A gunman opened fire at a crowded mall outside Dallas on Saturday, killing at least eight people and injuring at least seven before a police officer killed him, the authorities said, turning a busy afternoon of shopping into a chaotic and tragic scene.
Geoffrey Keaton was having lunch with his 16-year-old daughter at Fatburger in the outlet mall when they heard gunshots.
“I immediately knew,” Mr. Keaton said. “I got my baby girl under the counter to shield her, and then they got louder, like he was right there.”
Mr. Keaton said the restaurant’s manager allowed customers to hide in the back, where they were able to exit through a rear door and run to their cars.
“You could see bodies of people he had shot on the sidewalk,” Mr. Keaton said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/us/allen-mall-texas-shooting.html
Confronted with mass shootings, Texas Republicans have repeatedly loosened gun laws
In the past few years, Texas Republicans have been quick to consider a crackdown on gun violence after a mass shooting.
They did so in 2018 after a 17-year-old entered Santa Fe High School and killed 10 people. Then again in 2019, when two mass shootings weeks apart occurred in El Paso at a Walmart and then in Midland and Odessa after a dismissed worker opened fire.
But when lawmakers have reconvened in Austin in the months after a mass shooting, those same leaders tend to fall silent on any restrictive measures when it comes to guns.
In the last two legislative sessions, Texas legislators have loosened gun laws, most notably by passing permitless carry in 2021, less than two years after mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa took the lives of 30 people.
Texas gun laws are loosened by GOP lawmakers after mass shootings | The Texas Tribune
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