‘It is happening everywhere’ Texas mass shooting victims tell governor

Published May 25, 2018 8:00am 

By JON HERSKOVITZ, Reuters
AUSTIN, Texas - Victims and survivors of mass shootings in Texas choked back tears, recounted the bloodshed that unfolded before their eyes and pleaded with Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday to improve safety so that another massacre does not take place.
Abbott, a Republican, promised that action was coming as he finished his third session on school safety in talks that came less than a week after a 17-year-old student armed with a pistol and shotgun fatally shot 10 people at a Houston-area high school on May 18.
"May 18th came around and it finally happened to our school and we weren’t surprised," said Grace Johnson, a senior at Santa Fe High School, the latest campus in a string of deadly US mass shootings that stoked a debate about the best ways to stop the carnage.
"Why Santa Fe and we said why not. It is happening everywhere," she said, adding she sat next to the suspected gunman in a class and asked the governor for more security officers on campus and for trained teachers to be armed.
Abbott said after holding discussions with victims, security experts, school administrators and advocates for and against gun control that he would distill the ideas presented to him and put a plan into action.
"We are going to do more than talk. We are going to act," Abbott said.
He has mentioned the state will consider changes that include improving mental health screenings, bolstering gun storage regulations, and implementing so-called red flag warning laws intended to keep guns out of the hands of people deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves or others.
But with the Texas legislature out of session until January, it is nearly impossible for the state to implement or fund any major policy changes that come out of the talks.
Texas Democrats have described the sessions as theatrics that will skirt major issues such as substantive gun control.
The round on Thursday included about 40 people affected by the shootings in Alpine, Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a gunman fatally shot 26 churchgoers in November.
Abbott, a staunch supporter of gun rights, said any changes to state laws would need to protect Second Amendment rights to bear arms as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
In contrast to Florida, where the killing of 17 teens and educators at a high school in February sparked a youth-led movement calling for new restrictions on gun ownership, the Texas tragedy saw many elected officials and survivors alike voicing support for gun rights.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, has been charged with murder in the killing during a rampage at Santa Fe High School on Friday. —Reuters

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more