On Wednesday, the Senate had been able to pass the bill of which a loophole was finally closed by. It was clearly a statement that spoke about how gun sales should not available to tbeginning hose who are aged between 16 and 18. Additionally, it had been the first bill that was passed by the Senate in 2023. The appropriate courts are meant to report virtually every involuntary mental health hospitalizations right to the corresponding Texas Department of Public Safety. From there the records are sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s national firearms background check system. Of course, in the last year, an investigation saw that information regarding mental health hospitalizations of younger individuals from 16 to older ages. All of which were not properly reported by district and county courts, in regards to problems found with state law having been written in a particular way, with scarce guidance from the state themselves.
From this, the young children who were hospitalized and turned 18 had been able to pass the background check and purchase a rifle. So long as they had no criminal record. Such an issue was particularly relevant in Uvalde, Texas, as an 18-year-old had killed around 19 students and two teachers. The 18-year-old in question had carried in two AR-15 semi-automatic rifles while passing the background check.
As the shooter himself had a load of mental health issues, it was also revealed that the assailant had never been hospitalized.
In our United States, there are many changes occurring. One in specific is how the President had signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act for the purpose of state reporting requirements to be shifted towards the federal background check system to therefore involve mental health adjudications for juveniles around 16 and even older, therefore, shifting Texas’ own lack of reporting out of compliance with the federal law.
Senator Joan Huffman, a Republican, had filed the bills to allow Texas to stay within it’s limitations according to federal law. Therefore, making sure that court-ordered mental health services and admissions help health care facilities in so quickly that mental illness was plenty cared for. Yet according to the Senate, the bill needs to be considered more by the House of Representatives before even beginning to be considered by the Governor. Of course, school safety had been listed by Governor Greg Abbott as a possible emergency item in that session. Upon the Senate floor, Senator Roland Gutierrez, the Democrat, had ben able to close out the loophole that couldn’t’ve affected the shooter from the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018.
