SANTA FE, Texas--Mourners knelt before white wooden crosses on Monday outside the Texas high school where 10 people were killed in the fourth deadly U.S. school shooting this year, an image recalling similar gatherings following February's Florida school massacre.
A crowd of a few dozen people including student survivors of the attack, family members, chaplains and police gathered to observe a 10 a.m. CT moment of silence called for by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
In contrast to Florida, where the deaths of 17 teens and educators sparked a youth-led movement calling for new restrictions on gun ownership, the Texas tragedy saw elected officials and survivors alike voicing support for gun rights.
Abbott, who noted that the 17-year-old accused of the attack appeared to have used weapons legally owned by his father in the Friday attack at Santa Fe High School, on Tuesday was due to begin a series of meetings with educators and law enforcement officials on improving school safety. "We need to do more than just pray for the victims and the families," Abbott said on Friday at the school outside Houston following the attack. He said any legal changes considered would "protect Second Amendment rights."
The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to bear arms. Gun rights proponents say that language prohibits regulations on gun ownership and argue that enforcement of existing laws should be sufficient to stop violence like the scenes that played out in Santa Fe.
Gun control groups point to the regular toll of shootings across the United States as evidence that more needs to be done to rein in the proliferation of weapons. Abbott on Monday did not name any of the participants in three days of discussions but said they would include supporters of arming teachers and those who oppose it.
Mike Collier, a Democrat running for Texas lieutenant governor, expressed skepticism that the talks would bring significant change. "Dozens of Texans have been killed in massacres just six months apart ... and our state leadership feebly announces 'roundtables,'" Collier said, referring to the November shooting of 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Police arrested Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, at the Santa Fe school following the rampage that they said he carried out with a shotgun and .38-caliber pistol. He has been charged with murder.
Two teachers and eight students, including Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh, 17, were killed in the attack, police said. Her father, Aziz Sheikh, said on Monday he hoped his daughter's death would spur gun control in the United States. "Sabika's case should become an example to change the gun laws," Sheikh said in a phone interview.
