In Uvalde, some who own guns favor a higher legal age to buy them, and other measures; so does the local weekly

Front page of today's twice-weekly Uvalde Leader-News

"An anguished soul-searching over Texas’ gun culture and permissive gun laws is unfolding across the latest community to be shattered by a shooter’s rampage," Jack Healy and Nicole Kitroeff of The New York Times write from Uvalde, Texas.

"Uvalde, a largely Mexican American city of 15,200 near the U.S. southern border, is a far different place from Parkland, Fla., or Newtown, Conn., which became centers of grass-roots gun control activism in the aftermath of the school shootings there," the Times notes. "Gun ownership is threaded into life here in a county that has elected conservative Democrats and twice supported former President Donald J. Trump. Several relatives of victims count themselves among Texas’ more than one million gun owners. Some grew up hunting and shooting. Others say they own multiple guns for protection."

Healy and Kitroeff cite examples to illustrate the divided opinion in families and residents' own minds: "The grandfather of one boy killed on Tuesday said he always keeps a gun under the seat of his truck to protect his family; the boy’s grandmother now wants to limit gun access," and rancher Trey LaBorde, "who believes 'all these teachers should be armed' but he also wants more limits on gun access," including an assault-weapons ban. He told the Times, “I don’t think they should be sold. . . . Nobody hunts with those types of rifles. . . . I don’t think that anybody should be able to buy a gun unless they’re 25.”

And this, from the father of a victim: "Javier Cazares, whose daughter Jacklyn was killed inside Robb Elementary, carries a gun and fully supports the Second Amendment, having learned how to fire semiautomatic rifles at 18 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. But he said the killing of Jacklyn and so many of her fourth-grade friends should force politicians into tightening gun measures." He told the Times, “There should be a lot stricter laws. To buy a weapon at 18 — it’s kind of ridiculous.”

An editorial in Sunday's Uvalde Leader-News makes the same point: "Why does an 18-year-old get to buy a semi-automatic rifle with high-capacity magazines when the legal age for acquiring a handgun is 21?" The editorial also criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for saying gun violence in states with "real gun control" showed that it is not the answer: "If our governor and members of the U.S. Congress are waiting to hit upon a 'real solution,' school children will continue to die. There is no 'real solution,' no magic wand . . . There are, however, incremental solutions that when bound together form a more meaningful plan." Those include "universal background checks and /or waiting periods" for gun purchases, "hardening schools, identifying and treating mental health issues."

"Arming teachers, a popular solution in some circles, is as fatuous as it is dangerous," the editorial continues. It concludes, "Guns alone do not kill, but the culture the industry fosters in selling rapid-fire weapons with high-capacity magazines is designed to attract people who may feel threatened by an imagined enemy. These are not hunting or sporting arms, which are used respectfully by many of us in southwest Texas. These are killing machines, and the enemy too often has become our children. Our hearts bleed for the slain students and their families. We will remain Uvalde strong, for as long as it takes to ensure that Americans get to hug their kids at the end of each school day."

Back page of the front section and front page of the second section, with editorial and letters