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Texas Matters: DPS Uvalde accountability; mass shootings rise; Democrat voter registration surge

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Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw speaks during a press conference held outside Robb Elementary School on Friday in Uvalde, Texas.
Wong Maye-E
/
AP
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw speaks during a press conference held outside Robb Elementary School on Friday in Uvalde, Texas.

Calls for accountability continue after the school shooting in Uvalde that left 19 students and 2 teachers dead. But the Texas Department of Public Safety is deflecting questions and stalling investigations into its part of the failed response.

New reporting from KXAN-TV shows that DPS director Steven McCraw said “no one is losing their jobs” over the response to the Robb Elementary shooting.

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez represents Uvalde and has been critical of the DPS response. He wants McCraw to resign over his handling of the mass shooting.

Mass shootings rise
Last year, a new law went into effect that allows any adult without a felony to carry a handgun in public with no training and no permit. Since then, the number of mass shootings in Texas rose 62.5%. That’s according to data analysis by Jef Rouner. Rouner is a freelance journalist for Reform Austin News.

Texas Oath Keepers
Texas is home to a sizable number of members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group. And Texas has the most members who are elected officials, law enforcement officers or members of the military. This is according to the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. Mark Pitcavage is the senior research fellow at ADL center on Extremism.

Voter registration surge
The Supreme Court’s decision overturning the right to choose abortion is motivating women and young people across the nation to register to vote in the November midterms. But what about in Texas? Tom Bonier is the CEO of TargetSmart.

David Martin Davies can be reached at dmdavies@tpr.org and on Twitter at @DavidMartinDavi