Clear backpacks are displayed in a Staples store, July 25, 2022, in Houston, Texas. School districts around Texas have begun requiring students to use clear backpacks following the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.-- reinforced what his district already does, including having a planned entrance, maintaining a relationship with local police, checking in with students and the "vigilance of locking doors.
The shooting in Uvalde -- in which the 18-year-old alleged gunman killed 19 students and two teachers -- and other recent school shootings also demonstrate the importance of measures to reduce student access to guns, including conversations on proper gun storage and "red flag laws," Rob Wilcox, federal legal director for the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News.
"I think any time something like that happens, we always reflect on what are we doing and what are our practices and what can we do better or differently," she said. "We started this work before that, but it just speaks to the urgency of the work." "What I would hope for schools is that they really begin to look at kind of an all-hazards approach that says, what are we doing about access control? Does our communication plan work? Can people really get notifications? And that we look beyond just, we did a lockdown drill where everybody hid in the corner and now we're all safe," she continued. "Because Ulvade demonstrated that that's not the case.
The accused gunman in the Uvalde shooting legally purchased the assault rifle used in the shooting when he turned 18, authorities said. That has led Uvalde community leaders toto hold a special legislative session to consider raising the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic assault-style rifles from 18 to 21.