Spurred by recent mass shootings, including the May 24 incident that claimed 21 lives at a Uvalde, Texas, school, Bexar County plans to introduce multiple initiatives amid a renewed push for tighter gun control and increased gun safety and responsible ownership.

County Judge Nelson Wolff led a press conference June 3 at the county courthouse, joined by fellow elected leaders, a local trauma surgeon and several individuals whose loved ones have died due to gun-involved violence.

Wolff said gun violence continues to escalate, whether incidents are willful or accidental, randomly involving numerous strangers or people the suspect knows.

Wolff said, according to the Gun Violence Archive, the yearly total of gun-related deaths has risen from 12,418 in 2014 to 19,411 in 2020, and that mass shootings have increased from 269 in 2014 to 611 in 2020.

Wolff lamented not only the last month’s mass shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, an event where 19 children were killed, but also the November 2017 shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where 26 people died.

Wolff and others at the press conference asked Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session to address gun violence and safety at the state level.

“Over the last two decades, more schoolchildren have died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military combined. When is enough, enough?” Wolff said.

District Attorney Joe Gonzales said, effective June 6, his office will start destroying weapons seized tied to prosecuted criminal cases. He also is instructing local law enforcement to charge individuals who are found using a button said to be capable of converting a semiautomatic firearm into an automatic one.

“If you have that in your possession and if that case is filed with us, we will prosecute you,” Gonzales said.

Meeting at 9 p.m. June 7 at the county courthouse, Commissioners Court will consider multiple actions, including continuing the policy of prohibiting gun shows at the Freeman Coliseum, a county-owned facility, and funding $100,000 for gun locks and setting up gun lock distribution centers across the San Antonio area.

Commissioners will also consider providing $1 million for a gun safety education and outreach program, and $14 million for mental health care, including training for trauma and escalation, expansion of acuity and urgent care beds, and preventive/pre-crisis training.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores criticized officials who mainly blame failing mental health for mass shootings but also vote against raising funding for mental health care.

Clay-Flores said increasing mental health care support is just as important as curtailing availability of certain guns and illegal weapons. She voiced support for more school-based therapists and counselors to help students through their mental and emotional matters.

“As a former educator, I’m disgusted that children being murdered at school has somehow turned into a Republican vs. Democrat issue. Nonetheless, it has,” Clay-Flores said.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Justin Rodriguez joined fellow speakers and asked members of both major political parties to come together and provide meaningful action on gun control.

While Gov. Greg Abbott recently called for the convening of a special committee tasked to come up with potential gun violence legislation recommendations, local officials said that alone was not enough. Rodriguez joined a growing chorus of elected leaders asking Abbott to call a special summer legislative session to address gun violence.

“This has to stop. For the governor to refuse to call those legislators back into action—not tomorrow, not in 2023, but now to stop this—is absolutely shameful and disrespectful to the victims,” Rodriguez, a former state legislator, said.

Additionally, Wolff suggested state leaders look at raising from 18 to 21 the age when someone can legally buy a semiautomatic weapon. He also suggested the Legislature pass red flag laws, requirements for background checks on all gun sales and for training to obtain a license to carry a firearm. Wolff also is asking for more state funding to boost school security upgrades and trauma emergency planning.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said his agency aims to bolster mass shooting training not only for his deputies, but also for civilians, such as church groups, so the latter can be better prepared to immediately aid victims should a shooting were to occur.

Salazar also said the sheriff’s department is seeking more funding, be it though the county budget or grants, to provide deputies with certain tools to quickly and effectively counter shooters, especially those armed with semiautomatic or automatic guns.

“To be clear, these tools could’ve made a world of difference in Uvalde,” Salazar said, referring to accounts of how law enforcement officers in Uvalde responded to the Robb Elementary School shooter.

Uvalde municipal and school police officers have been criticized by government leaders, community members and even one law enforcement advocacy group for conflicting accounts about their response as the shooting unfolded May 24.

On May 31, the Austin-based Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas issued a statement saying there has been “a great deal of false and misleading information in the aftermath of this tragedy.”

“Some of the information came from the very highest levels of government and law enforcement. Sources that Texans once saw as iron-clad and completely reliable have now been proven false. This false information has exacerbated ill-informed speculation which has, in turn, created a hotbed of unreliability when it comes to finding the truth,” CLEAT said.

CLEAT also said that it supports a full independent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice with help from the FBI.

Salazar also said it is vital to educate the public about how the proper security and storage of a firearm can help to reduce incidents of gun thefts, which can in certain instances lead to criminals possessing the lost weapon.

“We would remind lawful gun owners that being a responsible gun owner is a 24-hour-a-day endeavor,” Salazar said.

Trauma surgeon Dr. Ronald Stewart, chair of surgery at University Hospital and UT Health San Antonio, spoke at the press conference.

Having cared for victims of both the Uvalde and Sutherland Springs shootings, Stewart said it is devastating to see how high-velocity/high-capacity magazine firearms, such as the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle used by the Uvalde shooter, inflict “horrific” injuries to the human body.

“To hear the words of the children, it’s heartbreaking,” Stewart said. He added that University Health has been working with government agencies and organizations, including schools, to provide education and distribute kits to civilians on how to help stop a gunshot victim’s bleeding before paramedics can arrive on scene.

Stewart said it is also important for blood banks and medical care facilities to stay well-stocked with cold blood supplies in order to aid victims of a mass shooting.

However, Stewart said, such post-shooting treatment efforts are not enough to fully prepare first responders and medical staff charged with treating victims shot with specific firearms.

“With the wounds caused at close range from a high-velocity semiautomatic rapid rate of firearm used in both of these tragedies, almost all of the victims do not survive making it to a trauma center,” he said.

Linda Magid, a leader with Bexar County Moms Demand Action, said that a “guns everywhere” approach to public safety policy is not working in Texas.

“Easy access to guns means that we can never truly be safe in our communities. We deserve to live without fear, but to our gun laws in Texas and the gun lobby’s relentless guns-everywhere agenda, nowhere is safe,” Magid said.