Important information here on firearms by the Texas Tribune. It's disturbing to think of how in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, "Texans purchased 150,464 guns in June." What I make of this is that people are fearful and wanting to defend their families. So many guns in circulation that can be easily acquired, however, contribute to gun violence.

I actually had a resolution that I had wanted National LULAC to pass to address gun violence in Texas and the U.S., but it didn't go anywhere because of the attempted coup of LULAC about which I've posted this week. You can view the draft resolution here. 

I want to thank Texas State Rep. Rafael Anchia for providing me with the pertinent information. The good thing—and short of a special legislative session on gun safety—is that our communities, LULAC included, can still push for gun safety policy in the January 2023 Texas legislative session.

-Angela Valenzuela

Texas’ complex relationship with firearms: Leading America in gun sales, but with a declining gun ownership rate

We examine decades of data on gun ownership and gun violence to show trends across the state. Some of them might surprise you.

BY CAROLINE COVINGTON JULY 28, 20225 AM CENTRAL

Hundreds of handguns and rifles are displayed for purchase at McBride’s Guns in Central Austin on April 20, 2021. 

Gun ownership in Texas: Background checks for gun purchases rose in the weeks following the Uvalde school massacre, furthering a pattern that has followed most mass shootings for over a decade. The statistic is only one snapshot in a complicated picture of Texans’ relationship with guns. 

C Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune
Here’s some of what we know about gun ownership in Texas: 

• Texans purchased 150,464 guns in June, the first full month after the Uvalde shooting. 

• Texans purchased more than 1.6 million guns in 2021, equal to about one gun for every 14 adults in the state. 

• From 1980 to 2016, 46% of Texans, on average, had a firearm in their household, and Texas ranks 27th nationwide in household gun ownership.

• Black Texans have died from gun homicides at a higher rate than any other racial group over the last two decades, while white Texans are far more likely to die by suicide involving a firearm compared to other racial groups. 

• From 2015 to 2020, law enforcement recovered more stolen guns after crimes in Texas than any other state.

Texas’ large population and relatively lax gun laws mean more guns are purchased here than any other state. But the rate of gun ownership has been dropping as the population grows. For example, while Texans bought more guns in 2020 than any other year in the last two decades, there was a smaller share of households with guns. Read more from the Tribune’s Caroline Covington.