By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A majority of the Del Rio City Council voted in favor of a resolution to support efforts by the city of Uvalde to raise the buying age for “high capacity rifles.”
The resolution, approved by the council by a 5-1-1 vote Aug. 9, calls on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session of the Texas Legislature to raise the age limit to buy a “high capacity rifle” from 18 to 21 and was passed by Uvalde elected officials in reaction to a tragic massacre in that city’s Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
DeReus said he voted against the resolution because several higher courts have already ruled that raising age limits on firearms purchases is unconstitutional.
Councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon abstained from the vote, saying she did so because she was not allowed to finish her comment following Mayor Al Arreola’s call for a vote.
After City Secretary Mari Acosta read the agenda item, Arreola asked if there was a motion to approve it.
DeReus then noted a member of the public had signed up to address the council on this agenda item.
Arreola recognized citizens who wished to speak.
Irma Cardenas, a leader with The Border Organization, told the council, “Aside from being here tonight to support the city of Del Rio transportation department employees, we are also present to encourage (you) to pass a resolution in support of asking Gov. Abbott to call a special legislative session to increase the age from 18 to 21 for anyone wanting to purchase an AR-15 weapon.
“The city of Uvalde has passed such a resolution, as has Val Verde County. We are asking the city of Del Rio to do the same. Let us mean it. Let us mean it when we say, ‘We stand with Uvalde.’ Thank you,” Cardenas said.
Del Rioan Troy Minton also offered comment on the resolution.
“Although I belong to a lot of different organizations, I wrote this myself, based on my experience, and I kind of want to remind some people what the people of Uvalde are going through,” Minton said.
“I look around the room and I think most of us are old enough to have had some grief and shock in our life. There’s five stages (of grieving). The first stage is denial, and I’m sure a lot of the people went through that. The second stage is anger, and we’re seeing that anger played out with a lot of anger toward the police, anger toward the school, school security, the gun shop that made the transfer, the manufacturer and organizations that had nothing to do with it.
“The third stage is bargaining, trying to so something to make the grief, the pain and the hurt go away, and a lot of times we make some bad decisions that don’t help it. They’re irrational, and they’re non-productive, so we have to be careful with that,” Minton added.
Minton also spoke about an organization to which he belongs, The Friends of the NRA (National Rifle Association).
“The Friends of NRA, they attacked the Friends of NRA event that was occurring at Hondo, and the city denied the venue. But they did have the event, and they raised a lot of money. You may not know what the Friends of NRA is, but we raise money for the NRA Foundation,” Minton said.
Acosta informed him that his time had expired, but the Arreola asked if anyone objected to Minton going over the allotted three-minute time limit, and none of the council did, and Arreola directed that Minton be given another minute to speak.
“Since the last century, the NRA Foundation has donated about half a billion dollars to safety programs. We were actually doing safety events for women, children, all non-profit organizations, including schools. If they want to put in a request for a grant for increasing their security, that’s something we can certainly cover.
“So, I’d like to see these young men who turn violent stopped also. Every time something like this happens, the people that had nothing to do with it get assaulted . . . that’s part of the doing things out of anger and not thinking about it. And the one that scares the hell out of me, the next stage (in grieving) is depression. I look – and I hope I’m wrong – for people to do things damaging to themselves and their family members over in Uvalde as they cope with this,” Minton finished.
After the speakers finished, Arreola called for a motion on the Uvalde resolution, with Mayor Pro-tem Steven T. Webb making the motion, and Councilwoman Ernestina “Tina” Martinez giving the second.
Before the council proceeded, Arreola asked City Manager John Sheedy to read the resolution.
Arreola then called for the vote, but DeReus said he wished to make a statement.
“What happened in Uvalde was tragic, and I do support a special session. I think that this resolution is too narrow, honestly. I think there are other things other than this that we need to push to have discussed as part of the special session,” DeReus said.
He added, “I’m also concerned because of some recent court rulings, in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as well as the Supreme Court. There was a California law that had this that was ruled unconstitutional and so, as much as I support the special session, I cannot support this resolution because of the potential unconstitutionality of it.”
“I think it’s just a baby step for us to follow. Somebody said we’re going to be on board with Uvalde, and this is just a baby step in that direction. How are we going to proceed from here? We’ll work on it, but it’s something we have to put in place in our city,” Arreola said.
Arreola again asked for the vote, and Falcon Calderon asked the city attorney if the resolution was “legit.”
“Oh, yes, this is just a resolution of support. It’s not a resolution to change the law or directing the governor to do anything,” the attorney said.
Calderon called the Uvalde massacre “tragic.” She said she had a son and that the council also has “to think about those that follow the law.”
Arreola again called for the vote, and the motion passed on a 5-1-1 vote, with DeReus opposing and Calderon abstaining.
After the vote, she said she had abstained because she was not done making her comment.
“I was cut off on my comment, so I’m going to abstain,” she said.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
