The Dallas Morning News

By Jason Villalba

My son George is 8 years old, attends public school, is about to be in the third grade, and he is Hispanic, like most of the little ones who lost their lives last week in Uvalde. His teeth are a little too big for his mouth and his hair is almost always disheveled. But he never fails to warmly hug his mama when she sees him and he is always there to be a friend to his fellow students at his Dallas ISD elementary school.

Like everyone else in Texas, I watched the developments in Uvalde in absolute and abject horror. How could this happen? Who would be so evil as to attack little children? What can be done so that this doesn’t happen again?

But, against all logic and reason, we know that in Texas and the United States of America, this will happen again. Soon and frequently. Why?

Is it because Texans have been acculturated to accept the slaughter of innocent children? As a parent of three children in public school, I am certain that the answer to that question is a resounding, “No!”

Is it because the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms? As a licensed carrier of firearms in my home and car and on my person, the answer to that line of questioning is also “No.”

The reason we are here, yet again, experiencing the collective tragedy of Uvalde, is because of the fecklessness and political cowardice of our elected officials.

How do I know this? Because I used to be an elected official. I represented a wealthy and privileged district of Dallas as a member of the Texas Legislature.

Many members of the Texas House and Senate and various other statewide officials have a vested interest in supporting unfettered and unrestricted access to the most lethal firearms available on the non-military market. There is literally no restriction that they will support unless the National Rifle Association and the Texas State Rifle Association allow them to support it.

This is not hyperbole. During my career in politics, there was zero tolerance for any deviation from the position of the NRA or the TSRA.

I once opposed TSRA legislation that would allow anyone over the age of 18 in Texas to purchase and carry, publicly and openly, any firearm they chose, without any regulation, background check, license or training.

They called the legislation “Constitutional Carry.” Based on discussion with my wife, neighbors and various community leaders, I called this legislation “Terrorist Carry.”

I opposed this foolhardy legislation because I knew it would result in violence and harm to my community. For this opposition, I was attacked.

The ads that the various Texas gun lobby associations published against me had photographs of young women being violated while an evil-looking black-and-white photo of me lurked in the background “allowing” it all to happen. The caption read, “Villalba doesn’t want you to protect your family from thugs and criminals.”

In reality, what I wanted was for my wife and children to be able to go to the local park without the fear that a mentally unstable person, with access to high-powered weaponry, would act out the evil vignettes he had been reading about in his various online communities.

During my time in the Texas Legislature, I advocated for commonsense gun control, for mental health access for students who exhibited proclivities to violence, and for the creation of a school marshal program that provides for armed, licensed Texas peace officers to protect all of our schools.

Unfortunately, the only legislation that passed was the bill that approved armed officers in Texas schools.

As someone who has been in a position to actually address this continuing problem, I can attest that the solution to the problem that we face today is “all of the above.”

We must harden the “soft” targets (grocery stores, libraries, schools, etc.), we must quickly provide access to mental health care for those individuals in our community who exhibit inclinations to violence, and we must limit access to high-powered and lethal firearms, body armor and ammunition to only those individuals who have undertaken a thorough and lengthy inspection process.

My son has no idea what happened in Uvalde this week. But he knows that the grown-ups always make sure that he has pizza Friday at his school and that he and his pops can watch a Mavs game together.

I know how many families out there have little ones like George. I am pleading with you today, please do what you can (i.e., vote) to ensure that our little third and fourth graders can continue to climb on the shoulders of their parents, smile that slobbery smile, and laugh.

If you don’t vote for those officials who have the courage to take the necessary actions to protect our children, there is no guarantee that you will ever hear that laugh again.

Just ask the parents in Uvalde.

Jason Villalba is the CEO of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, and a former member of the Texas House. He wrote this for The Dallas Morning News.