Fort Worth Mayor Virtue Signals for Gun Control

Mayor Parker said "we" must be better after psycho kills a bunch of kids.

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker penned a platitude-laced op-ed to her blog this week where she mused on vague gun control propositions and tried to cast deflections in all directions regarding Fort Worth’s violent crime surge, including blaming you. She titled the piece “We must be better” as if you played a role in the recent mass murders.

I don’t think she wrote it. Not that it matters.

Mayor Mattie Parker

This week, as my husband and I attended our fifth-grade son’s graduation ceremony, I could not stop thinking about the families in Uvalde who are planning funerals for the precious lives murdered in their classroom. Just like all of you, this is all I have thought about since Tuesday. As a mama, my heart can’t fathom what this must feel like for the parents and loved ones of these babies and heroic teachers in Uvalde.

What I know is this, what we have tried to do so far across the country to prevent mass shootings and gun violence is not working. No matter what state you live in, from New York to Texas, our policies are not enough to stop the most deranged and mentally ill among us.

Yes, we have a mental health crisis that was only exacerbated by the pandemic. Yes, gun violence is tearing this country apart and no city, small town, or region is immune. The City of Fort Worth has seen 40 homicides so far this year alone, following 2021 where there were 118 homicide victims, a 27-year record high in Fort Worth. And across the United States, guns are now the leading cause of death among children.

So I ask, what do we, especially those of us in positions of leadership, do to protect our children? We must be better.

There is so much I cannot control, but I can and will use my voice as your Mayor to focus on solutions, starting here in Fort Worth, and then beyond, as the policy debates continue in Austin and Washington, D.C.

Immediately, our City Council is working with first responders to perform a full evaluation of our current resources being devoted to support the safety of all schools within Fort Worth. Beyond our School Resource Unit Officers (SROs) already on site at area middle and high schools, we need to identify any gaps that must be addressed. The cost and number of trained officers to provide this security will be incredibly high, and we need to know the dollar amount and number of officers needed. But we will need to think outside the box and consider engaging trained community members, such as retired police officers and veterans.

If we put a uniformed officer in every school tasked with sitting around waiting for a mass shooting, it will very quickly turn into this.

We also must fund and expand on what we already know is working. In 2017, FWPD created the Mental Health Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), a unit with specialized training designed to respond and assist individuals in mental health crisis. Since January 2022, in just 5 months, the CIT has answered 4,380 calls, completed 248 emergency mental detentions, stopped 348 suicide attempts, seized 29 firearms, and conducted 2,243 mental health follow-ups with My Health My Resources (MHMR). This model is effective and I am determined to bolster this and other innovative solutions for Fort Worth.

In addition to looking at what we can accomplish locally, we know these conversations must take place at the state and national level. There will be countless legislative proposals in Austin, and there is a renewed bipartisan negotiation happening in the U.S. Senate as I write this. For almost 20 years I have seen the public policy process at work at all levels of government, and I know this will not be a one and done solution; there should be debates, compromises, and numerous policy proposals. But we must get serious, we must be bold, and we must do the hard work of governing and leading. This moment is far past due, and we should have no tolerance for inconsistent or nonsensical policy. With a focus on solutions, not politics, I will advocate for what changes are most needed in Washington and Austin.

She gives a hat tip to “compromises” but then calls for total intolerance of her political opponents, which in this instance would be gun rights groups, considering she is arguing for more gun laws.

Does she really want the government (who loves us) to create more paperwork about our guns? Why?

Let’s not overcomplicate things. Ask the simple questions, like this: In Texas, you must be 21 years old to buy alcohol or tobacco and also to purchase a handgun. Yet, an 18-year-old can purchase an assault rifle. Does this make sense? Absolutely not.

Pretty remarkable to be talking about clawing back basic rights on Memorial Day weekend for the predominate age group recognized for Memorial Day, 18-20 year olds.

18 year olds purchasing rifles has never been an issue in Fort Worth, but handgun crime is exploding.

I guess, don’t focus on that part.

What we do as policy makers is only part of the solution, and there are a myriad of ways we are and can be supporting holistically healthy families, leading to safer communities. Regardless of what policy changes are enacted, we must acknowledge that the home life of our kids and families also matters.

This is what a serious politician would start talking about:

• How open borders is destroying community cohesiveness due to the amount of people showing up

• Pornography and declining marriage rates

• Massive divorce rates

• Single parent homes

• Prescription anti-depression drug epidemic

A bold politician would point out this latest shooter kid came from a broken home, and would urge parents with troubled marriages to work out their problems for their children’s sake.

Instead we get a general statement that “it not just guns” but also “make guns like beer.’

These are the questions I promise to continuing asking as I advocate in Austin and Washington, in close consultation with our Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes.

As your Mayor, I am determined to make Fort Worth safer. As a Texan, I am committed to fighting for courageous and commonsense policies. And as a mother, I will not rest until we have made our world better for the next generation.

Mattie Parker ran as a Republican to get elected. Immediately after being elected she claimed she couldn’t actually run as a Republican and win, presumably because her actual views consist of typical liberal talking points that would not stand up to scrutiny.

Most of the letter alluded to some kind of gun control. The only specific thing Parker sort of implied was raising the age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21. Presumably, under the Parker Plan, assault trucks would still be legal for 16 year olds to obtain.

While nothing substantive was said in this letter, you can definitely read between the lines and see what this gal is all about.

Whatever the Current Thing is, Mattie Parker will have the correct views about the Current Thing.

Frankly, I think I can work with her.

I am well-known as a great compromiser.