Active shooter training is currently only required for law enforcement officers working in a school setting. Col. Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, testified in the Legislature this summer that those who responded to the Robb Elementary School shooting did not follow the accepted protocol for handling mass shootings.
“There is compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre,” McCraw said.
In an interview on Sunday with ABC affiliate KVUE, Gutierrez repeated his call for gun control measures.
“The fact is, had this young man not had these types of mass assault weapons, this would not have happened,” he said, adding that active shooter training is an “obvious” step for lawmakers to take.
Gutierrez also filed a bill in November to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for victims of the shooting.
In a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. last week, Gutierrez called for prohibiting the “chosen weapon of these school shooters.” The perpetrator of the Robb Elementary School shooting used an AR-style rifle.
While Gutierrez is from San Antonio, he represents Senate District 19, which covers Uvalde and the site of the shooting. The gunman, an 18-year-old male, murdered 19 schoolchildren and two teachers before a team of border patrol agents killed him. It took 77 minutes before the shooter was confronted.
The upcoming legislative session will be the first time Texas lawmakers have assembled since the massacre. After the shooting, Democrats called for a special session to consider gun control measures but Gov. Greg Abbott did not take that course of action.
Gutierrez said on Sunday he planned to file the bill this week. A draft is not yet available on the Texas Legislature’s website, and his office did not immediately respond to an email requesting a copy.
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Hayden Sparks
Hayden Sparks is a senior reporter for The Texan and a lifelong resident of the Lone Star State. He has coached competitive speech and debate and has been involved in politics since a young age. One of Hayden's favorite quotes is by Sam Houston: "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."
