Protesters gather at Texas State Capitol to call for tighter gun regulations

Anti-gun protesters gathered outside the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Monday after a gunman killed eight people, including children, at an outlet mall over the weekend.

Those who attended the protest waved placards with slogans such as “Texas Mass shooting did that.” Others bore the faces of victims of past mass shootings, including the 19 children and two teachers who died in the Uvalde mass shooting nearly a year ago.

Dozens of protesters gathered in the lobby of the Texas Capitol and sung “raising the age,” referring to a bill before the Texas House that would raise the age requirement to purchase semi-automatic rifles in the Lone Star state.

In a surprise move on Monday, the bill passed a Texas House committee hours before a major legislative deadline.

In a surprise move Monday, a bill that would increase the age requirement of a person wanting to buy a semi-automatic rifle passed a Texas House committee hours before a major legislative deadline.

The bill will face an uphill battle in the legislature to become state law, but the vote marked a milestone for the bill generated and advocated by relatives of the victims of the Uvalde shooting.

The House committee voted 8-5 to send the bill to the floor, with two Republican state representatives voting in favor of progress along with their Democratic colleagues on the House Community Safety Select Committee.

Monday is the last day of this session that House bills can be voted out of committee in the lower chamber of the legislature.

The legal deadline comes just two days after a gunman in Allen — a suburb of about 100,000 outside Dallas — killed eight shoppers at an outlet mall with an AR-15-style rifle, the same type used by the gunman in Uvalde.

Because the shooter in Allen — now identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia — was outside the age range to which the new law might apply, it’s unlikely it would have deterred him from purchasing such a gun. The proposed law would raise the age to buy a semi-automatic weapon from 18 to 21.

Garcia is said to have been a guard who was expelled from the military in 2008 for mental health concerns.

As a neo-Nazi, he lived in a Budget Inn in Texas, killed eight people and injured five others outside the H&M store at Allen Premium Outlets in Texas on Saturday afternoon.

A police officer who was on the scene and responded to another call shot and killed Garcia when he heard the shots.

While his motive remains unconfirmed, law enforcement sources say the now-deleted social media pages show he shared sympathies with neo-Nazis.

Some demonstrators held placards depicting the victims of the Uvalde firing at them

Protesters, several of whom were relatives of Uvalde victims, gathered in the lobby of the Texas State Capitol on Monday to call for gun law reform

The shooter, Mauricio Garcia, was dressed in SWAT gear with a semi-automatic weapon at his side. He is seen dead outside another Allen store ten yards from the H&M store

Glass is shattered across the sidewalk in front of one of the fashion stores in Allen where the mass shooting took place just after 3pm on Saturday, May 6

Police and FBI searched the house on Saturday night

Allen Police officers man the mobile command post the day after the gunman shot several people

The U.S. military has not provided further information regarding his reported discharge. Neighbors say they believe Garcia worked as a security guard, but it’s unclear if he had a job at the mall or elsewhere.

According to the washington mail, a patch the gunman wore on his chest alluded to his extremist ideologies. The patch said “RWDS,” which is an acronym for “Right Wing Death Squads.”

The FBI and police raided Garcia’s Dallas home just an hour after the massacre and asked a translator to speak to his family.

Neighbors say they often saw Garcia wearing a guard-type uniform, but that he was “very quiet” and exhibited “very unusual behavior.”

His gray Dodge Charger, seen at the scene, was often parked outside the residence.

Dashcam video showed Garcia, dressed in full tactical gear, getting out of a car and firing at people on the sidewalk. More than three dozen shots were heard as the vehicle recording the video drove away.

Following the mass shooting — America’s 199th of the year — Texas Governor Greg Abbott doubled down on his and his party’s stance on gun regulation.

A bouquet of flowers is left in front of the entrance to the Allen Premium Outlet Mall in memory of those killed in the mass shooting that occurred the day before in Allen, Texas

Abbott told Fox News on Sunday, “We have to acknowledge the reality that we’ve seen in the United States over the past two years, and that is an increasing number of shootings in both red and blue states.”

“We have seen an increase in shootings in states with easy gun laws, as well as in states with very strict gun laws. I think the state with the highest number of casualties this year is California, where they have very strict gun laws,” he said.

The governor has said the age restriction bill passed by the committee today would be unconstitutional if passed by the legislature.