On Saturday, the Texas Tribune Festival hosted a crucial discussion at Open Congress titled “We the Texans: Breaking the Cycle.” This panel delved into strategies for preventing mass shootings, an issue that continues to plague the U.S.
The panel was brought together around one of the most pressing issues in Texas: the deadliest school shooting the state has ever experienced, which took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. On May 24, 2022, a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle entered the school and tragically killed 19 children and two teachers.
Jesse Rizo, a Uvalde CISD school board member who lost his 9-year-old niece Jackie Cazares in the Uvalde mass shooting, has become a strong voice for the 21 victims. During the panel, he described the mishandling of the tragedy in one word: “Ineptitude.” His comment reflects the widespread frustration with the investigation, which has revealed law enforcement failures during the 77-minute ordeal.
As I prepared for the panel, I thought about how this is a 60-minute conversation that we are going to have, and I thought about the ordeal and hell that these children lived for, for 77 minutes.” He continued, urging the audience to empathize with the victims: “I’d like for everybody that is here to think about what they went through as we sit here under the tent and what torture they might have suffered.”
Texas Representative Joe Moody (D-El Paso), who was appointed to the committee investigating the failures in the Uvalde mass shooting, called it a “systemic failure,” emphasizing that it wasn’t just one mistake. “There were multiple red flags that were not identified,” he said.
During the 88th Texas Legislature, Uvalde families and gun policy advocates pushed hard for a bill to raise the minimum age for purchasing assault rifles from 18 to 21. The Uvalde shooter, who was 18 years old, used an AR-15-style rifle. Despite the emotional pleas, the bill ultimately failed. When asked why passing gun reform in Texas is so difficult, Moody admitted, “I don’t know.”
“You can be pro-Second Amendment and still legislate in this space, the Supreme Court has said so,” he added, pointing out that even some conservatives agree that certain people shouldn’t have access to firearms. “Okay, well tell me who? Let’s put restrictions in law,” Moody challenged, urging his colleagues to act.
Joining Moody and Rizo on the panel was Jaclyn Schildkraut, Executive Director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. With her extensive research on gun violence and mass shootings, Schildkraut offered key data and insights to shape the conversation on how Texas and the nation can address this critical issue.
Prior to the panel discussion, Schildkraut talked to RA News reporter Jovanka Palacios to delve deeper into the state of mass shootings in Texas. She highlighted critical data points and prevention strategies, addressing several of our most urgent questions.
Jovanka Palacios: What is the current state of mass shootings in Texas compared to other states, and have you identified any unique factors or trends that differentiate Texas’s gun violence patterns?
Jaclyn Schildkraut: For context, I am going to focus on mass public shootings (e.g., events like Uvalde that are premeditated) rather than mass shootings as defined by groups like the Gun Violence Archive, which doesn’t account for that context and instead bases the events they capture on a numerical threshold (4+ people shot or killed). So that data treats a fight that escalated at a bar and a gun was present and is used to Uvalde, despite that both have very different contextual factors that can, at least in part, impact their prevention. (This is based on our database, which is not yet public – this includes our definition as well as methodology for how we collected our data).
Between 1966 (beginning with the shooting at the University of Texas here in Austin) and the end of 2023, there were 455 shootings that met our definition. Of these, 33 or 7.3% occurred in the state of Texas and most (26 or about 79%) have occurred since Columbine (just over half – 17 – have happened in the last 10 years). This is the second most of any state (California had 73 mass shootings since 1966, Florida had 31). There were 1,636 people killed in these shootings – 203 of these individuals were killed in Texas. Of the 2,403 people injured in these same 455 shootings, 278 of these individuals were impacted in Texas. To draw a more meaningful (standardized) comparison, for each mass shooting that occurred in Texas, there were an average of 6.2 people killed and 8.4 injured. For all incidents occurring in the rest of the U.S., there were an average of 3.4 people killed and 5.0 injured per shooting. (Note that this includes Las Vegas, which is an outlier event. If omitted, the averages per shooting for the remaining 49 states and DC are 3.3 people killed and 4.1 injured per shooting.) So for shootings in Texas, just under twice as many people are killed and injured, on average, per mass shooting compared to the rest of the U.S.
Regarding the second part of your question (unique factors or trends), we simply do not have the data available to answer that.JP: What role do different disciplines (e.g., criminology, psychology, sociology, public health) play in developing comprehensive strategies for preventing mass shootings?
JS: When we look at mass shootings, these are effectively convergences of numerous factors occurring at the same time. In other words, there isn’t one thing that causes these tragedies to happen and so it won’t be one solution or perspective that can address it. Comprehensive solutions will require bringing stakeholders from all different disciplines to the table. So, as an example, we know that one consistent point with mass shooters is that they broadcast their intentions in advance through a process known as leakage. As they become consumed with their thoughts and plans, they tell others about it, meaning that there are people who know what may happen before it does. When these individuals bring information forward and report the tips, then a process of threat assessment can commence. Threat assessment teams are multidisciplinary – they involve law enforcement and the courts but they also bring together mental health representatives as well as school and community stakeholders, and all work together to determine whether the threat is credible and, if so, how to manage it and prevent the tragedy from occurring.
JP: In what ways can media representation be improved to enhance public awareness and understanding of gun violence without sensationalizing the issue? (or without normalizing it)
JS: One of the most important things that the media can do to enhance public awareness and understanding of gun violence is to present facts and context. Mass shootings are tragic and impact entire communities, so it is not surprising that they capture a lot of attention and generate a lot of discussion. But in the context of gun violence, they are the rarest form – yet this is not ever talked about. Talking about it in context is not done to diminish the horrific impact of these tragedies but instead to help people understand their likelihood of impact, which is incredibly low. For context, all homicides (firearm-related or otherwise) account for approximately 0.1% of ALL crimes known to law enforcement in a given year. Mass shootings make up less than 0.1% of that 0.1%. So it isn’t that we shouldn’t care about them, it is that we should understand that they aren’t an everywhere, every person type of impact. Discussing evidence-based approaches to preventing gun violence, from reporting tips and threat assessment to secure storage, also should be a part of the conversation.
JP: What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for researchers and policymakers in tackling gun violence in Texas/U.S. in the coming years?
JS: I think that appetite for change is both simultaneously an opportunity and a challenge. We often see conversations about “doing something” proliferate after a tragedy like the recent shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia or Uvalde 2.5 years ago, but these are not sustained. They tend to be reactionary rather than proactive. I think there are groups that are pushing for more of the latter (proactivity) and if that can be sustained, that can help on the policy side. That said, we do have to acknowledge that, historically, this change typically occurs at the state and even local level rather than the federal level for a number of reasons, including differences in political climates as well as how gun violence impacts communities. For researchers, the challenge is always funding our work, but we have seen more investments in this area in recent years.
For more information on gun violence in Texas, visit the RA News Gun Violence Watch page.
