Illustrated by Jay Burdine

edited

On May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a senseless and entirely preventable tragedy occurred. A shooter entered the building, murdering 19 children and two teachers, while the victims waited 75 minutes for the police to arrive. Over a year and a half after the devastating school shooting, the Department of Justice released a 610-page report finding “cascading failures” in the law enforcement response to the shooting.
Apparently, the police officers assumed the shooter had barricaded the doors and, therefore, did not swiftly enter to confront and stop the shooter because they thought he was no longer a present threat, even though shots continued to be fired. This blunder of the police department undoubtedly cost lives. However, focusing only on the law enforcement response, which this report highlights, is like pointing out only the bad patch to a tire that’s blown out.
Yes, police should be better equipped and trained to handle these types of situations. The Robb Elementary law enforcement response was a total catastrophe. But the problem didn’t start with the police department — a known, at-risk and violent person obtained “two AR-15-style rifles and thousands of rounds” that were used to carry out a mass murder. If the only thing we remain focused on is how to better fortify our schools, as scrutinized in this report, shootings will still happen because our gun laws are so atrocious.
We have to do better to prevent these events entirely, not just improve our reaction to them. While it is important for law enforcement to be better-trained, as we can see in the report, the real problem that led to the May 24 shooting was the lack of gun control in Texas.
In Texas, as of 2021, people who are 21 years of age and lacking prior felony convictions are allowed to carry handguns in a public place without a license to carry. Texas does not prohibit the carrying of long guns unless the person has been a fugitive from justice, has been adjudicated as mentally defective or has been convicted of domestic violence. Our state should require at the bare minimum that every person who is purchasing a gun have a license to carry — which would, although optional in Texas, require four to six hours of classroom training as well as passing a written exam and range class.
These basic requirements would make it much more difficult for dangerous people, like the Robb Elementary shooter, to purchase and use guns in the first place. The licensing classes teach students about shooting form, gun responsibility and safety, conveying how dangerous guns are if used without thought or judgment.
To obtain your driver’s license in Texas, you have to go through a lengthy process, including taking a class to get your permit then taking a test for your license. Texans accept these regulations because driving can be very dangerous and learning to do it properly helps to save lives. So if people need a license to operate machines that aren’t inherently intended to cause harm, then why don’t people need one to use guns? When people seek to purchase a gun, they should accept the immense responsibility that comes with owning a gun which, much like driving, can and will kill people if owners are not careful. It’s a crying shame that the state of Texas cares about some deaths by mandating vehicle licensing, but not gun-related deaths, on the basis of freedom.
If hateful, violent people have to go through this many steps to get a gun, that just might stop a fair amount of shootings that would have otherwise occurred. This would prevent the shootings before they happen, not just necessitate that police respond during and after the event.
When you read the report about the law enforcement’s failure to respond at Robb Elementary School, acknowledge the tragedy. Then remember that if someone had not been able to easily purchase a gun, just days before shooting and killing children and teachers, the failures and subsequent report would have never happened. The government of Texas must mandate licenses to carry guns — it could very much be the difference between life and death.