Uvalde Mayor During Robb Elementary School Shooting Introduces Bill To Improve Law Enforcement Response

A former Uvalde mayor is pushing for a bill that would require school districts and law enforcement to meet once a year to plan their response to an active shooter situation, mandating annual multi-agency exercise drills on how to respond to an active shooter.

Don McLaughlin, a member of the Texas House of Representatives and mayor of Uvalde when the 2022 Robb Elementary School mass shooting took place, introduced a bill aimed at addressing issues that played a role during the police response to the Robb Elementary shooting.

McLaughlin filed House Bill 33 earlier this week. If passed, it would mandate law enforcement agencies across Texas to create crisis response policies. "What happened that day was a failure of duty, leadership, and preparedness," McLaughlin said in a statement, referencing the mass shooting in Uvalde.

"Law enforcement hesitated, communication broke down, and innocent children and teachers were left defenseless. We must do what we can to ensure these mistakes are never repeated. The Uvalde Strong Act is about guaranteeing that when a crisis strikes, there is no confusion and no delay—only immediate, decisive action to save lives," he added.

The delayed response from Uvalde's law enforcement has been widely condemned as a massive failure, with nearly 400 officers waiting 77 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. The response included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police.

Partly due to the delayed response from law enforcement, the gunman ended up killing 19 students and two teachers, leaving 17 others injured.

As the Texas Tribune reports, House Bill 33 would also require school districts to meet with law enforcement at least once a year to plan a response to a similar situation. The state of Texas already required individual officers to undergo training for active shooter incidents but it does not require annual exercise drills for law enforcement agencies, the outlet reports.

McLaughlin's bill would also provide grants for officers to train on how to respond to an active shooter incident.