Kathleen Brown, Democratic candidate for US District 13, weighs in on Uvalde shooting

Kathleen Brown, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. House District 13, spoke about measures she would propose to reduce gun violence Friday in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting that claimed 21 lives including 19 schoolchildren at Robb Elementary.

“What worries me is we have become so numb to school shootings. I mean, we have had 27 just this year, and the year is not even half done,” Brown said. "We have had 246 school shootings since 1998. It is a real issue, and we need to deal with it. After these horrendous acts, we keep hearing thoughts and prayers. They have not worked in the last 25 years, and I do not think they are going to work now.”

Brown, an attorney from Wichita Falls, is a candidate for Congress for District 13, which has 39 counties including Amarillo. She is facing incumbent U.S. Rep Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, in November's election. 

Brown released a statement on gun control that gives nine measures that would adhere to the Constitution and keep the fundamental right for citizens to keep and bear arms. “I believe the federal government should limit itself to its enumerated powers,” Brown said. “What frustrates me is all the writing of legislation that will not pass constitutional muster. So, my nine points are limited to what I believe the Supreme Court would allow the federal government to do under the commerce and elastic clauses of the Constitution.”

Brown said that she had studied the proposals that have failed and came up with these nine points based on previous cases and judgments.

When asked about changes to Texas state law, which allowed for permitless or so-called constitutional carry that required no training or license to be able to carry a concealed handgun in the state, she said that decision was a bad one, especially in relation to the job of law enforcement. Brown stated she is a concealed license owner and owns guns and took the training so that she would become a responsible gun owner.

Brown cited a study from Michael Siegal that was based on analyzing 25 years of national data that sought to see any relationship between certain types of laws and its effectiveness on gun homicides. The study published in 2019, which can be found in the Journal of Internal Medicine online at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-019-04922-x , concluded that states that had universal background checks on all gun sales had homicide rates 15% lower than those states without. Also, the study found that states that enacted these background checks in addition to limiting sale of guns to people with violent misdemeanors and requiring concealed permits had 35% less gun homicides.

The Globe-News reached out to Jackson's office for comment on the Uvalde shooting, but as of press time had not received a response.

During a Fox News interview May 25, the day after the Uvalde school shooting, Jackson made these comments in reference to the horrific incident: “I think we really need to ask the question, ‘How can something like this happen?' How can somebody do something so evil? I grew up in a small town in West Texas, not too much smaller than Uvalde, and I could never imagine something like this happening when I grew up. When I grew up, things were different. There was a focus on family, community, and church. I think we knew each other.

"And I’m not saying the people in Uvalde don’t know each other, but I think that’s been robbed from us,” Jackson added. “Our culture has changed over the last 30 or 40 years, and there’s been an attack on those things in particular. I just think kids are exposed to all kinds of horrible stuff nowadays. I look back and I think about the horrible stuff they hear when they listen to rap music, the video games they watch from a really early age and all of this horrible violence and stuff. I just think they have all this access to the internet on a regular basis, which is just not good for kids.”

While a popular stance in political circles, many studies have found few connections between video game violence and real-world violence.

According to Education Week, there has been 27 school shootings this year and 119 since 2018. In its data, a school shooting was defined as when a firearm was discharged and when any individual, other than the suspect or perpetrator, had a bullet wound resulting from the incident, which had to occur on a K-12 school property or on a school bus while school is in session or during a school-sponsored event.

The Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security https://www.chds.us/ssdb/data-map/includes 2,012 school shootings in the U.S. dating back to 1970.

Brown responded to Jackson’s statement on pointing to violent media for the rise in school shootings: “You look at stuff like rap music or video games across all other nations, and how much it is consumed in other nations at similar rates without the same outcomes, you must rule that out as a cause," Brown said. "When we rule all that out what does that leave us, other than easy access to guns. The studies back that these are not the reasons for our high levels of gun violence.”

Referencing Jackson’s statement on family, community and church, Brown gave her take: “The reality is that there is evil, and there has and always will be evil. The percentage of people going to church is not going to alter that amount of evilness,” Brown said. “While I am a strong believer in faith, the reality is we allow guns to be accessed so readily and then wonder why this type of thing happens.”

Brown also spoke on some politicians' call to arm teachers and hardening schools amid this shooting.

"How about we not let these people get guns in the first place?" Brown said. “We should not have less standards to drive a vehicle than to own a gun. I think there is a way we can protect everyone’s Second Amendment rights and for those that want certain types of weapons having extra scrutiny to own these weapons.”

Brown's full nine point plan to reduce gun violence can be found on her website, https://kathleenfortx.com/statement-on-gun-control/ .

One of the measures would require a 10-day waiting period and disclosure of all social media handles for the purchase of assault rifles and high-capacity magazine firearms. "In Texas, you have to wait 60 days before you can be granted a divorce as a 'cooling off period,'" Brown notes. "Surely a 10-day 'cooling off period' is not too much to ask. There will need to be exceptions for people needing a weapon for protection and those serving in the armed services or law enforcement."

The plan also includes: 

- raising the age to 21 to buy any high-capacity firearm

- pass thorough background check requirements before permitting the purchase of high capacity firearms

- track all gun sales

- require all gun owners to register 

- limit the quantity of ammunition a buyer can buy within a time period

- enact “red flag” laws

- close the loopholes for gun shows and private sales

- have much higher scrutiny, background checks, and waiting periods for assault rifles