One Year After Uvalde Shooting, Families Mourn As Gun Laws Remain Unchanged

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Parents and relatives of the students killed in the Uvalde school shooting join others protesting at the Texas Capitol
Parents and relatives of the students killed in the Uvalde school shooting join others protesting at the Texas Capitol and calling for tighter regulations on gun sales in Austin, Texas, Monday, May 8, 2023. A gunman killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall Saturday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Uvalde shooting massacre, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary School. The shooting has left a community in mourning and reignited the debate over gun control in the U.S.

In the past six decades, Texas has been plagued by a series of devastating mass shootings, claiming over 200 lives and leaving more than 240 others wounded. Despite these tragedies, state leaders have consistently dismissed proposals aimed at restricting access to firearms.


Abel Lopez, right, father of Xavier Lopez who was killed in the shootings in Uvalde, Texas, holds a banner honoring the victims

Abel Lopez, right, father of Xavier Lopez who was killed in the shootings in Uvalde, Texas, holds a banner honoring the victims after a Texas House committee voted to take up a bill to limit the age for purchasing AR-15 style weapons in the full House in Austin, Texas, Monday, May 8, 2023. Families in Uvalde, Texas, are digging in for a new test of legal protections for the gun industry as they mark one year since the Robb Elementary School shooting. Both the U.S. government and gun manufacturers in recent years have reached large settlements following some of the nation’s worst mass shootings. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Veronica Mata visits the gravesite of her daugher, Tess, in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

Veronica Mata visits the gravesite of her daugher, Tess, in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. For Mata, teaching kindergarten in Uvalde after her daughter was among the 19 students who were fatally shot at Robb Elementary School became a year of grieving for her own child while trying to keep 20 others safe. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)


As the state legislature convened for the first time since the school shooting last May, lawmakers have introduced a new set of gun control bills. But most experts predict these bills are unlikely to pass as well.

Over the last 60 years, the Texas Legislature has seen seven proposed bills seeking to ban the sale and possession of semiautomatic rifles, and two bills aimed at raising the legal age for owning or purchasing an assault weapon. If the latter had been passed, it would have rendered the Uvalde shooter’s purchase of semiautomatic assault rifles illegal.


Reggie Daniels pays his respects at a memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on June 9, 2022

Reggie Daniels pays his respects at a memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on June 9, 2022, honoring the two teachers and 19 students killed in the shooting at the school on May 24. For families fractured along red house-blue house lines, summer’s slate of reunions and weddings poses another round of tension. Pandemic restrictions have melted away but gun control, the fight for reproductive rights, the Jan. 6 insurrection hearings, who’s to blame for soaring inflation and a range of other issues continue to simmer. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

A group of teachers visiting from Dilley, Texas, view a memorial honoring the victims killed in the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Friday, June 3, 2022.

A group of teachers visiting from Dilley, Texas, view a memorial honoring the victims killed in last week’s elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Friday, June 3, 2022. It’s hard to say exactly when some Texas educators began to feel like they were under siege, but the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School is only the latest, horrific episode in a string of events dating back years. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.

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