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Don't hold your breath expecting gun law changes after Texas school shooting | Editorial

School massacres have become so frequent that there was a noticeable absence of the strong reactions expected after 10 students and adults were killed by a 17-year-old shooter last week in Santa Fe, Texas.

Santa Fe High School junior Guadalupe Sanchez, 16, cries in the arms of her mother, Elida Sanchez, following the mass shooting Friday that left 10 people dead.
Santa Fe High School junior Guadalupe Sanchez, 16, cries in the arms of her mother, Elida Sanchez, following the mass shooting Friday that left 10 people dead.Read moreMichael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle via AP

Quiet. Hear that? Not if you're listening for the sound of gun laws being changed so children will not be shot to death in America's schools.

School massacres have become so frequent that there was a noticeable absence of the strong reactions expected after 10 students and adults were killed by a 17-year-old shooter last week in Santa Fe, Texas.

Even newspaper editorial pages that typically rage after such tragedies were mostly silent, as if they too are tired of repeating the same calls for reform to no avail.

Celebrities who in an earlier time might not speak their mind have become more outspoken in the age of Twitter.

"Our children have come to expect gun violence in their schools," tweeted the actress Julianne Moore. "Our leaders should be ashamed. #NoNRA"

"Sending all of my love to the students and families in Santa Fe, Texas," tweeted Ellen DeGeneres. "We can do better than this."

The entertainers' tweets were more compassionate than those of another TV celebrity, President Trump, who initially tweeted: "School shooting in Texas. Early reports not looking good. God bless all!"

He might as well have been giving a weather report.

Ditto Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who, along with his prayers, tweeted this advice to Santa Fe High students, "Please be safe and heed warnings from local officials."

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick opined that schools with fewer doors and more metal detectors were needed. "There are too many entrances and too many exits," said Patrick, in his best impersonation of a prison warden.

That's the type of rhetoric being spouted by elected officials who have no intention of significantly changing gun laws. They have surrendered to the National Rifle Association.

They were no more inspired to act after the killing of 10 people at Santa Fe High School than they were after 17 people died at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., or when 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

The battle for gun reform must not end in defeat. Assault weapons should be banned; and gun owners should be held responsible for their guns.

Texas is one of only 14 states that make parents liable when their children take guns from home to commit crimes. But, ironically, Texas law doesn't apply to children over 16, like Santa Fe shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17.

Schoolchildren dying in a hail of gunfire hasn't motivated elected officials to change gun laws. But voters at the polls this year can let the politicians know they remember what happened at Sandy Hook, Stoneman Douglas, and Santa Fe schools, and that incumbents should remember too if they want to be reelected.