Mayor Sylvester Turner said he was prompted to form the Commission Against Gun Violence after the school shooting in Parkland. After 10 people were killed at Santa Fe High School, Turner said the effort took on new urgency.
Several students are on the 37-member commission along with law enforcement, health care professionals, and community leaders. The group held its first meeting on Thursday.
Turner said he's asking them to come up with pragmatic ideas, not just for school safety but also how to curb gun violence on the streets.
"We can't wait for the perfect solution before we do something," said Turner. "Because if we wait for the perfect solution we'll end up doing nothing."
One of the members of the commission is University of Houston student Ariel Hobbs. She said she's hoping for sensible gun reform.
"I want the lives of students and children who live in the inner city to be taken as seriously as we do our football teams, our sports teams," added Hobbs. "I want them to be able to walk out of their homes and not be scared to go to church or to a concert or to school. I feel like those places are supposed to be either places of fun or safe havens. Those have become places that people have to look over their shoulder and worry, is there a gunman in here."
Mayor Turner said he wants a preliminary set of recommendations before school starts in August, along with more recommendations by the end of the year.
I took a moment to sign a banner for Santa Fe. The public is invited to write messages of support, comfort and strength for the Santa Fe shooting victims and their families. Details here https://t.co/wjmWMMfxTZ pic.twitter.com/K9LsxTY50V
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) May 31, 2018
Today we're convening the first meeting of the Commission Against Gun Violence https://t.co/9ujLkxXZ3B
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) May 31, 2018
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