AUSTIN, Texas — Survivors of last week’s shooting at a high school near Houston told gripping stories of dodging bullets, hiding from the attacker and seeing classmates get shot as they pleaded with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday for more armed security to keep campuses safe.
The emotional three-hour discussion marked the end of three days of meetings Abbott held on school safety and mass shootings.
And while the governor has appeared to embrace ideas of boosting security and tracking student mental health, there is little expectation the staunch gun-rights supporter will push for major changes to restrict owning firearms or buying them.
The Republican, who is campaigning for re-election, organized the mostly closed-door meetings shortly after eight students and two substitute teachers were fatally shot inside Santa Fe High School. Abbott said he wanted to find “swift and meaningful” ways to stop future shootings.
He hasn’t said when or what he’ll recommend, but told the survivors and their families Thursday “we are going to do more than just talk, we are going to act.”
So far, the governor has ignored calls from a handful of state lawmakers from both parties to call the Legislature into special session to address gun laws, which is a sharp contrast to the response in Florida after a high school shooting in February killed 17 people. Three weeks after that massacre, Florida politicians, who were already in session, passed a gun-control package after a lobbying campaign led by student survivors of the attack.
Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to meet until January 2019 in Texas, a state that embraces its gun-friendly reputation and has more than 1.2 million people licensed to carry handguns.
And unlike the students in Florida, several students at Santa Fe High School have been vocal opponents of increased gun control, including some of those who were invited to meet Abbott on Thursday.
The only tweaks to gun safety Abbott mentioned as possibilities were stronger laws on gun storage and reporting of lost or stolen weapons, and quicker reporting to law enforcement when a court order denies someone access to a firearm.
Several of the families who met with him Thursday said they didn’t want to talk about gun restrictions or the politics of gun rights.
“This is not a gun thing,” said Jay Horn, whose son was injured in the shooting and hospitalized. “Evil’s going to happen with anything.”