A woman gets a smudged eagle feather waved over her shoulder as Woolsey Walking Sky during the cedar ceremony during the fifth year anniversary remembrance ceremony and dedication of the Warrior Spirit sculpture at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2023 in Santa Fe.
Veronica Mata, center, and other family members of the victims of the Uvalde shooting protest for the Texas legislature to take up a bill to limit the age for purchasing AR-15 style weapons in Austin on May 8, 2023. For Mata, teaching kindergarten in Uvalde after her daughter was among the 19 students who were fatally shot at Robb Elementary School became a year of grieving for her own child while trying to keep 20 others safe.
Gladys Castillón embraces her 11-year-old daughter Kaitlyn Martinez as they watch high school, junior high and elementary students participate in a National Walkout to protest gun violence at the Town Square in Uvalde on April 5, 2023. Kaitlyn was a fourth-grader at Robb Elementary last May, where 19 other fourth-graders and two teachers were killed.
Caitlyne Gonzales listens to a TikTok video while sitting her best friend Jackie Cazares’ grave at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery in Uvalde on April 19, 2023. Gonzales regularly visits the cemetery to spend time with her former schoolmates, including two of her best friends Jackie Cazares and Eliahna Torres, who were killed in the Robb Elementary massacre.
After paying their respects, Uvalde High School graduating seniors take a photo by a memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 22, 2023. It was the last day of classes for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. Wednesday is the first-year anniversary of the Robb Elementary school massacre where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school and murdered 19 school children and two teachers.
Texas will spend $1.1 billion to harden schools and hire more officers to shoot gun-wielding attackers over the next two years, and lawmakers have proposed adding another $800 million to minimize massacres.
Republican leaders and lawmakers soundly rejected the pleas for stricter gun laws from parents who’ve lost children in school shootings. So, in classic gunslinger fashion, Texas’ ruling party prefers reacting rather than preventing massacres.
After 573 school shootings between 2013 and 2021, research shows significant financial consequences for communities. If the screams of Uvalde’s children did not refocus conservatives’ minds, would an economic argument make a difference?
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Shootings have almost become cliche. A disaffected young person, usually a student or former student, obtains a semi-automatic, high-velocity rifle with a high-capacity magazine filled with military-grade ammunition. The shooter then kills as many schoolchildren as possible before law enforcement arrives.
The financial costs pile up quickly. Initially, there are the first responders, including police, paramedics and coroners, followed by expensive investigations by local, state and national authorities.
Since most kids won’t return to a school where they’ve suffered trauma, the building must go. Replacing Robb Elementary School will cost the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District $60 million.
Nor can we ignore the costs to families, either in medical bills or funerals. Mourning relatives will miss work, lose jobs, abuse substances and never economically recover.
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Nationally, several studies have calculated gun violence’s economic impact as ranging from $229 billion to $557 billion. While gun control advocates financed much of the research, the calculations are the best we’ve got since Congress banned federal funding for gun violence research between 1996 and 2019.
Recent research shows that school shootings slow economic activity and reduce home values, professors at four universities, including Texas A&M, showed.
“Reductions in local economic activity harm communities in multiple ways, by reducing job prospects, by reducing the tax base for key services (including those designed to prevent such tragedies) and by generally reducing the quality of life for constituents,” according to “How Fatal School Shootings Impact Community Economic Activity,” a paper published by SSRN, the Social Science Research Network.
Home values dropped 6.5% in the year following a school shooting, researchers found, with prices slowly recovering afterward. Perhaps more intriguing is the differing economic impact depending on the community’s politics.
In liberal-leaning counties, school shootings cause a 1.5% drop in grocery spending over the subsequent six months. Cigarette purchases drop 13% in conservative-leaning counties, and purchases of junk food decrease slightly.
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Researchers who focused on Texas school shootings between 1992 and 2018 found surviving students skip school and repeat grades more. A 2022 National Bureau of Economic Research paper also found that students were less likely to graduate high school or attend college. Their lifelong earnings are below their peers.
Trying to lock a shooter outside a building or prepositioning a guard to shoot them first does not stop the tragedy or its aftershocks. We need to keep troubled kids from acquiring weapons in the first place.
I’d never considered the economic dimension of school shootings until Glenn Wilkerson, president of the Ark Group, brought it to my attention. The retired Houston pastor focuses on keeping all children safe, including those at risk of committing violence.
Researchers say most young shooters do not have a mental illness, defined as a measurable medical condition. Instead, most are experiencing low self-esteem and acute emotional distress triggered by domestic abuse, bullying or social isolation.
Wilkerson and other experts argue that instead of paying for more guns in schools, the state should train teachers and counselors to identify tell-tale behaviors. Then, give school staff the time and authority to give students and their parents the attention necessary to prevent a crisis.
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Any Texas teacher will tell you they do not have enough time to give their students the personalized attention they need. After a decade of budget cuts and low pay, public schools struggle to reach minimum staffing, let alone intervene with a troubled student.
Last year, the state had a $30 billion budget surplus, and while the Republicans who control every branch of government came up with money for more locks and guns, Gov. Greg Abbott refused to fund teachers adequately.
The GOP also refused to raise the age to buy an assault rifle to 21 from 18.
This is where I would typically remind conservatives to support the economy, job creators and workforce. But they only listen to the gun lobby and those who think dead children are a small price for maximal gun rights.
Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at HoustonChronicle.com/TomlinsonNewsletter or Expressnews.com/TomlinsonNewsletter.
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