‘Wow, this place has jobs AND affordable housing? I’m going to move there.”

    But once they get there they still vote with a coastal elite mindset. They don’t take into account what made the state great to begin with and are voting to turn a once great state Blue.

    • “But once they get there they still vote with a coastal elite mindset. ”

      Evil never rests.*

      *Never ascribe to stupidity that which can easily be explained by malice.

  24. No Governor, not only do you need to hear from students, teachers, and parents, but, you MUST hear from Veterans. We are ready and willing to assist on site at any school and I can promise that we would guard students with our lives for free. If you choose not to go that direction, consider the following: DO NOT blindly follow the left and the gun grabbers as Governor Scott did. Instead, place the crime where it belongs – firmly at the feet of the criminal. Guns are not the problem. Idiots are the problem and when their parents do not take an active role in the lives of kids and/or do not properly and securely store their firearms, well, you get what we have now. All that being said, I propose the following be considered, seriously considered…

    1. When a person, regardless of age, commits the act of murder, and admits to said act(s), they are to be put to death by public execution immediately. At the point of admission, all rights to trial should be ended and the execution phase begin. Regardless of what the Supreme Court says.
    2. Parents of children that commit these crimes are as guilty as the child if it is found that the firearms were not properly and securely stored. Said parent(s) shall immediately be arrested as accessories to the crime and be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible up to and including execution.
    3. News media needs to stop glorifying and endlessly talking about these crimes and especially STOP saying the shooter’s name. Why do you think this keeps happening? “Hey Dillon Roof got his name in the news worldwide. I think I will too.” Kids are attention seekers and will do nearly anything to get it. Maybe because they aren’t getting any from home?
    4. Put GOD back in school. Period.
    5. Put the paddle back in the School Principal’s hand. Period.
    6. Arm the Veterans and put us to work. We know it is not fun to be shot at and even less fun to shoot back. However, we, are pretty good at that particular task, unfortunately. Especially in the defense of others.
    7. This is the most novel idea of all…Enforce current laws! The term Common Sense Gun Laws is complete BS. It is just another way of politicians to say “Look at me, see what I have done? Now pat me on the back.” It is ignorant and moronic to think that way. So, think this way instead and ENFORCE Laws not create more that won’t be enforced.
    I am always available to you for any future comments or questions Governor.

  25. Bravo to the folks that shared good ideas on this topic. And to the rest of that seem to think nothing will work then why don’t you just shoot yourself in the damn head and get this life experience over with. I doubt any of you ever saw any combat. Your ideas in combat would get you shot by the guys on your side.

  26. I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Comments are closed.