Texas Governor’s School Safety Plan: More Armed Guards, No Big Gun Controls

Two weeks after a student armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a revolver killed 10 people at a high school outside Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Wednesday proposed spending more than $100 million to put more police and armed guards on school campuses and expand programs to identify students at risk of engaging in mass violence.

Mr. Abbott, a Republican, also proposed stepping up security at schools by limiting the number of entrances and exits, and installing alarms specifically designated to warn of active shooters. “You have to know who is coming into the school, and you have to know who is leaving it,” Mr. Abbott said.

But his school safety plan contained only modest changes to gun laws: He proposed requiring parents to keep firearms locked away from children under the age of 18, a tightening of current law which requires such controls for families with children younger than 17. He also proposed improvements to the system for reporting felony convictions and adjudications of mental illness, both of which trigger prohibitions on gun possession under federal law.

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