Today, 14 participants will review the red flag order of protection at Governor Greg Abbott's roundtable following Friday's deadly Santa Fe High School shooting.
Texas State Rifle Association's Alice Tripp explains the red flag protective order is a law that's been in place since 1995 that creates a penalty for parent who leaves their firearm readily available to a minor. She said it's a complicated piece of law, tool used by prosecutors, lawyers and judges.
“I know we’ve got parental accessibility laws. I know that they’re there. I know they’re there with a penalty. What I didn’t know was that prosecutors and judges don’t use them,” said Tripp.
She said that order was only used 62 times in one year.
Tripp, the only registered gun lobbyist in the Capitol, added there's layers of gun laws currently on the books, but what laws are there and what's missing...should be square one.
“We want to be sure that whatever it is, is needed, not duplicated, not political not and is something that will impact the tragedies that have happened,” said Tripp.
She said she doesn't want to hear political rhetoric and ending school violence isn't about partisan politics.
She said it is time to seriously review laws and look at what could've mitigated what happened. She said she doesn't know if metal detectors, drug or gun dogs in the building, a school-based "neighborhood watch" type of program or anonymous whistle-blower when a student is in trouble are any of the answers.
The first roundtable was yesterday sought input from education and law enforcement leaders on how to improve security in Texas school districts, as well as strategies that benefit our communities.
The last roundtable is tomorrow.