UVALDE AND THE NRA: GUN REFORM NOW!

I am a grandmother. Maybe not the stereotypical rocking chair, knitting, always calm and collected caregiver of my grandchildren. Nevertheless, I love them with every beat of my heart. I will not leave this world without fighting for their lives and for them to enjoy the same freedoms I’ve enjoyed. And, if anyone tries to harm one of them, Hell hath no wrath like this old grandma. Ann Richards once declared, "I've been tested by the fire and the fire lost."

My tears are almost gone after the Uvalde mass shooting, and I’m now mad as Hell.

It’s bad enough that many of us have had to become activists concerning book banning, caging children at the border under the Trump regime, gay rights, and women’s choice. Maybe one is okay with the atrocities against our fellow humans mentioned above, but surely, surely, most people in this country are against slaughtering innocent children. But when children (and adults) are frequently murdered in our country, it’s time to focus on gun reform. This doesn’t have to be a political position; instead, it’s a fight to save our children’s lives.

Since September 1, 2021, a permit is not required for a person 21 and over to carry a handgun openly or concealed in most places in Texas. Before this date, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a License to Carry a Handgun to an eligible person on a "shall-issue" basis. Texas has state preemption of gun laws, so local governments cannot further restrict or regulate the possession or use of firearms. Texas does not prohibit NFA (National Firearms Act) weapons legally possessed under federal law. The state does not require background checks for private sales of firearms.

Blocking a back door won’t prevent a shooter from entering a school. That’s flat ludicrous, Ted Cruz. Better mental health resources, while always helpful, won’t stop someone from mowing down children and adults. Arming teachers is frightening. Teachers are already leaving in droves due to mismanagement of COVID, misguided book banners, and the white supremacists demanding that the history of our treatment of people of color not be taught, and now those "in charge" want to give them guns?! I know logic is complicated for many, but no one needs an AR or any automatic/semiautomatic rifle with multiple rounds to shoot into children's heads. Period. Many parents in Uvalde could not identify their dead children because their heads were obliterated.

We don’t have to march, and many of us cannot climb mountains as we once did, but we can stand up and speak out. I’m not advocating taking away guns because our country is too far gone even to try, and besides, I’m a gun owner and would use it in a New York minute to protect my loved ones or myself. Many years ago, I pulled a gun on someone who threatened to grab me while I was running in the pre-dawn hours. You don't want to mess with me, and I don't need an AR to send the message.

Unless candidates are willing to endorse minimum safety measures such as universal background checks (as embodied in HB 8, which the House already passed without a single Texas Republican member voting for it), red flag laws, raising the age at which an assault weapon can be purchased to 21, you should not vote for them. They only understand two things: a threat to their continuance in office (power) and the loss of large NRA donations. They must be voted out of office if they won’t willingly protect our children and do the right thing.

These are the Senators that have received bribes, excuse me, “donations” from the gun lobby: Mitt Romney: $13,648,000, Richard Burr: $6,987,000, Roy Blunt: $4,556,000, Thom Tillis: $4,421,000, Marco Rubio: $3,303,000, Joni Ernst: $3,125,000, Josh Hawley: $1,392,000, Mitch McConnell: $1,267,000, Ted Cruz: $176,000. Each one of them has blood on their hands. Each one of them defended the insurrection on January 6.

And to think that Cruz, Trump, and Abbott are speaking this weekend at the NRA convention in Houston. Have they no shame? No, they don't.