CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott met Tuesday with experts and politicians to discuss how to prevent school shootings, five days after a teenage gunman killed 10 people at a high school in the southern US state.
Abbott, a Republican, focused the first of three “roundtable sessions” on school safety. Over the next two days, gun regulation, mental health issues, and victims’ needs are also on the agenda.
The talks came in the aftermath of Friday’s massacre at Santa Fe High School that killed eight children and two teachers in the latest example of the mass shootings that have become a pervasive part of American life.
“Whether you are Republican or Democrat… the reality is that we all want guns out of the hands of those who will try to murder our children,” Abbott, who is up for re-election in November, said at the start of the session.
“The question is what are we — the leaders of Texas — going to do to prevent this from happening again.”
Twenty-three people were invited to the first of the three closed-door meetings, including politicians from both parties, education and public safety officials, and experts on building design and arming teachers.
“The only thing we want to hear about is: what are your ideas,” the governor told the gathering in opening remarks before journalists were ushered out.
After 17 people were shot dead at a Parkland, Florida high school in February, lawmakers in that southeastern state approved new, albeit limited, gun restrictions.
Some Parkland students, who have led a grassroots movement to toughen gun control laws, have expressed their support to students in Santa Fe — a rural community about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Houston.
But Texas is not expected to follow Florida’s path in passing new legislation.
Gun ownership can be a point of pride for many in the Lone Star State, and even some Santa Fe High School students have spoken out against linking the shooting to the need for more gun control.
“I don’t think guns are the problem. I think people are the problem,” 16-year-old student Alex Carvey told NBC News.
© Agence France-Presse