Federal law already makes it illegal for most people to possess a weapon on secure parts of an airport tarmac. The bill was aimed at also allowing local law enforcement, especially at smaller airports, to take action in the face of an emergency.
A state representative says action is still needed after Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed his bill that would have allowed local authorities to bring charges against people who carry a gun in a secure area of a Texas airport.
Federal law already makes it illegal for a person or airport employee to possess a weapon on secure parts of the airport tarmac. State Rep. Rafael Anchía, a Democrat from Dallas, wanted to give state officials the same jurisdiction as federal agents in such a case, partially so that smaller commercial airports wouldn’t have to wait for a federal agent to arrive on site in order to take action in the face of an emergency.
“When you’re talking about a security threat on a tarmac, with a passenger aircraft and fuel and everything like that, every second counts,” Anchía said.
But Abbott vetoed the bill Saturday, writing in a statement that it would “impose an unacceptable restraint on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding travelers.”
“The Legislature may have intended simply to keep firearms off the tarmac, but the bill as drafted would newly prohibit carrying in any part of the airport terminal building, even ahead of the TSA inspection checkpoint,” Abbott wrote.
Still, Abbott left the door open to a future bill that might accomplish similar goals.
“By vetoing this bill, I am ensuring that Texans can travel without leaving their firearms at home,” he wrote. “I look forward to working with the next Legislature on the good idea behind this bill.”
Anchía said Monday that the bill already takes Abbott’s concerns into account — by excluding private parts of the tarmac that could be used, for example, by a gun owner using a private plane to go on a hunting trip.
“The fact that the governor is suggesting somehow the language picked up the nonsecure area of the terminal is really not credible,” Anchía said.
Anchía said over the weekend that police at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport “asked for this bill.” Representatives from the city of Dallas, the Houston Police Department and the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas registered their support. But members of the gun rights groups Open Carry Texas and Gun Owners of America opposed the bill at hearings.
It passed with a 140-8 vote in the House and 25-6 in the Senate, Anchía noted.
Earlier this year, data from the Transportation Security Administration reported a surge in the number of guns found at airport security checkpoints, where guns are still banned.
Out of the top 10 airports where TSA found the most guns, four are in Texas.
“The threat's not going to go away, so we need to deal with it in the legislation,” Anchía said. “I just worry that the threat still exists.”
According to an extensive report, the National Rifle Association was using money from their donors to fund the lavish lifestyles of their board members and vendors.
For example, a former pro-football player was on the national board and paid $400,000 to do "public outreach" and "firearms training." A writer in New Mexico was given $28,000 for writing articles for an NRA publication. Another board member sold ammunition to the NRA for an "undisclosed sum."
The organization has been dealing with an internal battle for several months, as two factions are fighting about the future of the group. The recent president was dethroned, and CEO Wayne Lapierre is back to steering the direction of their work.
The NRA has drawn a lot of attention for their considerable donations that were outside of the norm in 2016. Progressive activists and political analysts have wondered if the money was coming from a foreign entity so that the funds could be spent to support Donald Trump. At least 20 Russian donors were uncovered for donating to the group.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year week that LaPierre racked up hefty expenses totaling $275,000 in "personal charges" at a single store in Beverly Hills. He spent approximately $253,000 in luxury travel to Italy, Budapest, and the Bahamas. He also paid $13,800 to rent an apartment for a summer intern.
The NRA has 76 members of its board of directors who are not paid for their service. However, previous reports speculated at least 17 of those managed to score cash from the group over the last three years, the Post reported. However, payments were received by about one-quarter of the members.
CEO Wayne LaPierre was one of the primary beneficiaries to the funds, scoring hundreds of thousands in charges from a Beverly Hills clothing boutique as well as foreign travel.
"NRA officials said LaPierre's wardrobe allowance began 15 years ago and that he was urged by Ackerman to make the purchases for his public appearances, a practice that they said has since been discontinued," reported the Post. "They said his travel was necessary for fundraising. The apartment was secured for a three-month summer internship when university housing typically used was unavailable."
"I will be the first person to get in your face about defending the Second Amendment, but I will not defend corruption and cronyism and fearmongering," said lifetime NRA member Vanessa Ross.
Previous leader, Oliver North, was ousted for trying to stage a coup against LaPierre. He was set to make millions off of a public relations agency contract between the NRA and an Ackerman McQueen, LaPierre alleged. According to North, however, the organization's lawyer was scoring "extraordinary" payments for legal fees that totaled in the millions.
Board members don't earn a salary for their service and have no financial responsibilities to raise funds. There are no term limits on their positions.
The Post spoke to a tax expert who said that these payments could be a conflict of interest for those tasked with monitoring the finances of the group.
"In 25 years of working in this field, I have never seen a pattern like this," said Washington attorney Douglas Varley, who specializes in tax-exempt organizations. "The volume of transactions with insiders and affiliates of insiders is really astonishing."
"But the pattern raises a threshold question of who the organization is serving," he continued. "Is it being run for the benefit of the gun owners in the country and the public? Or is it being run as a business generating enterprise for officers and employees of the organization?"
The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating an incident at a downtown 7/11 when a rapper pulled a gun -- all of it caught on video.
"Lil Xan whipped out a handgun and pointed it at a man who demanded to know why the rapper once called Tupac "boring" ... and now LAPD is investigating," TMZ reported.
The incident allegedly began with a difference of opinion as to the excitement of listening to the music of legendary rapper and civil rights activist Tupac Shakur.
"TMZ obtained this video of the altercation which went down shortly before 10 PM Friday in a 7/11 parking lot near downtown L.A. The person shooting the video says he asked Xan why he 'talked sh*t' about Tupac last year in an interview," the site noted.
Xan used the N-word in his outburst.
"What the f*ck you want, bruh?? Get the f*ck out, n***a!" he shouted.
The rapper is best known for the 2017 song "Betrayed," which reached number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Xan, for his part, lashed out at fans of Tupac in a statement.
"F*ck all you old head ass b*tches still talking bout that 2pac shit," Xan said.
This trope – “the good guy with a gun” – has become commonplace among gun rights activists.
Where did it come from?
On Dec. 21, 2012 – one week after Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut – National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre announced during a press conference that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Ever since then, in response to each mass shooting, pro-gun pundits, politicians and social media users parrot some version of the slogan, followed by calls to arm the teachers, arm the churchgoers or arm the office workers. And whenever an armed citizen takes out a criminal, conservative media outlets pounce on the story.
But “the good guy with the gun” archetype dates to long before LaPierre’s 2012 press conference.
Other cultures have their detective fiction. But it was specifically in America that the “good guy with a gun” became a heroic figure and a cultural fantasy.
‘When I fire, there ain’t no guessing’
Beginning in the 1920s, a certain type of protagonist started appearing in American crime fiction. He often wore a trench coat and smoked cigarettes. He didn’t talk much. He was honorable, individualistic – and armed.
These characters were dubbed “hard-boiled,” a term that originated in the late 19th century to describe “hard, shrewd, keen men who neither asked nor expected sympathy nor gave any, who could not be imposed upon.” The word didn’t describe someone who was simply tough; it communicated a persona, an attitude, an entire way of being.
Most scholars credit Carroll John Daly with writing the first hard-boiled detective story. Titled “Three Gun Terry,” it was published in Black Mask magazine in May 1923.
The May 1934 issue of Black Mask features Carroll John Daly’s character Race Williams on the cover.
“Show me the man,” the protagonist, Terry Mack, announces, “and if he’s drawing on me and is a man what really needs a good killing, why, I’m the boy to do it.”
Terry also lets the reader know that he’s a sure shot: “When I fire, there ain’t no guessing contest as to where the bullet is going.”
From the start, the gun was a crucial accessory. Since the detective only shot at bad guys and because he never missed, there was nothing to fear.
Part of the popularity of this character type had to do with the times. In an era of Prohibition, organized crime, government corruption and rising populism, the public was drawn to the idea of a well-armed, well-meaning maverick – someone who could heroically come to the defense of regular people. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, stories that featured these characters became wildly popular.
Their stories’ plots differed, but their protagonists were mostly the same: tough-talking, straight-shooting private detectives.
In an early Hammett story, the detective shoots a gun out of a man’s hand and then quips he’s a “fair shot – no more, no less.”
In a 1945 article, Raymond Chandler attempted to define this type of protagonist:
“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. … He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it.”
Gun rights enthusiasts have embraced the idea of the “good guy” as a model to emulate – a character role that just needed real people to step in and play it. The NRA store even sells T-shirts with LaPierre’s slogan, and encourages buyers to “show everyone that you’re the ‘good guy’” by buying the T-shirt.
The problem with this archetype is that it’s just that: an archetype. A fictional fantasy.
In pulp fiction, the detectives never miss. Their timing is precise and their motives are irreproachable. They never accidentally shoot themselves or an innocent bystander. Rarely are they mentally unstable or blinded by rage. When they clash with the police, it’s often because they’re doing the police’s job better than the police can.
Another aspect of the fantasy involves looking the part. The “good guy with a gun” isn’t just any guy – it’s a white one.
In “Three Gun Terry,” the detective apprehends the villain, Manual Sparo, with some tough words: “‘Speak English,’ I says. I’m none too gentle because it won’t do him any good now.”
Could this explain why, in 2018, when a black man with a gun tried to stop a shooting in a mall in Alabama – and the police shot and killed him – the NRA, usually eager to champion good guys with guns, didn’t comment?
A reality check
Most gun enthusiasts don’t measure up to the fictional ideal of the steady, righteous and sure shot.
After a huge breakup between two different sects in the National Rifle Association (NRA), former president Oliver North is being subpoenaed.
According to Daily Beast reporter Betsy Woodruff, court documents show the group served North last month along with Lance Olson and Daniel Boren, all of whom are on the NRA's board.
The subpoena demands documents such as emails sent from April 10 through May 22 about people working for the NRA's ad firm, anything sent about the NRA's Indiana convention about Wayne LaPierre, anything about the group's expenditures, North's expenses and any communications about leaks.
Interestingly, the subpoena dropped about one month after President Donald Trump told the organization to "get its act together quickly."
It's part of a months-long public battle between two groups in the organization battling for the future of the NRA.
After several of their priority bills failed to gain traction, some gun rights advocates said House and Senate leadership failed them. Now they’re calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to veto a line item in the state budget they say would add insult to an injurious legislative session.
But that same line in the state’s $251 billion budget is being viewed differently by other firearms enthusiasts.
While some smaller, homegrown groups view the item — $1 million for a public awareness campaign to promote responsible gun storage among firearms owners — as an affront to the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Association says it is unopposed to, though not thrilled by, the public awareness campaign.
Their attention now turns to what Abbott does during the period when he can veto line items in the budget.
Abbott touted the need to promote safe gun storage as part of his school safety proposals in the aftermath of the May 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School that left 10 people dead and 13 wounded. And with a June 16 deadline to make vetoes, the governor is in a delicate position of trying not to alienate Texas gun-rights activists, while advancing a net of school safety reforms that the Legislature passed.
Texas budget writers authorized the $1 million for the Department of Public Safety to promote gun storage so long as it does “not convey a message that it is unlawful under state law to keep or store a firearm that is loaded or that is readily accessible for self-defense.” The campaign, unless vetoed by Abbott, could include online and printed materials, public service announcements or other advertising. House lawmakers first proposed the idea in a draft of the two-year budget in March, and it was approved by both chambers in May.
“It’s certainly fine and lawful to have a weapon for your own protection,” state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, the House’s lead budget writer, told The Texas Tribune. “But I think we also need to be aware that it’s not uncommon for a child to access a loaded weapon and inadvertently and accidentally hurt themselves.”
But as some gun rights groups criticize the state’s Republican leadership for not stopping the public awareness campaign — “Speaker [Dennis] Bonnen slipped a $1 million spending spree for the promotion of “safe” gun storage,” reads a news release from Texas Gun Rights. “The House and Senate failed to stop this budget rider,” says another one from Gun Owners of America — others have stayed neutral and say the line-item is small and noncontroversial.
“No ‘mandatory storage’ bill passed,” NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter said. “What passed was a safe gun storage campaign rider that was just several lines in a nearly 1,000 page budget and NRA didn't oppose it, not that anyone bothered to ask about our position.”
Still, the national gun advocacy group didn’t give it a full-throated endorsement.
“We're not sure why $1 million of taxpayers’ dollars need to be used for such a campaign,” Hunter said. “The state can go ahead and do their thing, while we will continue leading the discussion with our own firearms safety training and accident prevention programs — again, at no cost to taxpayers.”
But smaller advocacy groups are hoping Abbott will come to their defense after a legislative session in which they say they failed to gain ground on key issues.
Among their grievances: A priority “constitutional carry” bill died. Two Democrats were tapped to chair the House committees that determined the fate of some of their most favored legislation. One of their own was publicly harangued by the House speaker after showing up in his neighborhood unannounced.
The public safety campaign, they say, was the final blow.
“The government doesn’t need to take every little issue upon themselves to make a public campaign,” said Derek Wills, the senior editor and podcast host for Lone Star Gun Rights. “Most gun owners prioritize firearms safety on their own, and will keep their weapons safely stored without a law — and definitely without a campaign from the state telling them they need to do that.”
Abbott has stayed largely silent on the budget item since Bonnen and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick began receiving flak, and a spokesman for his office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Still, the governor has advocated for the promotion of safe storage practices — like locking away guns while they’re not in use — for at least a year.
In a 43-page school safety plan released shortly after the massacre at Santa Fe High, the governor touched on proposals like promoting the voluntary use of gun locks. He also toyed with the idea of having children younger than 18 counted as minors. Currently, Texas’ child-access prevention law only applies to those younger than 17.
Representatives for Bonnen and Patrick also didn’t respond to a request for comment, though Patrick has previously talked about the need for responsible gun storage.
“The responsibility of gun owners who have guns at home: Lock up your guns,” Patrick said last year. “I'm a gun owner. We have a responsibility to be sure our guns are safe at home. That's where gun control starts — at home. Let's make sure no kid gets his hands on a gun.”
In Texas, the governor has the authority to veto individual line items in the budget. And some political experts predict Abbott won’t be vulnerable politically should he decide to buck the groups asking him to cut the budget item.
“Second Amendment activists, they’re opinionated and they’re loud, but the NRA is the Good Housekeeping seal of approval on gun stuff,” said Bill Miller, a veteran political consultant and lobbyist who has represented both Democrats and Republicans. “And if they’re not opposed to this issue, I think Abbott is completely safe here.”
But in a gun-friendly state like Texas, some statewide grassroots groups say lawmakers stumbled this session. Aside from the $1 million cost associated with the campaign, some have argued that the language added to the state’s spending bill is eerily similar to a failed piece of legislation introduced this year — by a Democrat.
The bill by state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, which was also opposed by the NRA, would’ve directed DPS — in conjunction with the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Parks and Wildlife Department and other relevant agencies — to develop and implement a public safety campaign designed to encourage firearm safety.
“We had this language negotiated on the House floor and in the budget conference committee,” Howard said of the proposal in the state budget. “It came out of the recommendations from the governor’s school safety plan, so it seems to me that this is something we ought to be able to move forward on that is a positive step.”
Several other bills this session aimed to strengthen the state’s gun storage laws, including a pair of bipartisan bills from state Sens. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, and Joan Huffman, R-Houston, that would have increased the criminal penalties for making a firearm accessible to a child. Neither received a hearing.
While Hunter, the NRA spokeswoman, hailed the failure several anti-Second Amendment pushed by Democrats as a win for gun rights activists, several statewide organizations lamented that state leaders didn’t pass more pro-gun legislation this past legislative session.
“What happened with Second Amendment legislation this session was cringe-worthy,” Wills said.
Even gun control groups, though pleased with the budget rider, said they didn’t come out of this year’s legislative session on top — but still made measured progress.
“We had more bills filed to prevent gun violence, we had more hearings in committees, we had more discussions with lawmakers and more testimony,” said Ed Scruggs, the vice chair of Texas Gun Sense. “We’re on the playing field. We still have a long long way to go, but we’re having discussions about policy that we may not have had in previous years.”
But despite the show of support for the budget rider by the NRA and its Texas arm, the Texas State Rifle Association, and lawmakers of all political stripes, Wills said his group will still judge Abbott based on his action, or inaction, on the budget proposal.
“Whether he [axes it] or not is entirely his prerogative, and we will either support or oppose him depending on his actions,” Wills said.
Edgar Walters contributed to this report.
Disclosure: Bill Miller has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
According to a report at the Rolling Stone, President Barak Obama bitterly complained about the lax gun laws in the U.S. just hours before a disgruntled city worker in Virginia Beach went on a shooting spree that killed 12 and injured six others.
"The most difficult day that I’ve had was the day that there was a shooting in a school where 20 small children were shot,” Obama said addressing the Sandy Hook shooting that happened on his watch.
“Some of you may be aware, our gun laws in the United States don’t make much sense. Anybody can buy any weapon, any time without much, if any, regulation,” he added. “They buy it over the internet. They can buy machine guns.”
An Arkansas police officer has been accused of wrongly pulling his firearm on an unarmed man.
Edrick Truitt told WREQ that the incident occurred early Sunday morning Double Quick store. Truitt said that he was meeting family when another car pulled in front of him.
"As we were leaving out, a car jumped in front of me, so I hit my brakes to let them go by," Truitt explained.
Cell phone video shows an officer pulling a gun on Truitt and ordering to turn off the car. But when Truitt moves his hands, the officer shouts to the other officers, "He's got a gun."
"Where?" Truitt shouts back.
"Shut the car off!" the officer demands.
"My hands are in the air," Truitt explains. "I ain't moving my hands. He trying to shoot me."
Eventually, the officer holsters his sidearm and forcibly removes Truitt from the vehicle.
"He was like, 'That's a failure to comply,' but if I would have complied, I would have got killed," Truitt pointed out to WREQ.
Although police later found a gun in Truitt's car, he said it was out of his reach.
"What I did saved my life," Truitt insisted. "That’s why I’m here talking to y'all. If not, y'all would be covering a story about how I got shot."
Truitt was arrested and charged with failing to obey a lawful order.
Helena-West Helena Police said that the officer's body camera footage is being reviewed. The officer has reportedly received threats following the incident.
According to a report from KMOV, a St. Louis mother has reported a racist threat to the FBI that her son received from a former friend who brandished a gun during a Facebook diatribe.
The station reports that Karel Watson said the man in the video used to be friends with her son, Duane Watson, but things have taken an ugly turn that culminated with the video where the unidentified friend brandished the gun while stating, "You know you're a n****r."
"To make a threat of a person’s life using it, there’s a price to pay for that and you’re going to jail and I’m not gonna let this go," Karel Watson said, with her son adding that the friend carjacked him and had been serving time behind bars.
In the video, the ex-friend claims he "did a little time in county, but I'm back out bro"
"I’m pressing charges," Karel Watson said. "There is nothing you can do to talk me out of it, to stop it, no. He has to learn."
The first line of defense against gunmen in a school shooting has become students willing to risk their lives to take down the shooters. Such was the case last month when University of North Carolina Charlotte student Riley Howell tackled a shooter who came in his classroom.
According to WSOC, Howell has now been awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star by a Marine Veteran who received the medals during the Vietnam war.
Thomas “Stormy” Matteo held a small ceremony where he presented the medals to the Howell family grieving the loss of their brave son.
Matteo described what Howell did as the actions “of a true hero.”
The Waynesville Police Department posted photos of the medals and plaque being presented to the Howells.
“It is with great Honor and Respect to present the American Hero Award posthumously to Riley C. Howell," the plaque reads. "Cadet Howell with complete disregard for his personal safety, made a decision to stop an Active Shooter on his college campus. As the shooter entered the facility, he began to fire upon unarmed students. Cadet Howell tackled the suspect to the ground covering his body, in the attempt to stop the attack. As he held the suspect down, he fired numerous rounds, striking Cadet Howell. It is my Honor to present to Cadet Howell, my Bronze Starr medal with Combat V for Heroism and the Purple Heart Medal. May God watch over his soul.”
Matteo is now the president of the Purple Heart Society and received six Purple Heart medals over the course of his tour in Vietnam.
More than a year after a gunman killed 26 in a Sutherland Springs church, the Texas House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would allow licensed handgun owners to legally carry their weapons in places of worship.
The legislation — Senate Bill 535 by Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell of New Braunfels — strikes a provision in current law that says handguns aren’t allowed in “churches, synagogues, or other places of worship.”
To be clear, churches would still be able to prohibit licensed citizens from carrying firearms on their premises so long as they provide oral or written notice.
Campbell’s bill codifies a previous opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton sought shortly after the shooting in Sutherland Springs. In the opinion, Paxton stated that “unless a church provides effective oral or written notice prohibiting the carrying of handguns on its property, a license holder may carry a handgun onto the premises of church property as the law allows.”
“The existing statute is confusing and clunky and has kept law-abiding Texans from exercising their second [amendment] rights where those with evil intentions have tragically targeted innocent lives,” Campbell said in an emailed statement to The Texas Tribune. “This bill provides clarity of the Legislature's intent to treat churches and houses of worship in the same manner as other privately owned establishments in Texas.”
Many lawmakers said such a measure was needed in Texas after the 2016 shooting in Sutherland Springs, a small town of about 650. In late 2017, morning services at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, a tiny town about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio, became the scene of a massacre after a lone gunman killed more than two dozen people and injured many more in the deadliest shooting at a place of worship in American history.
The Senate has already approved Campbell’s bill. Once the House grants final approval, the bill can be sent to the governor.
The Texas Senate approved a bill Friday that would allow handgun owners to carry their concealed firearms without a license for up to 48 hours when leaving an area due to a mandatory evacuation order.
The legislation — House Bill 1177 by Republican state Rep. Dade Phelan of Beaumont — would allow those complying with an evacuation order to take their guns with them and temporarily carry them without a license so long as they’re not prohibited by state or federal law from possessing a gun.
The version of the bill is slightly different from the language passed by the House last month. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, introduced a reworked version that shortened the amount of time Texans leaving a disaster area can carry their handguns without a license and added a provision allowing the governor to extend the two-day time period, if needed.
The Texas Senate approved the measure with a 23-8 vote. It will need to formally approve the measure one more time before sending the bill to the House. If the House accepts the revised version of the bill, the measure can be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for his final signature.
“Currently it’s illegal to carry handguns without a license to carry,” Creighton said earlier this month. “This puts those in disaster areas in a challenging position if they choose to stay in the disaster area or leave for safety. However, if they do not have a license to carry, they may be putting themselves at risk by leaving their homes without personal firearm protection.”
Some gun control advocates meanwhile, have expressed concerns with the bill.
“When we pass bills like this, it sends a message to gun owners that they need not be responsible,” said Elva Mendoza, a public health social worker. “You should secure your firearms every day of the year, not just when there’s a disaster approaching.”
Annabelle O’Day’s mom prepared her to expect the unexpected and always be ready for the best — and the very worst.
“She would always tell us statistics don’t matter,” O’Day said. “Statistically, you probably won’t be a school shooting survivor. But it happened to me.”
On May 18, a shooter opened fire at Santa Fe High School, killing 10 people and wounding 13 others. O’Day, then a 17-year-oldhigh school senior, was sitting in her first-period English class when she heard a fire alarm go off. She remembers her history teacher yelling at her to run when she left that classroom. And she remembers SWAT and FBI cars circling her once peaceful campus before she was ushered a safe distance from the school.
But as lawmakers work to passa sweeping school safety bill in Austin before they adjourn at the end of the month, O’Day said she’s spent less time focused on what’s happening under the Capitol’s pink dome and more on what can be done to rebuild and uplift her community back home.
“We’re not as political here,” she said. “We’re more focused on the community and healing.”
Annabelle O'Day was a senior at Santa Fe High School when a mass shooter 2018 killed 10 people last year. Loren Elliott for The Texas Tribune
Despite a push by some advocates to use the massacre to pass stricter gun laws, several survivors and their loved ones said gun control hasn’t been a goal in the solidly Republican town since the shooting. Instead, residents spent the bulk of their time discussing what could be done to prevent — or at least mitigate — the next mass tragedy. They coalesced around initiatives that seek to strengthen mental health services — both inside and outside of schools.
Days after the shooting, O’Day helped start a nonprofit called Hearts United for Kindness, which aims to eliminate the stigma around mental health. Mandy Jordan, a 2001 Santa Fe High graduate, said she lobbied city officials to turn a 1.5-acre park into a therapeutic garden for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The community has struggled over the past year, but I believe we continue to support one another and all want to help our community and students heal and recover,” Jordan said.
The school district created a dedicated crisis support hotline for the Santa Fe community — which is still active to this day. The district also beefed up campus security, adding real-time video monitoring, door alarms and an increased number of police officers on campus.
“It’s a whole package of everyone coming together to really react, respond, recover and rebuild and hopefully put things in place to strengthen for the future,” said Santa Fe ISD Superintendent Leigh Wall.
Left: Jai Gillard, then a freshman at Santa Fe High School, wrote a message at a makeshift memorial May 21, 2018. Right: Candles are lit during a vigil for the victims killed in the shooting. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
Donna Hayes, whose 16-year-old son survived the brutal tragedy, got so many calls and texts from friends and family members the morning of the tragedy that her phone died within the hour. Later that evening, people gathered — some crying, some praying, some donning T-shirts bearing the phrase “Texas Tough” — for a candlelight vigil.
Hayes said she left the vigil early to mourn with close friends who had lost their son in the shooting.
“The community definitely stepped up,” she said. “They would do whatever the victims’ families needed them to do — whether it be cutting their yard and making dinners. People just wanted to help.
“There’s a lot of amazing people out there,” she added, her voice quaking at the memory.
Long-term support
Then came the outpouring of outside resources and swift calls to action.
The city of Santa Fe helped start the Santa Fe Resiliency Center to help address the mental health and wellness needs of the community. Julie Kaplow is the director of the Trauma and Grief Center at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, one of several entities the Santa Fe center relies on to provide services like crisis management. She went to Santa Fe the day after the shooting and said the idea behind the center was to create a tiered model of mental health care since “not everyone was impacted by the shooting in the same way.”
Immediately after such a tragedy, she said, it’s common for those involved to experience flashbacks, lack of appetite and trouble sleeping. But over time, those reactions shift toward intense grief — and sometimes even regret or distress over the traumatic way friends, family members and peers died.
“We were eager to not only help the kids as quickly as possible, but to find a way to ensure that our services were sustainable,” Kaplow said. “We wanted to better understand the needs of the community and how we could help, not just in the immediate aftermath, but over the longer term.”
Texas officials made their own shows of support. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrickdonated metal detectors to Santa Fe High School after the shooting, and Gov. Greg Abbott hosted aseries of roundtable discussions at the Capitol over the course of three days in which he met with shooting survivors, students, parents, teachers and advocates on both sides of the gun debate.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hosted panels after the shooting to study school safety and student mental health. Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune
“We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” Abbott said at the time. “It's time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again.”
Less than two weeks after the shooting, Abbott laid out a wide-ranging school safety plan — including programs for mental health screenings, expanded school protections and even a few narrow measures regulating gun usage. At the heart of the proposal was “hardening” schools both with increased police presence and by persuading more school districts to join existing state programs for arming school staff.
One of the items mentioned in Abbott’s plan that Democrats backed was adopting a so-called “red flag” law that would allow courts to order the seizure or surrender of guns from people whom a judge deems an imminent threat. But Patrick suggested such a measure would be dead on arrival in the Senate, and the idea made little progress this legislative session.
“Some of the recommendations in the governor’s plan that made sense ... were not filed as legislation; the bills did not get a hearing or the bills did not get out of committee,” said Gyl Switzer, executive director of Texas Gun Sense. “Gun violence is preventable. There is much work to be done.”
Instead, the proposals that have gained the most traction this year are bills filed by a bevy of Republican lawmakersthatwould expand what's known as the marshal program, which allows districts to arm school personnel. Among the legislation that has picked up steam this year is a bill that would abolish a state-sanctioned cap on how many trained school employees can carry guns on campus. Another bill, which passed the Texas Senate, would allow local school boards to let their marshals carry concealed guns on campuses.
Meanwhile, the Texas Senate approved a broad school safety bill, authored and sponsored by the two lawmakers who represent Santa Fe, last month. The bill, which is likely to be debated in the Texas House early next week, would strengthen mental health initiatives in Texas schools, among other things.
“They looked at all of the facets that go into making a school safer — from mental health to hardening schools. I'm glad they looked at all the pieces,” said Flo Rice, a former substitute teacher shot five times last year.
Many Santa Fe residents insisted that the Legislature went in the right direction this session — particularly since survivors weren’t asking for stricter gun laws in response to the shooting.
“I don’t believe this was a gun issue,” O’Day said. “Someone that wants to perform something as evil as a school shooting and has that much hate in their heart will find a way. So I really think the job is in the teachers and the peers to do their best to be as kind as possible.”
Remembrance and resilience
For some current and former students, realizing their school is now the site of a mass tragedy was a hard pill to swallow.
“I definitely dealt with a lot of grief and anxiety. I had a classmate whose brother ended up dying, and he was the same age as my brother,” said Kaitlyn Richards, one of the shooting survivors. “That was a very hard thought for me. That is what I struggled with the most: My brother survived and hers didn’t.”
“I had a classmate whose brother ended up dying, and he was the same age as my brother. ... That is what I struggled with the most: My brother survived and hers didn’t.”
— Kaitlyn Richards, shooting survivor
But overall, O’Day said she’s pleased with her town’s progress. She said Hearts United for Kindness has grown significantly since its founding. Seven people now sit on its board. It’s hosted several events for community members since the deadly massacre — and she says the group always expects a large showing.
“We want to make sure everyone knows that it's OK to reach out to get therapy,” O’Day said. “We want to make sure that all of the students are remembered and that we are here for them.”
On the anniversary of the Santa Fe High School shooting, the community will gather for an all-day kickball tournament hosted by two teachers. Loren Elliott for The Texas Tribune
On Friday, the town is holding a volunteer day of service at the resiliency center. Students at the high school are also able to stay home for the day pending permission from a parent or guardian so that they can be surrounded by their friends and family.
During the afternoon, the school will host a tree dedication to honor the lives lost. And tomorrow, on the anniversary of the shooting, the community will gather for an all-day kickball tournament hosted by two teachers from the high school. The resiliency center also has a candlelight vigil planned for the evening.
O’Day said the memories of the shooting get harder around its anniversary, but she sees the good that came out of the horrible tragedy.
“This is something we’re never going to forget and we’re going to have to live with forever. It does get easier with time, but it doesn’t ever go away,” she said. “The upside is that I know at Santa Fe there are so many people I can go to for support.
“You can't choose what other people do to you; you can only choose how you respond. We’re here right now; we just want everyone to get help and not feel alone.”
Disclosure: Texas Children’s Hospital has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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