State and federal law enforcement officers in tactical gear work outside a home in Alvin, Texas, as part of the investigation in the aftermath of a deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School on Friday, May 18, 2018. (Kevin M. Cox /The Galveston County Daily News via AP)
Democrat lawmakers are using Friday’s school shooting in Texas in a bid to get Gov. Doug Ducey to call lawmakers into special session to adopt new gun laws.
In separate letters to the governor, House and Senate minority leaders said they are willing to provide the needed votes for a package. All it would take, they said, is for Ducey to add some of the things they want to the package, things like mandatory background checks when weapons are sold at gun shows.
But Ducey appeared uninterested, saying Friday that he offered up what he called “common-sense reforms” which never made it into law. And press aide Daniel Scarpinato said his boss wants members of both parties “to put politics aside and join in support.”
Only thing is, it’s not just Democrats who refused to vote for the package. Ducey lacked sufficient support from his own Republican majority for what the governor portrayed as the keystone of his package: Severe Threat Orders of Protection allowing family members, school administrators and even roommates to ask courts to have people evaluated to see if they should be forced to surrender their weapons.
And Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, told Capitol Media Services on Friday he’s not sure that the STOP orders Ducey wants can ever be enacted in a way that he and fellow Republicans believe sufficiently protects individual rights.
What all that means is that, new school shooting or not,
