Parents of school children are angry, and they are tired of all the rhetoric. Nothing has been done to change the gun laws in Texas. 

Saturday morning, Uvalde, Texas parents woke Texas Governor Greg Abbott to a chorus of screaming and shouting the names of the children who were killed in the May 24 shooting in their elementary school.

Two teachers and 19 children were killed in the tragedy. 

One parent shouted, “If we can’t sleep, neither can you!”

In attendance were several family members who suffered losses in the shooting. They gathered at the governor’s mansion in Austin at the crack of dawn with posters and recordings of their children’s voices.

The protest was organized by March for Our Lives, a gun control group.

The parents, and others in the quest to reform gun laws, are frustrated about the lack of progress on gun control. They want Abbott to bring the state legislature into session to raise the age to buy semi-automatic rifles. In Texas, it is 18-years-old. They want it raised to 21.

Although some feel the three-year age increase won’t make too much difference, it could help, and any reduction in the senseless killing would be welcome. In Uvalde, the shooter was 18 when he bought the weapon he used in the massacre.

They demanded that the governor step outside.

At the rally, people addressed the protesters with stories about their loved ones who died in the school shooting in Uvalde. They don’t want lawmakers to forget the suffering and anguish they go through, and they demand that progress is made to find a solution to the nightmare that occurs to Americans too often. 

Raising the minimum age for gun purchase is just a first step.

Later in the morning, a demonstration was held at the Texas State Capitol, where gun reform advocates and family of mass shooting victims shouted “Raise the age” and “Vote him out.”

Abbott is against the idea of raising the legal age to buy an assault rifle. He prefers measures to improve school security and mental health services. However, his spokesperson squeezed out a little bit of hope in his statement, “As Governor Abbott has said from day one, all options remain on the table as he continues working with state and local leaders to prevent future tragedies and deploy all available resources to support the Uvalde community as they heal,” Press Secretary Renae Eze wrote in an email. He promised that the Texas legislature will be working on solutions in the coming weeks.“