On Saturday, a few hundred gathered on the Texas Capitol’s south steps and lawn to demand that Republican Governor Greg Abbott call a special legislative session to raise the legal age of purchase for assault-style rifles from 18 to 21 or higher. The event included a large contingent of family members of children killed in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, the worst school shooting in state history. Survivors and parents of the lost from the 2018 school shootings in Santa Fe and in Parkland, Florida, attended too. The rally was hosted by March for Our Lives, the nationwide gun control movement born of the Parkland tragedy that now connects an ever-growing web of the bereaved and outraged.
Javier Cazares, who lost his daughter Jackie in the Uvalde massacre, read a letter to be sent to Abbott. “Our kids across Texas are going back to school and are wondering, ‘Will I be Next?’” he said. “We demand that you call a special session immediately to raise the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon to 21. Our children’s lives depend on common-sense laws that the vast majority of Texans desperately want.”
