Emergency Gun Violence Prevention Resolution - Item 149

[Alison Alter]

Dear Colleagues,

As we grieve with the families and communities impacted by gun violence in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, we must recognize that our country is in the midst of a public health and gun violence crisis. With two mass shootings within 15 hours of each other, we simply cannot continue to merely rely on words and wishes. We need our state and federal leaders to act in concrete, meaningful ways, and we need them to act now.

Linked below, please see an emergency resolution I am bringing for the Aug. 8 Council meeting. My resolution calls for the United States Senate to reconvene immediately and pass common sense gun violence prevention laws such as the historic legislation approved by the United States House of Representatives earlier this year. The resolution also calls for the Texas Legislature to consider the recommendations from Governor Abbott’s own School and Firearm Safety Action Plan, including extreme risk protection orders.

Our places of worship, our schools, our shopping centers, our theaters and our social venues have been transformed from safe places to targets. Our hearts have broken too many times following mass shootings in other communities and we now live with the reality that Austin is not immune.

We know we can prevent these horrific acts. As elected officials, we must continue to do everything we can to bring attention and action to the epidemic of gun violence in our country. To that end I will be bringing another gun violence prevention item on the Aug. 22 agenda focused on additional steps we can take in the City of Austin, which my office was working on prior to this weekend’s events. With respect to this emergency gun violence prevention resolution (item 149), I encourage each of you to reach out to elected officials you may know in other cities, counties and governing bodies and ask them to join us in passing similar demands of the United States Senate and the Texas Legislature. We need our federal and state leaders to act on issues most Americans agree on, such as universal background checks on all gun sales and extreme risk protective orders.

The resolution language posted this morning, and I would like to thank my cosponsors, Mayor Adler and Council Members Tovo, Pool and Ellis. I’m confident every one of you would have been willing to cosponsor this resolution, and I am looking forward to unifying behind this call to action on Thursday.

Regards,
Alison Alter

LINK TO RESOLUTION: https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=324597