When Texas Regulates Camps but Not Guns: A Comparative Policy Response to Two Child-Centered Tragedies, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D. May 23, 2026

When Texas Regulates Camps but Not Guns: A Comparative Policy Response to Two Child-Centered Tragedies

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

May 23, 2026

July 24 is always a special day for me and my husband because it is our
anniversary. It is a day I want to reserve for gratitude, love, memory, and the life we have built together. But this date now also carries additional significant meaning. 

Every year, as July 24 approaches, my mind is pulled back to May 24, 2022, the date of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed and at least 17 others were physically injured (Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, n.d.). Lamentably, joy and grief now share space in the same part of our hearts and calendar.

Source: KXXV Facebook

That grief returned again as I and others observed how the State of Texas responded to another tragedy involving children: the catastrophic Guadalupe River floods and the deaths connected to Camp Mystic. In all, I should note, 134 people lost their lives in this horrific tragedy (Shalvey, 2025).

Nothing about this comparison should be read as minimizing the pain of the flood victims’ families. Those children, counselors, parents, and surviving loved ones deserve every protection, every answer, every dollar of relief, and every serious reform Texas can provide. As a consequence, Camp Mystic will remain closed this Summer (CBS Texas, 2026).

Source: Instagram

But the contrast between the two state responses is difficult to ignore.

After the July 4, 2025 flooding, Texas moved quickly and concretely to regulate youth camps. Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1, known as the Youth CAMPER Act; Senate Bill 1, known as the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act; and Senate Bill 3, which created financial support for early-warning sirens in flash-flood-prone areas (Office of the Texas Governor, 2025c).

Source: Office of the Governor

These were not merely symbolic gestures. The laws require youth camps to adopt and annually update emergency plans, train staff, orient campers, notify parents of floodplain risks with signed acknowledgment, and share emergency plans with local emergency services (Office of the Texas Governor, 2025c). The laws also authorize enforcement through inspections, complaint investigations, license suspension, or license denial (Office of the Texas Governor, 2025c).

Most notably, Texas placed direct restrictions on where youth camps may house children. The Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act prohibits the Texas Department of State Health Services from licensing youth camps with cabins in FEMA-designated floodplains, with limited exceptions (Office of the Texas Governor, 2025c). In plain language, Texas said that some camp operations must change because the risk to children was too great.

That is a serious governmental response. It regulates an industry. It imposes burdens. It changes operations. It restricts what camps may do in the name of child safety.

And that is precisely why the Uvalde comparison hurts (e.g., Valenzuela, 2022).

After Uvalde, Texas did act in some ways. The Legislature passed school-safety measures, including House Bill 3, which required school districts to determine the appropriate number of armed security officers and generally ensure at least one armed security officer is present at each campus during regular school hours, subject to a good-cause exception when funding or qualified personnel are unavailable (Texas Legislature, 2023). Later, House Bill 33, the Uvalde Strong Act, addressed active-shooter preparedness, emergency-response coordination, reporting, training, public-information requirements, and school-safety equipment such as breaching tools and ballistic shields (Texas Legislature, 2025).

Source: Fox KDFW

Those measures matter. But they largely regulate the school environment and the emergency response after a threat exists. They do not meaningfully regulate access-to-the-weapon pathway as a preparatory response that Uvalde families repeatedly asked lawmakers to confront.

One of the clearest examples was the effort to raise the minimum age to purchase certain semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. That proposal, championed by Uvalde families and advocates, stalled in the Texas Legislature (Serrano, 2023). So, while Texas was willing to restrict summer camps after children died in a flood, it was not willing to impose a comparable restriction on young adults’ access to certain firearms after children were murdered in a classroom.

That is the painful contradiction. After the Guadalupe River flood, Texas regulated the setting that contributed to the deaths. After Uvalde, Texas regulated doors, officers, training, response plans, and security tools—but not the firearm access issue that many grieving families identified as central to prevention.

The financial response across both tragedies also reveals a complicated picture. In Uvalde, the state announced a Family Assistance Center to help affected families and community members access crime-victim services, death benefits, counseling, funeral services, transportation, childcare, spiritual care, and other support (Office of the Texas Governor, 2022a). 

The state also announced an initial $5 million investment to establish a long-term Family Resiliency Center in Uvalde County for psychological first aid, crisis counseling, behavioral-health services, and related support (Office of the Texas Governor, 2022b). Separately, the Robb School Memorial Fund was established to support victims’ families, teachers, and the Uvalde community, including help with health care, travel, and funeral expenses (Office of the Texas Governor, 2022a).

Source: Fox KDFW

But those supports are not the same as full restitution. Nor are they the same as accountability. 

In April 2025, Uvalde city leaders approved a $2 million settlement for the families of the 21 people killed at Robb Elementary, described by the Associated Press as the first financial resolution from the many lawsuits following the attack (Vertuno, 2025). That settlement also included nonmonetary measures such as enhanced police training, expanded mental-health services, an annual May 24 day of remembrance, and a permanent memorial (Vertuno, 2025). Even so, other lawsuits remained pending, including actions against Texas state police officials and others (Vertuno, 2025).

For the Guadalupe River flood victims, financial relief has also appeared as a patchwork rather than a single, clear state restitution package. Governor Abbott joined the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country in announcing more than $40 million in long-term housing relief following the July 4 floods in Kerrville (Office of the Texas Governor, 2025b). 

He also appeared with the Vaqueros del Mar Texas Flood Relief Fund as $25,000 checks were presented to families affected by the catastrophic Hill Country floods, particularly those who suffered severe storm damage or lost homes (Office of the Texas Governor, 2025a). Meanwhile, families of Camp Mystic victims filed lawsuits alleging negligence and failure to evacuate; later reporting noted multiple suits seeking more than $1 million each in damages (Runnels, 2025, 2026).

So, in both tragedies, affected families have faced a mixture of public aid, private donations, insurance-backed settlements, and ongoing litigation. But money after death is not justice by itself. Relief funds can help families survive the aftermath. Settlements can acknowledge harm. Lawsuits can pursue accountability. But no payment can replace a child, a teacher, a counselor, or the future that was stolen.

The deeper issue is prevention.

Texas has now shown that when children die, the state can move beyond condolences. It can pass laws. It can regulate an industry. It can restrict dangerous placements. It can require emergency planning, training, warning systems, inspections, and licensing consequences. The Guadalupe River flood response proves that Texas knows how to turn grief into regulation.

Source: KSAT.com

The question is why the same kind of regulatory courage has not been appliedto gun access after Uvalde.
Again, this is not an argument against the camp-safety laws. 

Those reforms were necessary. Children should not sleep in cabins where flood danger is ignored. Parents should know whether a camp sits in a floodplain. Staff should be trained. Emergency plans should be real, reviewed, and enforceable.

But children should also be safe in classrooms. Parents should not have to beg lawmakers to consider firearm-access restrictions after their children are murdered. Families should not have to watch the state regulate cabins more directly than guns.

Both tragedies demanded compassion. Both demanded financial support. Both demanded accountability. Both demanded prevention.

Texas responded to the Guadalupe River flood by saying: camps must change.

After Uvalde, Texas still has not been willing to say with equal force: gun access must change, too.

That is the contradiction I cannot stop thinking about. And every time the 24th comes around, I remember Uvalde's grief and how love and loss can live side by side. But public policy should not stop at mourning. It should protect the living.

References

CBS Texas. (2026, May 1). Camp Mystic will not reopen after withdrawing 2026 license following hearing over deadly floods [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQi3voPG3m4

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. (n.d.). Critical incident review: Active shooter at Robb Elementary School. U.S. Department of Justice. https://cops.usdoj.gov/uvalde

Office of the Texas Governor. (2022a, May 27). Governor Abbott provides details on state resources available to Uvalde community impacted by Robb Elementary School tragedy. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-provides-details-on-state-resources-available-to-uvalde-community-impacted-by-robb-elementary-school-tragedy

Office of the Texas Governor. (2022b, June 1). Governor Abbott announces $5 million investment to establish long-term Family Resiliency Center in Uvalde County. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-5-million-investment-to-establish-long-term-family-resiliency-center-in-uvalde-county

Office of the Texas Governor. (2025a, August 9). Governor Abbott gives Strait to the Heart funds to Hill Country flood victims. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-gives-strait-to-the-heart-funds-to-hill-country-flood-victims

Office of the Texas Governor. (2025b, August 21). Governor Abbott, Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country announce over $40 million in long-term flood relief funding efforts. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-community-foundation-of-the-texas-hill-country-announce-over-40-million-in-long-term-flood-relief-funding-efforts

Office of the Texas Governor. (2025c, September 5). Governor Abbott signs Texas summer camp safety bills into law. https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-signs-texas-summer-camp-safety-bills-into-law

Runnels, A. (2025, November 10). Parents of flood victims suing Camp Mystic for negligence. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/10/texas-floods-kerr-county-camp-mystic-lawsuit/

Runnels, A. (2026, February 6). Family of still-missing camper sues to shut down Camp Mystic. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/06/texas-hill-country-camp-mystic-lawsuit-negligence/

Shalvey, K. (2025, July 15).Texas flooding updates: Death toll reaches 134, search continues for missing, ABC News. https://abcnews.com/US/live-updates/texas-flooding-live-updates/?id=123729682

Serrano, A. (2023, May 23). Gun safety advocates see signs of progress in first session after Uvalde shooting even though raise-the-age bill stalled. The Texas Tribune. https://www.ksat.com/news/texas/2023/05/23/gun-safety-advocates-see-signs-of-progress-in-first-session-after-uvalde-shooting-even-though-raise-the-age-bill-stalled/

Texas Legislature. (2023). H.B. No. 3, 88th Legislature, Regular Session: Enrolled version. https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB3/2023

Texas Legislature. (2025). H.B. No. 33, 89th Legislature, Regular Session: Enrolled version. https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB33/2025

Valenzuela, A. (2022, May 30). Remembering Uziyah Sergio Garcia (August 13, 2011 ~ May 24, 2022) of San Angelo, Texas. https://texasedequity.blogspot.com/2022/05/remembering-uziyah-sergio-garcia-august.html

Vertuno, J. (2025, April 23). Uvalde leaders approve $2M for Robb Elementary families in first settlement over 2022 attack. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-texas-2022-school-shooting-million-settlement-06c2477186c48edcb4fe5f8ffe2a4f0b

The G.O.P. War on Civil Virtue by Paul Krugman | New York Times | May 26, 2022

Texans deserve better than our current Texas Republican leadership, beginning with Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Senator Ted Cruz, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. How the heck do they still get voted into office? Beats me.

This incredulity is the thrust of a May 29th opinion by the Editorial Board of the Austin American-Statesman titled, "After Uvalde, we must demand change," as well as this New York Times piece by Paul Krugman that calls out the GOP attack on civil virtue. To date, this gallery of reckless leadership has unilaterally decided that having fun with guns is more important than children's and teacher's lives. Worse yet, as Krugman states,

"if you take the proposals by Cruz, Patrick and others literally, they amount to a call for turning the land of the free into a giant armed camp." 

And arming teachers with guns is NOT a serious proposal as summed up well by this meme posted by Facebook group, Living Blue in Texas.

Short of Congress passing comprehensive gun legislation, our states can learn from Florida, as mentioned by the Statesman's Editorial Board:

"A Florida law enacted in 2018 after the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting imposed a three-day wait for gun purchases, raised the minimum legal age for buying guns from 18 to 21, and enacted stricter gun ownership measures for those with mental health problems."

Now is the time for "we the people" to "do something." And that something for right now can be reaching out to whoever represents you in office. 

You can visit this Texas Tribune who-represents-me website if you don't know. Also, Texas is holding an election on November 8, 2022 where you can vote for our state's next governor, attorney general, and so on. If you're a new voter, link here to start a new voter registration application.

-Angela Valenzuela

#Uvalde #UvaldeStrong #vote2022

The G.O.P. War on Civil Virtue

by Paul Krugman | New York Times | May 26, 2022

It’s hard to say which of the Republican responses to the latest mass shooting was most reprehensible. The reliably awful Senator Ted Cruz attracted considerable attention by insisting that the answer is to put armed guards in schools, never mind that Uvalde’s school system has its own police force and officers seem to have been on the scene soon after the shooter arrived.

And the Buffalo supermarket that was the location of a mass shooting just 10 days earlier also had an armed security guard, who was killed because his gun was no match for the shooter’s body armor.

But if you ask me, the worst and also most chilling response came from Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas. What we need to do, declared Patrick, is “harden these targets so no one can get in, ever, except maybe through one entrance.”

That restriction would have interesting consequences in the event of a fire. But in any case, think about Patrick’s language: In a nation that’s supposedly at peace, we should treat schools as “targets” that need to be “hardened.” What would that do to public education, which has for many generations been one of the defining experiences of growing up in America? Don’t worry, says a writer for The Federalist: Families can keep their kids safe by resorting to home-schooling.

Actually, if you take the proposals by Cruz, Patrick and others literally, they amount to a call for turning the land of the free into a giant armed camp. There are around 130,000 K-12 schools in America; there are close to 40,000 supermarkets; there are many other venues that might offer prey for mass killers. So protecting all these public spaces Republican-style would require creating a heavily armed, effectively military domestic defense force — heavily armed because it would face attackers with body armor and semiautomatic weapons — that would be at least as big as the Marine Corps.

Why would such a thing be necessary? Mass shootings are very rare outside the United States. Why are they so common here? Not, according to the U.S. right, because we’re a nation where a disturbed 18-year-old can easily buy military-grade weapons and body armor. No, says Patrick, it’s because “We’re a coarse society.”

I know it’s a hopeless effort to say this, but imagine the reaction if a prominent liberal politician were to declare that the reason the United States has a severe social problem that doesn’t exist elsewhere is that Americans are bad people. We’d never hear the end of it. But when a Republican says it, it barely makes a ripple.

And I guess I should say for the record that I personally don’t believe that Americans, as individuals, are worse than anyone else. If anything, what has always struck me when returning from trips abroad is that Americans are (or were) on average exceptionally nice and pleasant to interact with.

What distinguishes us is that it’s so easy for people who aren’t nice to arm themselves to the teeth.

OK, I think everyone realizes that none of what Republicans are saying about how to respond to mass shootings will translate into actual policy proposals. They’re barely even trying to make sense. Instead, they’re just making noise to drown out rational discussion until the latest atrocity fades from the news cycle. The truth is that conservatives consider mass shootings, and for that matter America’s astonishingly high overall rate of gun deaths, as an acceptable price for pursuing their ideology.

But what is that ideology? I’d argue that while talk about America’s unique gun culture isn’t exactly wrong, it’s too narrow. What we’re really looking at here is a broad assault on the very idea of civic duty — on the idea that people should follow certain rules, accept some restrictions on their behavior, to protect the lives of their fellow citizens.

In other words, we should think of vehement opposition to gun regulations as a phenomenon closely linked to vehement (and highly partisan) opposition to mask mandates and vaccination in the face of a deadly pandemic, vehement opposition to environmental rules like the ban on phosphates in detergent, and more.

Where does this hatred of the idea of civic duty come from? No doubt some of it, like almost everything in U.S. politics, is related to race.

One thing it doesn’t reflect, however, is our national tradition. When you hear talk of home-schooling, remember that the United States basically invented universal public education. Environmental protection used to be a nonpartisan issue: The Clean Air Act of 1970 passed the Senate without a single nay. And Hollywood mythology aside, most towns in the Old West had stricter limits on the carrying of firearms than Gov. Greg Abbott’s Texas.

As I suggested, I don’t fully understand where this aversion to the basic rules of a civilized society is coming from. What’s clear, however, is that the very people who shout most about “freedom” are doing their best to turn America into a “Hunger Games”-type dystopian nightmare, with checkpoints everywhere, loomed over by men with guns.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

Correction: 

May 27, 2022

An earlier version of this column misattributed the suggestion that families could keep their children safe by home-schooling them. It was made by a writer for the online publication The Federalist, not by the Federalist Society.

Paul Krugman has been an Opinion columnist since 2000 and is also a distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on international trade and economic geography. @PaulKrugman

Giffords Invests Big to Flip Control & Secure a Majority in Texas State House Willing to take Action on Gun Safety

Thanks to the Giffords PAC for doing this. Check out the resources they provide:

• Factsheet: The State of Gun Violence in Texas

• Report: Gun Laws and Violence in Texas

• Interactive: Texas Gun Laws

We need more people in policy to address gun policy. This impacts us directly at UT and in all of colleges and universities statewide. I applaud my colleague, Dr. Pat Somers,​ for being a leading researcher and voice at our university on gun policy.

-Angela Valenzuela

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 28, 2020
CONTACT: Jason Phelps, jphelps@giffords.org

Giffords Invests Big to Flip Control & Secure a Majority in Texas State House Willing to take Action on Gun Safety  

Giffords supports the Texas House Democratic Committee with $300,000 while investing another $100,00 in candidates and efforts to turn out voters while proving gun safety is a winning issue in the Lonestar State

Washington, DC — Giffords PAC, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, has invested $300,000 to support the Texas House Democratic Committee’s effort to flip control of the chamber and achieve a gun safety majority. The initiative comes on top of another $100,000 to support candidates up and down the ballot, boost efforts to turn out voters, and fund polling with Latino Victory Project showing Latinx voters care about gun violence.  

“Despite the horrific mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa in 2019, the Texas legislature offered only thoughts and prayers, with zero action” said Peter Ambler, Giffords Executive Director. “Rather than prioritizing the safety of communities, Republicans in Texas have cowered at the feet of the gun lobby. Texas voters are ready for change. Giffords is proud to support gun safety champions up and down the ballot who have the courage to act.”

Texas currently earns an “F” on the Giffords Law Center Annual Gun Law Scorecard because of its failure to enact commonsense solutions such as requiring background checks on all gun sales, enacting an extreme risk protection order law, and strengthening laws that restrict access to firearms by domestic abusers.

After decisive wins in the Virginia State Legislative races a year ago, Giffords PAC turned its attention to states, including Texas, long seen as off-limits for gun safety. Now, thanks to changing demographics and long-term attitudinal shifts, candidates up and down the ballot are running and winning on promises to take action on gun safety. Especially in the vote-rich suburbs of Houston and Dallas, democratic state house candidates recognize that gun safety has become a key issue for swing voters. 

Examples of how house candidates are embracing gun safety can be seen here and here. One mailer, paid for by the Dallas County Democratic Party, attacks Republican incumbent Morgan Meyers for his unpopular, extreme stances on guns in schools and on college campuses. In contrast the other mailer, from Democractic incumbent Ana-Maria Ramos, promises to protect families by supporting universal background checks, banning high capacity magazines, and keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. 

While focusing on breakthroughs in the state house, Giffords PAC also made backing MJ Hegar for Senate a priority, endorsing her ahead of the Democratic Senate primary. The group held a number of events for Hegar, including a discussion as part of the Senate Road to Background Checks Tour where she explained how she’d fight to protect Texans from gun violence in the Senate. Additional investments went to Workers Alliance and Corazón de la Frontera PAC for Get Out the Vote efforts geared toward turning out voters in communities of color. 

The effort in the Senate race builds on a successful campaign in 2018 by Giffords PAC to support gun safety champions running for Congress. In one of the defining campaigns of the cycle for Giffords PAC, they spent $1.1 million on a campaign against then-Congressman John Culberson. The ads showed Culberson siding with the NRA while Houston kids suffer through lockdowns and active shooter drills. 

Giffords released Public Policy Polling showing nearly 8 in 10 Texas voters support universal background checks. Over 60% of voters said that a candidate’s support for universal background checks laws made it more likely that they would vote for that candidate. Only 8% of those polled said they would more likely vote for the candidate who opposed background checks.  

Together with Latino Victory Project, Giffords also released new polling showing that 3 out of 4 Latinos in Texas support strong gun safety legislation. Giffords and Latino Victory Project also teamed up last year for a bus tour, ¡YA BASTA! Latinos Rise Against Gun Violence and Hate, beginning in El Paso and stopping in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

Related Resources:

• Factsheet: The State of Gun Violence in Texas

• Report: Gun Laws and Violence in Texas

• Interactive: Texas Gun Laws

​###

Giffords PAC works to reduce gun violence and save lives by empowering voters with information and supporting candidates who will fight for safer gun laws.

Commentary: A plea for red flag laws by Dr. Emma Mancha-Sumners

Dr. Emma Bribiescas Mancha-Sumners, with whom I work closely, has been enduring the anguishing death of her niece, London Sophia Bribiescas.  She is pleading that we all support red flag laws as these may have saved her niece's life—together with that of her mother and sister, too.

-Angela Valenzuela

Commentary: A plea for red flag laws

By Emma Bribiescas Mancha-Sumners, For the Express-News Feb. 4, 2020 Updated: Feb. 4, 2020 1:30 p.m.

Comments

My niece, London Sophia Bribiescas, was brutally murdered Jan. 10, 2019, in Boerne. She was 10 years old. Her sister, Alexa, and mother, Nichol, also died with her that night in what the media has coined as the “Anaqua Springs Murders.”

The investigation into what happened that night is still open, and because there are so many unknowns, our family hasn’t said much publicly about the case until now.

Over the last year, several people have shared their concerns about the family dynamics, the number of guns and the handling of these guns in that home before that night.

But despite their desire to help, no laws were blatantly being broken. And especially in an affluent neighborhood like Anaqua Springs, the chances of police knocking on that front door, without something concrete to lean on, were pretty slim. Despite so many people seeing the same red flags, they felt powerless to speak up about what they saw. Even after what happened, they weren’t sure how to articulate their concerns.

So despite everything we still don’t know about the case, we do know one thing: The gun that killed London, Alexa and Nichol did not belong in that home, regardless of who pulled the trigger. We don’t need to wait for the investigation to close to know this. That gun in that home was essentially a ticking time bomb.

Our family has our share of responsible gun owners. We have no interest in infringing on our own Second Amendment rights or the rights of other responsible gun owners. But when one or more factors — such as a history of violence, domestic abuse, certain mental illnesses or risk of suicide — are present, the parties involved are no longer responsible gun owners. Anyone who says otherwise also is not a responsible gun owner.

So-called red flag laws prevent individuals with these types of histories from obtaining guns or having guns in their possession during periods of crisis, and the existing research on these laws is pretty conclusive. These laws are effective in reducing the risk posed by this small percentage of gun owners.

Would a gun have found a way into that home at some point if red flag laws were in place? Possibly. If someone wants to break a law, they generally find a way.

But would the implementation of red flag laws allowed others to report their concerns to the police, with at least some certainty of an intervention? Every single person who has spoken up about their concerns has said “yes.” And if even one of those people is telling the truth, then London, Alexa and Nichol might be alive today.

This is National Gun Violence Survivors Week. London’s birthday is Tuesday, so this is the same week we would have likely spent finalizing the details of her 12th birthday party — her last birthday before becoming a teenager.

We’re often told people are praying for us, and that is appreciated. But we ask that you, please, even if just this week, relay your messages to Congress, to your representatives’ voicemails and inboxes. Then, if you find it in your heart to think of us again, we ask that you reach out to groups like Moms Demand Action and Texas Gun Sense, who know when these decisions are being made at the state and federal levels, and can help guide your messages to the right people at the right time.

Some of these groups have different ideas about what gun control should look like, but just about everyone agrees that red flag laws are a good idea. Check out several of them and find the best fit for you.

We ask you keep our family in mind when you vote and advocate for political candidates. The decisions they make are too often influenced by lobbies, deep pockets and their own chances at re-election. We alone don’t have the ability to influence them this way. All we have are the ashes of a murdered little girl and a family who will never fully recover from this loss. We need your help to keep this from happening to someone else.

Please contact your representatives and tell them we need red flag laws in place as soon as possible, and do so as often and in as many ways as you possibly can. It’s the one birthday gift any of us can still give London.

And we would be terribly grateful.

Emma Bribiescas Mancha-Sumners is a researcher and fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, and London’s paternal aunt.