Gun violence changed the lives of these Texas lawmakers, not their views on gun control

Sharp, sudden sounds — the bang of a gavel, the pop of a staple gun — send him crouching for cover, just as he did last June when he dived into a dugout to escape flying bullets. At the time, he prayed he'd live to meet his granddaughter, who would arrive in October.

This week, another gunman opened fire, this time on worshippers at a rural Texas church. Williams said he broke down when he learned a pregnant women was among the 26 people authorities say were slain by Devin Patrick Kelley, a man with a history of violence and mental health problems.

"I'm so sad. What's happening with this country right now?" he texted a friend.

Williams — along with his GOP teammates, like Texas Reps. Joe Barton and Mike Conaway — knows firsthand the fear that grips an unsuspecting victim when forced to contemplate a sudden, violent death.

And they all know what happens next.

The inevitable call for lawmakers to re-examine gun regulations. The frustration from gun control advocates who say Republicans are unwilling to consider even incremental changes. The push-back from GOP members who counter that laws are already in place to deter mass violence, that little would stop a person determined to kill.

For those who advocate for tighter gun controls, the link between America's colossal number of guns and gun-related deaths can't be ignored. But even Republicans directly and deeply impacted by gun violence say curbing access isn't the solution.

"The people who advocate gun control, if we did exactly what they said, what happened [in Sutherland Springs] could and probably would have still happened," said Barton, the GOP team's longtime manager.

His two sons were at the ballfield last June. His 12-year-old, Jack, who hid under a SUV when James Hodgkinson opened fire on his dad's squad, was the first to tell Barton about the Texas shooting.

The massacre came about a month after a shooter slaughtered 58 people during a country music festival in Las Vegas.

Both Barton and Williams, the team's coach, agree something must be done to stem the violence, a problem Williams attributes to a larger social breakdown and unaddressed mental health issues. Anything treading near the Second Amendment is a nonstarter.

"I'm always amazed at this, but a lot of people think Congress is somewhat all-knowing," Williams said, later adding: "I don't know the answer to this."

That's maddening to many of his colleagues on the other side of the aisle, who with gun control advocates say something is better than nothing. And nothing is usually the result.

"It's pretty clear by now that there's no event so horrific as to change the political dynamic in Congress," said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat who has made gun control his cause after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting of 26 people, the majority schoolchildren.

"Sandy Hook didn't change the political dynamic here. Las Vegas didn't change it. The congressional baseball shooting didn't change it," he continued. "I've lost faith that mass shootings are going to change members' minds."

Differing responses

For many Texas lawmakers, the Lone Star state epitomizes the right to bear arms, responsibly.

After all, the bystander credited with helping take down the church shooter is a National Rifle Association member and former instructor.

In a nation that by far has the most guns — more than 300 million — and mass shootings of any across the globe, Texas leads the U.S. in the number of registered weapons. The Lone Star state accounts for more than 10 percent of all registered guns in America, according to a 2016 report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

But Texas' annual death by gun rate — 10.6 percent out of every 100,000 — is slightly above the national average, though more than 20 states have higher rates, according to several analyses.

Williams, who injured his ankle in the June attack and whose aide was shot in the calf, said the experience has affirmed his views. "I think I'm the perfect person to talk to because I grew up around guns, I'm a Second Amendment guy and I've been shot" at, he said.

Scalise, who returned to Congress in September after months of rehabilitation, has also said his experience "fortified" his belief in gun rights. He credits his security guards, who fatally wounded the shooter, for saving lives.

Murphy, the Connecticut senator, said he isn't surprised that even victims of gun violence differ on how to resolve the problem. Some of the Sandy Hook parents became involved in gun control advocacy, he said, while others did not.

"Everyone who is involved in these shootings responds in different ways," he said.

Legislative measures

Earlier this week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reintroduced legislation that aims to ban a variety of "assault weapons," a term gun rights advocates say is vague and politically charged. It broadly refers to military-style, semi-automatic firearms.

Her measure originally passed in 1994 and banned certain models of AK-47s and AR-15s, the high-powered weapons used in many recent mass shootings. The ban expired in 2004, after Congress failed to reauthorize it.

The updated bill wouldn't require current owners of such weapons to turn them in, but aims to reduce the number sold in the future.

Feinstein acknowledged its impossible odds in a statement, noting she reintroduced the bill so that Americans know "a tool to reduce these massacres is sitting in the Senate, ready for debate and a vote."

Fort Worth Rep. Marc Veasey, a Democrat who played on the opposing baseball team last summer, is a proponent of what he calls "common-sense gun safety measures," like bans on military-style weapons.

But "being able to just sit down and have a basic, honest talk about gun safety and gun violence is something [Republicans] don't seem serious about advancing," he said.

Some Republicans have introduced measures to chip away at gun violence through other means.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in his chamber, said he wants to create incentives for the military and federal agencies to quickly upload conviction records to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

And the Senate Judiciary Committee, at Cornyn and Feinstein's urging, scheduled a hearing on bump stocks, the devices found on some weapons used by the Las Vegas shooter that allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles.

"Fix background checks, not gun control," Cornyn said in a tweet, recognizing the armed bystander, Stephen Willeford.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., are behind a bill to close a loophole they say enabled the church shooter, who had a history of violence, to acquire weapons. While still in the Air Force, Kelley was sentenced to a year in confinement for beating his then-wife and stepson.

Current law prohibits people with domestic violence convictions from purchasing weapons. The Air Force failed to report Kelley's criminal history to the FBI. According to Flake, it has reported just one domestic violence offender to the background check database since 2007. Under their measure, the military would have to create a special category for domestic violence assault.

They acknowledged that it's a narrow step, but one they believe can break through partisan gridlock.

"We are often asked after a tragedy like this: ‘Why can't you do anything to fix it?'" Flake said. "We are fixing the problem here, and it's something we can get agreement on."

‘An obligation'

Flake, who recently announced plans to retire from the Senate, was on the ballfield last June when gunfire broke out, an experience that he said makes one "think more deeply about these things."

And though he's departed from other Republicans and the NRA on gun control measures — he supported a bipartisan proposal to prohibit people on the FBI's "no fly" list from buying guns — he said it's difficult to see what Congress could have done to stop the baseball shooter.

Hodgkinson legally purchased the rifle and handgun he carried that day.

Barton, who said he's returned to the ballfield with his young son to talk about what happened, is pondering ways to get ahead of violence.

He floated the possibility of pre-emptively detaining people like Kelley, who often drop clues about their aims. In the same breath, he acknowledges the uphill legal battle with that idea.

"We have an obligation, or at least an opportunity, to try to be responsive. But one thing that is not the answer is more gun control," Barton said. "And I don't think you make some sort of armed camp out of every public facility in America. ... If you're going after a Baptist church in a town of 600 people, every public building in America is at risk."