Teachers across the state of Texas and beyond are saying they're fed up with gun violence.
The Texas American Federation of Teachers is calling on lawmakers at the state and federal levels to reform gun laws that they say are too lax.
"Had we done more after Santa Fe, we may have been able to stop Uvalde," said Zeph Capo, Texas AFT president. "I don't want some other community to have to feel that same way."
Eight students and two teachers were shot at Santa Fe High School, near Houston, on May 18, 2018 - four years before 19 kids and two teachers were killed in a shooting rampage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
Randi Weingarten, the national president of the AFT, says current gun laws make no sense.
"A young adult can't get a pistol until they're 21," Weingarten said. "Why can they get an AR-15?"
Texas AFT conducted a survey of 5,100 K-12 school employees, higher-ed employees, parents, and community leaders in the immediate wake of the Uvalde school shooting.
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Nicole Hill, lead digital organizer with Texas AFT, says one of the survey's findings is a stark rebuke of one of the proposals coming out of the Uvalde tragedy.
"77% of Texas school employees specifically do not want to be armed or expected to somehow intercept a gunman and be a security guard on top of being a classroom teacher," Hill said.
"What the Texas Legislature has shown us is rather than doing things to fix it, they want to put Band-Aids on it," Capo said.
Katrina Rasmussen, a teacher in the Dallas ISD, is among those who say that arming teachers is a bad idea.
"Our governor's solutions to the escalating violence has been consistent - more guns and fewer restrictions," Rasmussen said. "It is painfully gut-wrenchingly clear that more guns results in more violence."
The same survey shows almost unanimous support among school employees for comprehensive background checks (99%), red flag warnings (98%), and raising the minimum age for gun purchases (96%).
It also shows that 83% support a ban on assault weapons and 82% support more rigorous laws to prevent kids from accessing guns in their homes or in the homes of their friends.
[shortcode-inline-related expand="1" link="/krld/news/state/congress-hears-from-uvalde-survivors" headline=""He told my teacher, 'goodnight', and shot her in the head"; Congress hears from Uvalde survivors" image="/media-library/image.jpg?id=64126145"]LISTEN on the Audacy App
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