Texas governor vows 'we will act' in town hall after Santa Fe shooting
Gov. Greg Abbott hears a range of ideas from people who lived through Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs.
AUSTIN — With emotions swinging from heartbreak to fear, gratefulness to anger, more than two dozen people delivered sharp and sobering accounts about how their lives were forever blistered from two of the worst mass shootings in Texas history.
Some called for more gun regulations. Others pushed back with forceful defenses of the Second Amendment. Some called for metal detectors at the doors of every school. Others said a determined gunman would simply shoot the officers staffing the entrances.
Some called for arming more teachers and school staff. Others said more guns in schools would only invite more danger.
Then some called for more armed officers and more mental health professionals on staff on Texas school campuses, and nearly everyone agreed with them.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who presided over this third roundtable discussion on gun violence in as many days, promised action even if he had no immediate programs to announce.
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“I assure you we will do more than talk, we will act," said Abbott as the nearly four-and-a-half hour discussion was wrapping up.
Much of the meeting took place behind closed doors. But shortly after reporters were allowed in to witness the last 90 minutes of give-and-take, a student from Santa Fe High School, where 10 were killed and more than a dozen were wounded just one week ago, said she and other students have been waiting months for action.
Grace Johnson, who attended with her father, Steve, recalled that in the days after the deadly shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, her school was put on lockdown over what turned out to be a frightening prank.
"Governor Abbott, we wrote letters to you," Grace Johnson told the governor about she and her classmates expressing their fear and calling for help. "We didn't get anything back. We didn't get an acknowledgement."
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Abbott did not respond directly, but did thank her for her suggestions, which included having random backpack checks and more police presence in the classrooms and corridors of public schools.
Abbott spokeswoman Ciara Matthews later said the governor's office has not yet found records of the letters.
"The governor appreciates the time Grace took to bring her concerns directly to him today and the opportunity to personally answer those concerns," Matthews said. "She has proven brave in the face of this adversity and is applauded for her efforts to affect change."
Several of the participants left through a back entrance after it ended, choosing not to speak with the cadre of reporters who were invited to listen in on part of the discussion.
One man, who described himself as someone who "loves the NRA" and "loves guns" chastised the powerful gun lobby for standing in the way of any and all proposed measures to restrict firearm ownership.
Stephen Willeford, the Sutherland Springs plumber who confronted the gunman who took 26 lives during a Sunday morning church service, said laws that would have stopped the gunman who had a history of violence and mental instability were simply not followed.
"When he bought those guns, he should have been arrested," Willeford said.
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When the question of paying for additional safety measures came up, one person suggested doing away with expensive and time-consuming standardized tests, saying it would free up "billions of dollars that could go to safety."
Perhaps the most emotional part of the open discussion came when the husband of a Santa Fe teacher told of being awakened by a phone call from his wife just after 7:30 a.m. on Friday.
"She said, 'I've been shot. I'm in the parking lot,' and she hung up," recalled Scott Rice.
Several more short calls followed, each one left him feeling like his wife was being disoriented. Frightened, he sped from his home to the high school, driving so fast that he said he was passing the vehicles of first responders.
Rice finally located his wife in a field, but officers on the scene would not let him get close, he said. Finally, he called out to a police officer and said his wife, who'd been motionless and presumed dead, was alive.
Rice's voice choked with emotion as Abbott and the others listened intently. He was comforted by a police officer who was part of the discussion. It was the same officer, Rice said, who carried his wife to safety even as shooting continued.
Officer Johnny Banda of the Santa Fe school district police, spoke modestly of his actions.
Banda recalled saying to himself the the time: "I will not die today. I have a job to do."
Abbott presented him with a citation of bravery.
As the discussion progressed, several people told Abbott, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and other elected officials in attendance, that gun violence can happen any time, anywhere. They told the political leaders, and even each other, not look past their partisan leanings and focus on what measures might work and not which side might have offered them,
Thursday's event capped three days of closed-door discussions between the governor and top legislative leaders with several experts in the fields of education, mental health and criminal justice. The meetings took place inside a suite of offices assigned to the governor and his staff on the Capitol's second floor near the rotunda.
As throngs of reporters, many with camera tripods in place, staked out the lobby outside the suite, Capitol visitors filed by as uniformed and armed troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety limited access to the area where the private discussions played out.
That the Republican Abbott, a self-proclaimed Second Amendment proponent seeking a second term in November, would open a discussion that could lead to even modest restrictions on gun ownership in Texas is considered remarkable.
Even though there was disagreement among Thursday's participants and among those in the earlier discussions, Abbott said he intends to offer significant proposals soon.
"You are going to see solutions — plural," said Abbott, adding that what might work in one part of Texas would be unsuitable in another. "There is not one solution."
John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.