Anyone with a soul is devastated when children die under tragic circumstances. It doesn’t matter how those children die — the morally and spiritually virtuous among us want to ensure whatever can be done to prevent the tragic loss of young lives is done.
Case-in-point, earlier this week Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a series of bills intended to ensure summer camps are safer places. These bills are the result of the truly horrific flooding that swept away young campers from Camp Mystic and other nearby locations this summer. The tragedy — which might have been averted had the area had weather alert systems in place — took the lives of 21 campers and six counselors, many of whom were young, too.
Mara Richards Bim
My daughter is the same age as many of the little girls lost. I cannot fathom the pain their families will endure for the rest of their lives.
The three bills championed by Texas Republicans moved swiftly through the Legislature. House Bill 1 (the Youth CAMPER Act) and Senate Bill 3 both were filed on the first day of the second special legislative session (Aug. 15). Senate Bill 1 (The Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act) was filed three days later on Aug. 18. From the time the bills were filed to when they were signed into law took only 22 days.
These bills do a number of things, including providing money for counties to install emergency warning systems and requiring camps to have annually updated emergency plans. The most significant bill prohibits the state from licensing camps located in flood plains. Without licensing, camps won’t be able to exist in these areas.
It seems the Texas Legislature is capable of swiftly passing bills to avert the senseless killing of children when it wants to.
“The Texas Legislature is capable of swiftly passing bills to avert the senseless killing of children when it wants to.”
Now, compare the Texas GOP’s swift action on these bills to make camping safer to their response to the mass murder of children with firearms in schools — an especially relevant comparison given Texas has the distinction of having the third- and eighth-deadliest school shootings in the country.
Lest we have forgotten, on May 18, 2018, a 17-year-old student — armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver — killed eight classmates and two teachers and injured 13 others at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe near Galveston. This is the eighth-deadliest mass school shooting in the country.
And, on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old former student — armed with an M4 Carbine assault rifle — killed 19 elementary-school students and two teachers and injured 17 others at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde near San Antonio. This is the third-deadliest mass school shooting recorded in our country.
Taken together, more children were killed in these two events than in the Camp Mystic flooding.
So, what was the Texas Legislature’s response to these tragedies?
After six months of hand-wringing and then another six-month battle in the Texas Legislature, in 2019 Gov. Abbott finally signed three bills into law in response to the shootings. One required teachers and staff receive emergency training; one required teachers and staff receive additional training on recognizing mental illness and providing some resources for students in need of services; and one removed the cap on how many armed teachers support staff a school campus can have.
“More children were killed in these two events than in the Camp Mystic flooding.”
There was no law put into place that could help keep guns out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves and others. Abbott had actually floated the idea of Texas passing what are known as “red flag laws” that prevent individuals deemed by a judge to be a danger from purchasing or having guns. But, at the end of the day, the governor and Republican legislators refused to act.
Texans were assured the “sweeping school safety measures” would prevent another tragedy like the Santa Fe School shooting. Then came Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School shootings.
This time it took three years for the Legislature to pass what it called a “Uvalde Strong” bill. It was just passed this legislative session and signed into law June 20 — two weeks before the devastating flood at Camp Mystic.
Once again, the governor and Republicans refused any meaningful laws that would prevent the next tragedy. Instead, they passed House Bill 33, which addresses police and emergency response procedures.
In response to the Camp Mystic flood, the Republican Legislature and governor moved swiftly and within 22 days had passed a law that prohibits the licensing of camps in flood plains to ensure a similar tragedy never happens again.
If they really valued the lives of students as they claim, they would move just as swiftly to prohibit the unregulated sale of dangerous weapons.
Mara Richards Bim serves as a Clemons Fellow with BNG and is the first Justice and Advocacy Fellow at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas. She is a spiritual director and a recent Master of Divinity degree graduate from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater artist and founder of the nationally acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company, which operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.
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