Opinion: Governor Abbott, Do Not Tell Our Children the Same Story About AR-15s

Another AR-15, one of 20 million in the hands of Americans. Gov. Abbott, if your beloved child had ever felt their chest ripped open in scorching pain by bullets from a semi-automatic rifle, not on the battlefield, but in school or their place of worship, you would better comprehend the utter pain, terror, and loss felt by the victims and families of Robb Elementary School. You would surely reconsider your position on whether 20 million AR-15s belong in the hands of civilians. Without a doubt, if you could comprehend their pain, you would act with everything in your power.

I was born at the Air Force base in San Antonio, 84 miles from Uvalde, and was baptized in the Catholic Church. I was raised by the Republican side of my family; Nebraskan farmers who later claimed the wide-open space of Wyoming and Colorado as home. They were hunters yet none of them needed an AR-15 to kill a deer. All year, we ate venison from the game they killed, butchered, and packaged in white paper with their own hands and a deep God-loving respect for life and the power and purpose of a gun. My late grandfather, a World War II veteran, would say that an AR-15 does not belong in anyone but a soldier's hands. With respect, Governor, if someone claims to need an AR-15 to hunt game or defend their home, they need to learn to shoot better.

I was just 17 when I was shot in the chest by an AR-15 – yes, in the hands of a stranger with mental illness who never should have owned a gun to begin with. But there was no background check to determine if my shooter should have owned a semi-automatic assault rifle, the only kind of gun that could have shelled multiple rounds into the car I was sitting in hundreds of yards from his scope. AR-15s are designed to kill humans, plain and simple. And they do. Over and over. As a survivor, I weep tears each year for the AR-15 victims and their families, this time the precious children and their loved ones in Uvalde.

You and I agree on one thing, Governor: There is a mental health crisis in this nation that is deep and growing. So what are you doing to get guns out of the hands of those with mental health instability? When have you and your government looked at the underlying causes of the mental health crisis and passed laws to provide more support and funding to address it?

I have some expertise here as a constitutional rights lawyer representing young people with mental health injuries, so let me provide some insight. One of the leading and growing causes of anxiety, post-traumatic stress, depression, physical illness, and threats to home and school for American children is the climate crisis. Young people are growing up in an increasingly dangerous world, where the ongoing burning of fossil fuels is destabilizing the climate system that every generation of Americans has depended upon for their livelihoods and survival. Climate crisis also threatens their ability to live healthy, safe, long, and happy lives. On climate, as on guns, the adults in power won't pass laws to protect our young. Governor, if you want to make a big dent in a growing cause of the rising mental health crisis for our youth, while simultaneously tackling an enormous threat to your state and its citizens, you could also reconsider your position on policies promoting fossil fuel development and lead Texas to renewable energy. Governor, you could help stave off the increasing number of storms, flood events, droughts, climate fires, and sea level rise that Texas is increasingly experiencing.

As a survivor of an AR-15, a daughter of hunters, a mother of children, and a constitutional lawyer, I listened to the hollow ring of your response to the families of Uvalde, like those of many politicians before you. The children of this country deserve so much better from all of us. They deserve our protection from assault weapons and from an inhospitable climate. I implore all adults out there who care about our nation’s children to use the civic power you have – at the polls, with your elected officials, in communities, in the streets, and in the courts. This is not the country our forebears wanted for us. It is not the country so many brave soldiers we honored on Memorial Day have died for. In the name of this beautiful country and its beloved children, and with enduring responsibility for our posterity: We cannot let this be our story. Please Governor, do not tell us the same story and walk away from these buried children and their families with no plan to act.

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Julia A. Olson is the chief legal counsel and executive director for Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit law firm advocating on behalf of youth to protect their fundamental rights to a safe and stable climate. She is featured in the independent documentary film streaming on Netflix,Youth v Gov, the story about Juliana v. United States, the constitutional climate case she leads. Julia’s team won their first favorable judicial decision on behalf of youth in 2011 in the state of Texas.