Uvalde school shooting: What we know one year later

After a teenage gunman entered Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School one year ago today, he fatally shot 19 children and two teachers and injured 17 people, perpetrating what became the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.

The city of about 25,000 residents west of San Antonio was simultaneously plunged into incalculable grief and the epicenter of America’s debate on semi-automatic rifles.

In the year since, investigations by state officials and journalists found lapses in public safety communication and leadership that contributed to significant delays in law enforcement action and medical care.

Families of the shooting victims repeatedly journeyed to both the Texas and U.S. Capitols to call for gun control measures to prevent more bloodshed. Within weeks of the shooting, federal lawmakers passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn helped negotiate passage of the legislation, which contained modest provisions but which was also the most significant federal gun measure passed in nearly three decades. But rather than pass gun measures of their own, state leaders have largely focused on improving school safety and access to mental health care.

Meanwhile, families of the Uvalde victims and some of the shooting’s survivors have spent the past year coping with grief and trauma.