Gun safety roundtable: Rep. Escobar discusses Safer Communities Act with El Paso community members

EL PASO, Texas - Congresswoman Veronica Escobar was in El Paso Thursday to discuss the Safer Communities act with whom she called "key stakeholders around gun violence." This included the activist community, local law enforcement, and the medical community.

The new bipartisan act addresses gun laws and school safety, but also focuses on mental health resources, especially pertaining to children. $140 million is being allotted to pediatric primary care and mental health crisis training for pediatric providers.

Escobar spoke with ABC-7 before the roundtable event, stating that she was skeptical of all of the funds being channeled to their intended causes, noting that Texas legislators have previously appropriated health funds to more "political" causes.

"It really is on Texans to hold their leaders accountable," Escobar said. "[People need to] make sure that funding intended for mental health actually gets to mental health."

Escobar also added that while the funding for mental health resources is great, she believes that not enough action was taken on the actual guns themselves in this bill.

Referring to high-capacity magazines and assault style rifles, she "doesn't believe that we need weapons of that nature on our streets of America."

ABC-7 also spoke with Dr. Manuel Valenzuela, a local pediatrician, about the new funding for pediatric mental health, and he believes that while the funding will be "a pretty good help to the community," he thinks raising the buying age of guns to 24 will be the most effective measure, as the human brain is still developing at the current buying ages of 18 and 21.

President Biden singed the Safer Communities act into law on June 25th after being passed through congress.