A Year After the Uvalde Massacre: Did Anything Change?

There had been slight movement in the Legislature in early May, when a bill that would have raised the age to purchase an AR-15-style rifle to 21 from 18 received a favorable vote in a House committee. The legislation would possibly have prevented the 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde from purchasing the weapon he used in the massacre.

But the bill missed a key deadline and failed to receive a vote in the full Texas House.

Elsewhere in the country, there has been a mixed record on gun control laws proposed since Uvalde, with access restricted or expanded depending on which party is in control.

Washington State, where Democrats control state government, last month became at least the ninth state to join efforts to prevent the distribution of AR-15s and other powerful rifles often used by mass shooters, after the earlier lead of states like California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Republicans have moved in the opposite direction, with lawmakers in several states introducing legislation to expand the ability to carry concealed weapons without a permit and eliminate such things as gun-free zones.

Last summer the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would have reinstated a federal ban on assault weapons, but it stalled in the Senate.

Also last summer, Congress passed a new federal gun bill that brought the often-divided legislature together, galvanized by the tragedy in Uvalde. Democrats and just enough Republicans approved a measure that enhances background checks for potential gun buyers under 21, allowing law enforcement agencies to check juvenile records, including mental health records, starting at 16. President Biden has signed it into law.

The law also provides millions of dollars for states to put red flag laws in place, strengthens laws against straw purchasing and trafficking of guns, and provides funding for mental health crisis intervention.

Gun violence activists, including the Uvalde families, said they planned to return to Washington, D.C., to lobby for a total ban on assault weapons.

J. David Goodman contributed reporting.