Texas governor urged to call special session

AUSTIN, Texas - State Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo became the first Republican on Friday to urge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session for lawmakers in wake of the Uvalde school massacre.

In a tweet, Seliger said the Legislature should reconvene "until we do SOMETHING The FBI or DPS BELIEVE will lessen the chance of the next Uvalde Tragedy." He offered no specific policy proposals.

Seliger isn't seeking reelection this year, so he won't be back for the next legislative session that begins in January 2023.

Only the governor can call lawmakers back before then. Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In response to past mass shootings, Abbott, a Republican, has rejected Democrats' calls for a special session. Instead, Abbott has convened roundtables and issued lengthy lists of policy recommendations, few of which have passed.

Meanwhile, the GOP-led Legislature has steadily chipped away at gun restrictions. Last year, Texas became the biggest state in the country to do away with the license requirement to carry a handgun in public.

After a gunman rampaged through Midland and Odessa in 2019, "the governor said 'this wasn't going to happen again,'" Seliger said.

"But in the 87th Legislature, we didn't do anything from a legislative point of view to keep it from happening," he said. "And it's going to happen again, we know that, and what can we do to lessen the chance."

State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, a Houston Democrat, has also pressed Abbott for a special session after the Uvalde tragedy to pass "real gun reforms." He suggested the state expand gun-buyer background checks, raising the age of purchase for long guns to 21, and repealing open carry laws.

School hardening measures enacted after the Santa Fe high school shooting didn't do anything to stop the gunman in Uvalde from killing 21 people, including 19 children, Johnson said.