In the wake of a 3-year-old boy who shot and killed himself after finding an unsecured gun in Elsa on Monday, local leaders are sharing their thoughts on what it means to be a responsible gun owner and prevent such tragedies.
While it’s unclear if the gun used in the incident belonged to him, the child’s father turned himself in to authorities Thursday and was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
As this case plays out, talk of gun safety and owner rights has once again been thrust into debate.
Some local police authorities feel that while public carry has raised concerns in Texas, communities in the Rio Grande Valley seem largely unaffected. Others have stressed the need to legislate gun responsibility measures rather than owner restrictions, such as mandatory training.
“The question is, what is responsibility?” McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said Friday. “Well, when a 3-year-old can get to a gun, then responsibility fails. Responsibility is overarching. It’s relentless. There is no 5 p.m. on a Friday when responsibility ends. It’s forever.”
When Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1927, the permitless carry bill that went into effect on Sep. 1, many throughout the state grew concerned regarding Texas residents being able to legally carry handguns in public places.
Despite those concerns, gun-related crimes have generally continued to trend downward, according to Rodriguez and Pharr Police Chief Andy Harvey.
“I cannot tell you that we have a spike in crime with guns because of policy,” Rodriguez said. “A couple of days ago the city of McAllen put out a press release where we were the number 2 safest in Texas for violent crimes. I can’t say that there’s a spike in violence for any one reason. Violent crime is a reflection of the community. Violent crime is personal.”
Rodriguez recalled his uncertainty when then-Gov. George W. Bush signed a bill allowing Texans to legally carry concealed guns in 1995. Rodriguez was police chief of the Brownsville Police Department at that time.
“Privately, I pounded on my desk and said, ‘You can’t do that; you shouldn’t do that. Things are going to go crazy,” Rodriguez recalled. “I was wrong. Things didn’t go crazy. I was adamant. ‘We know best. If you do that, crime’s gonna go through the roof.’”
He said that despite leniency in gun legislation, the results of such laws have shown continued decrease in gun-related crimes.
“Since that time, if you study crime statistics in the United States, if you draw a line from say 1989 to 2021, that line would be in a downward decline 98% of the time,” Rodriguez continued.
Harvey also said that his community has not really been affected by Abbott’s permitless carry bill.
“We really haven’t,” Harvey said Friday. “To be quite honest, we really haven’t seen a whole lot of people out and about carrying (guns). It just hasn’t really made an impact on us. Even how we maybe thought it would be. We haven’t really seen a difference in that. We haven’t gotten calls from people feeling uneasy about people carrying in public or that type of thing.”
Harvey emphasized the need for gun owners to receive training to prevent tragedies from occurring.
“Anybody that has a gun should be trained in it at least to the point where they know how to keep it safe until they’re ready to go out and shoot as a sport or whatever they do,” Harvey said. “Anybody who owns a gun should be trained. That’s the advice we’ll give everybody. Even if it’s the concealed handgun license, at least that’s some form of training. Rather than no training at all and hoping for the best. That’s not good for anybody in our community.
“If you’re going to own a gun, go get trained and know what you’re doing.”
Bryan Guerra owns and operates Lone Star Guns in Harlingen. He is also a National Rifle Association certified range safety officer, and offers firearms safety courses for both handguns and rifles.
He said that firearms sales have remained extraordinarily high since the pandemic began in early 2020.
Despite the high number of gun sales, he said that the amount of people taking gun safety courses remains stagnant.
“I can tell you that the amount of guns that are sold in no way, shape or form compare to the amount of firearms safety classes that are taken,” Guerra said Saturday. “The number far exceeds the interest in firearms safety. It’s unfortunate that it’s like that. As Americans, we have the right to purchase firearms and own firearms, but we’re not required to know any safety things. That’s on us. It’s our responsibility.”
Guerra said that gun safety is one thing everyone should be knowledgeable about.
He further stressed that regardless of expertise, responsibility to continue educating oneself is paramount.
“This is the one thing in somebody’s life that they should not in any shape or form take for granted,” Guerra said. “They should not feel that they are above any kind of knowledge. Every time I go shoot at a new range — even though I own a store and I go almost every weekend to the range — every time I go to a range and there’s a safety briefing, I sit down and I pay attention. You can never get enough safety briefings when it comes to this stuff.”
Texas law requires that every gun sold must come with a gunlock.
Guerra said every gun owner needs to use that gunlock if they do not have a way to secure their firearms, and reminded that — while violent crimes may not be on the rise — tragedies can still occur frequently.
“Texas has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the nation,” Guerra said. “Texas has one of the most lenient laws when it comes to gun ownership and how you’re allowed to store guns, shoot guns and own guns. It also has one of the highest rates of accidental discharges in the nation.
“In addition to people taking responsibility for the guns that they’re purchasing and understanding how to store them safely and whatnot, I do wish that our legislators would create more incentives for people to learn more about gun safety.”
