Her sister died in the Uvalde shooting. One year later, she's still fighting for change.
SAN ANTONIO — Velma Lisa Duran starts every school day with a hug from each of her 22 second grade students.
“My little kids,” she says, laughing. “With big personalities.”
The 51-year-old knew when she became a teacher more than 26 years ago that her priorities would be making learning fun and ensuring her students feel loved and cared for. But over the past year, she’s been holding her students a little tighter, she told the Austin American-Statesman, part of the Paste BN Network.
Teaching was a passion she shared with her younger sister Irma Garcia, one of two teachers and 19 fourth graders killed in their classrooms at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. Irma’s husband of nearly 25 years, Joe, died days later of a heart attack. Duran says he died of a broken heart, unable to bear his wife's death.
Wednesday marks one year since the heartbreaking massacre — the deadliest school shooting in Texas history — which left a lasting impact on the small town and devastated the families of the 21 victims, who are still grieving and fighting for accountability and gun reform.
For the past year, instead of being able to focus on meeting academic goals and helping her students grow, laugh and learn, Duran has spent every day battling nearly crippling anxiety. When she walks into her classroom, she sees the same environment in which her sister was murdered as she tried to save her students. She wonders, if a shooter came to her school, how she would do the same.
“It's a struggle … and it is scary,” Duran said, holding back tears. “It’s always, ‘Where's the exit? Where can I hide?’ I'm looking at kids in front of me, ‘Who am I grabbing? How am I going to grab them?’ It's just a constant battle, being able to make it to the end of the day.”
The horror Garcia experienced in her last moments at Robb Elementary, and the paralyzing fear that a similar school shooting could happen again, have driven Duran to advocate for major gun safety policy changes in Texas. She’s among a group of parents, siblings and other relatives of several Uvalde victims who have become activists for increased gun control regulations, making multiple trips to Washington and Austin to hold marches and rallies, and demand that lawmakers pass stricter gun laws.
Their political activism inspired progress at the federal level last year, when Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first federal, bipartisan gun control measure in nearly 30 years. But the legislation does not come close to the changes Uvalde families want to see — including a federal ban on assault weapons, red flag laws and requiring background checks on all gun purchases.
In the months after the shooting, the families threw their weight behind former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who pledged to implement gun safety policies as he challenged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the state's top office in 2022. But when O’Rourke lost by 11 percentage points, with Uvalde County voters overwhelmingly supporting Abbott, the families turned their focus to the Legislature.
Beginning at the start of the legislative session in January, Duran and other victims' relatives have taken turns making the nearly three-hour drive from Uvalde to the Capitol, with many of them coming nearly every week, to meet with lawmakers and push them to advance gun control legislation.
In the Republican-controlled Legislature, though, where lawmakers have loosened gun restrictions in recent sessions, the measures faced a firewall of opposition from conservative lawmakers, and most of the proposals didn't even begin to advance through the legislative process.
The families’ relentless, dedicated activism, however, had a demonstrated affect with one gun control proposal — House Bill 2744, authored by Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde — which would have raised the minimum age to purchase certain military-style, semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. After months of pressure from Uvalde families, the bill began to make significant, and at times shocking, advances in the House in the final weeks of the legislative session, before Republicans quietly slowed its progress and killed it by ensuring it missed a key legislative deadline.
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Now, with only a few days left in the session, the families are facing the likelihood that the state will not pass any significant gun reform policies — a heartbreaking reality for Duran, but one that will continue to fuel her advocacy for change.
“I will (fight) until I take my last breath,” Duran said emotionally. “People from Sandy Hook, people from Parkland, people from Santa Fe, they’ve been doing this (gun reform activism) for over a decade. This is going to be our first year and I can't stomach the feeling that nothing's going to happen … but I’ll always be doing this in honor of my sister.”
'I need you to make it harder for people to shoot holes this size in Texans'
It was 12:20 a.m. April 19 when Duran was finally called up to testify in favor of HB 2744 before the Texas House Select Committee on Community Safety.
She got up from her seat and slowly walked to the front of the windowless room in the underground extension of the Capitol. Her 19-year-old son Estevan followed behind, holding a large poster board that read "Eternal Love" over a photo of Irma and Joe Garcia.
As they reached the front of the room, Estevan gently pulled out a chair for his mother, before taking a seat beside her. They had arrived at the Capitol more than 16 hours earlier, on what would’ve been her late brother-in-law Joe’s 51st birthday, anticipating this moment.
After months of advocacy and pressure from Uvalde families, the Community Safety Committee, which has been tasked this session with considering bills related to gun reform, scheduled HB 2744 for public testimony. This was the first, and only, significant gun control bill to get a hearing — an essential step for bills to advance through the Legislature.
HB 2744 would prohibit anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing a “semiautomatic rifle that is capable of accepting a detachable magazine and that has a caliber greater than .22,” with exceptions for peace officers, military members and anyone who has been honorably discharged. King, the bill's author, also added an exception for temporary loans of such weapons at sports shooting ranges, for legal hunting or sporting purposes, or in the presence of the person temporarily loaning the firearm or on that person’s property.
The Uvalde gunman purchased his AR-15-style, semi-automatic rifle legally just days after his 18th birthday, having unsuccessfully tried to acquire one before he was legally old enough to do so.
“The truth is, had House Bill 2744 been the law in the state of Texas one year ago, 21 constituents of mine, plus (Irma Garcia’s) husband probably — two heroic teachers and 19 innocent children — would still be alive today,” King told the committee during the bill's hearing in April.
Due to delays on the House floor on April 18, the victims' relatives were forced to wait more than 13 hours for the committee to reconvene and bring up HB 2744, before they were able to give their emotional testimony in support of the bill, pleading with lawmakers to support the legislation.
Several shared devastating details of the impact the shooter’s weapon and ammunition had on their loved ones' bodies.
Garcia, Duran's sister, was shot 11 times as she tried to shield her students — first in the chest, with another shot through the back of the head, leaving catastrophic damage to her face.
“Her body was riddled with bullets, and her beautiful face was unrecognizable. I need you to make it harder for people to shoot holes this size in Texans,” Duran said to the committee, crying.
She placed a softball-sized sticker on her jaw and said, "This size, right here. Obliterated her face. She was unrecognizable."
Through her tears, she shared the horror she, her sister Marissa, and Garcia’s husband, Joe, felt when the funeral director told them that Garcia would not be able to have an open casket at her funeral because of the damage to her body.
“A compassionate reconstruction surgeon heard about our story and our pain of not being able to say our final goodbyes, and offered his services to give us a couple of precious moments to say a final goodbye to our dear sister,” Duran said as she cried. “I can vividly see a person in that coffin. But it wasn't Irma. We couldn't touch her due to the delicate prosthetics used to reconstruct her face. It was the most heart-wrenching situation that no one should have to go through.”
The pain was too much for Joe, who died two days after his wife — leaving their four children and other relatives to bury the couple together. Duran says she considers them both to be victims of the Robb Elementary mass shooting.
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“The constant lies, lack of justice and the pain waiting for commonsense gun reform in Texas, in the United States of America, is stunning,” Duran said. “So, as we wait for House bills to be passed, we are forced to coexist in this dark and traumatic state with lawmakers who profit from the blood of innocent schoolchildren and teachers. I don't want to take your precious guns. I want commonsense gun laws passed to protect all citizens.”
After the April 18 hearing, the Uvalde families continued their pressure campaign to push Community Safety Committee Chair Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, to bring HB 2744 for a vote to advance the bill. Guillen had previously indicated he would not comply with the families’ demands, but in a shocking and hastily called meeting in May, the committee voted 8-5 to move the bill forward with two Republicans breaking ranks to join Democratic members in support of the bill, just hours before a key legislative deadline.
As the vote was announced in a Capitol hearing room, the parents of several of Uvalde victims, as well as many gun control advocates, burst into sobs and cheers.
Their joy, though, was short lived. Just one day later, the bill stalled in the Calendars Committee, which is responsible for placing bills on the House agenda for votes by the full chamber, after the Republican committee chair decided against advancing the bill before the next legislative deadline.
House Calendars Committee Chair Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who also sat on the Community Safety Committee and was part of a three-person special committee tasked with investigating the Robb Elementary shooting, declined an interview request from the American-Statesman. House Speaker Dade Phelan also declined a request for comment.
With HB 2744 effectively stopped, and unsuccessful efforts by Democrats to add the policy as an amendment to other bills, the chances of it becoming law before the last day of the session Monday are slim to none.
In the final days of the legislative session, King said in an interview with the Statesman that the Uvalde families are the reason the legislation got as far as it did.
“They played a tremendous role in it,” King said. “We knew it was an uphill battle, everybody knew that, but I'm very, very pleased that we were able to get it out of the committee. I think that's historic.”
King says he and the families were realistic about the likelihood the bill would die in the Calendars Committee, but they're optimistic about the policy's future after the progress it made this session.
“They were hoping that they might get it out of Calendars, but they knew all along that that was going to be the real challenge," King said. “We have spoken, and they're just grateful that we tried, and I think it's the beginning of a larger effort. I really do.”
'We have to do something'
While HB 2744 saw some movement in the House, across the Rotunda in the Senate, similar legislation was dead on arrival, though not for a lack of effort.
The Uvalde families arguably have no stronger advocate at the Capitol than Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, whose district includes Uvalde.
Gutierrez, who signed a nondisclosure agreement to view all the security and body camera footage from the day of the shooting, dedicated his work this legislative session to advancing gun reform and seeking justice for the victims' families. He filed more than 20 bills and resolutions that sought to improve mass shooting response training for law enforcement, increase school security, pursue accountability for the flawed law enforcement response to the shooting, and tighten firearm safety and regulation policies.
Law enforcement officers, including Uvalde school police and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, waited more than an hour to confront and kill the gunman, even as several children in Robb Elementary classrooms called 911 to beg for help.
Gutierrez's bills that addressed gun control included establishing extreme risk protective orders — also known as red flag laws — creating a bulk ammunition database; increasing safe storage and ammunition purchasing requirements; mandating firearm liability insurance; and closing gun show loopholes as well as raising the minimum age to purchase certain military-style, semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. But in the ultra-conservative Texas Senate, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, none of his bills got so much as a hearing.
Patrick did not return a Stateman request for comment or an interview, but he has previously expressed deep opposition to any policies that tighten gun restrictions.
When it became clear to Gutierrez that his bills were not going to move in the Senate, Gutierrez’s strategy shifted to trying to resurrect his proposals by offering them as amendments to other legislation. All his attempts have been shot down by his Republican colleagues and earned him some unusually public rebukes from Patrick on the Senate floor. Gutierrez acknowledges that it’s taken a toll on his relationship with the lieutenant governor.
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“I don’t think it’s great obviously. Dan and I never really had a tremendously close relationship,” Gutierrez said in a recent interview with the Statesman. “I'm not going to miss my Christmas card from him. Nor is he mine. … I started off nice, (but it) didn't get me anywhere. So I got more aggressive as time went by, and I'm going to stay aggressive in this space, because ultimately I'm appealing to their voters, and their voters need to say enough is enough because this is coming to a neighborhood near you.
“This is insanity. We're losing kids every day and they just don't care. They just don't care.”
While lawmakers this session have taken steps to increase funding for school security measures and mental health resources, Gutierrez says it isn’t enough.
“At the end of the day, we're not attacking the common denominator, which is guns in the hands of anybody and everybody without regulation at all. And that to me is tremendously problematic that we're not doing that,” he said. “It's the same thing we've seen session after session. The chaos that's going on in Texas is due to the Republicans’ loose position on guns and loose gun laws. More guns do not equal less crime; more guns equal more crime. You don't need to be a scientist to figure that one out.”
The Legislature this session has approved a couple of modest gun restrictions, including Senate Bill 728, which would require the reporting of any involuntary mental health hospitalizations of kids aged 16 and older to the criminal background check system for gun purchases, and HB 2454, which would criminalize knowingly providing a firearm to someone who is not legally allowed to own one, also known as “straw purchases.”
SB 728 has been forwarded to the governor’s desk to be signed into law, and HB 2454 will join it if the House approves minor changes the Senate made. Both bills would bring the state in line with existing federal law, which Gutierrez says should not be considered progress.
“You don't get to pat yourself on the back for mirroring federal legislation,” he said.
Given the lack of movement on his bills in the Senate, Gutierrez said he hitched his hope on HB 2744 in the House.
“It was a little cruel in the end, to just let it die the way it did. I mean, let the Calendars Committee vote, move it on to the floor,” said Gutierrez, who believes Republicans killed the bill because they didn’t want a record vote documenting their position on the bill, which has the potential to be politically damaging.
“It's just part and parcel of what this place is about,” Gutierrez said. “Republicans aren’t going to put themselves in jeopardy and cut themselves up over a bill that they don't think is going to pass. I really think it had a chance to pass. I think you're going to have every Democrat, obviously, and I think that you could have 10 or 12 Republicans that would have put themselves on the line — the Republicans that were retiring and wanted to do the right thing or Republicans that just knew that this was the right thing to do. Clearly, it's right.”
Gutierrez says he will spend the rest of his career fighting for justice, accountability and gun reform for the Uvalde families.
“I’ll fight for them forever and a day,” said Gutierrez. “I will tell you that everything that happened after (May 24, 2022,) has changed my life, has changed my family's life, has changed the way I view life in total. I'm still very much affected by everything that I've seen in those videos when I signed a nondisclosure agreement. I get affected every morning when I see my friends’ Facebook posts — my Uvalde friends, those moms and dads, and I see their children in videos, alive. Whatever I do, it isn’t for ambition. If I were to do something it’s because this thing has moved me in a different way. We have to do something.”
'It’s either going to be their guns or our lives'
When Duran sat down on the couch in her San Antonio home on a recent Saturday afternoon, her two sons, 19-year-old Estevan and 22-year-old Eufemio, were quick to join her. The young men keep close to their mother, often laying their hands on hers, to comfort her as she cries and recalls memories of her younger sister.
The oldest of four kids, Duran was only two years older than Garcia, and the two grew up incredibly close.
“Anywhere I was, Irma was there. Wherever Irma was, I was there. We were just two peas in a pod,” said Duran, tears running down her face.
She describes Garcia as a “natural beauty,” who was hilarious, loving, a giver and protector, an incredible cook, and a music lover who could always make Velma laugh with her dance moves. Garcia and her husband, Joe, who were high school sweethearts, were the party people of the family, and always brought everyone together. Before she died, Garcia and Duran were planning a graduation party for Estevan, and brainstorming plans for Garcia’s daughter’s quinceanera.
“I thought I had a lifetime of memories (to look forward to) with her,” Duran said, sobbing.
In the year since her sister’s murder, Duran has been struggling with migraines, intense anxiety and depression. Now, whenever her sons go to big events like concerts, she makes sure to take photos of them, in case she needs to identify them by their clothing if they're victims of a mass shooting. Her sons do their best to ease her fears and emotionally support her. But in addition to finding comfort in her family and faith, channeling her grief into activism has given her a sense of purpose.
Though she eventually wants to see a federal ban on assault weapons, she considered HB 2744 to be a great first step, and did everything she could to push lawmakers to advance the bill. Duran says she blames Republican leadership for not supporting the bill and ensuring it made it across the finish line.
“It's either going to be their guns or our lives, and so they're going to have that on their conscience,” Duran said. “They have blood on their hands, (because) they can stop this.”
But despite the disappointing end to HB 2744 this session, Duran says she is not going to stop fighting for progress on gun reform, in honor of her sister and brother-in-law.
“It's my love for them. I can't give up on them. And I know their children are too (heartbroken) right now to do anything, and so I have to do it for them too. I have to do it for their parents because they were amazing parents,” Duran said.
It’s a battle her sons, who always made sure one of them accompanied her each time she traveled to the Capitol, plan to continue with her.
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“She has given us so much to a point to where I feel it's now our chance as her children to give back to her,” Eufemio said. “She can't fight this battle alone … (so) we need to stand tall and close with her to make sure her voice is heard.”
“My mom's the strongest person I've ever met. I hate hearing my mom cry at night, I hate that she's depressed, and it hurts really badly. All she wants is accountability,” Estevan said, as he began to cry when he told her he wrote an essay about her and her activism for one of his college courses. “She’s my hero … the least I can do is support her.”