AUSTIN, Texas — Frederick Frazier says his wife and two children were shopping at Allen Premium Outlets on Saturday, May 6, about an hour before eight people were murdered there.
The Republican state representative from McKinney said it’s now clear to him that it’s time to start talking about tightening gun laws in Texas.
“What are we doing about it?” he said. “That’s the big question I ask myself every single day. And I’ve got to figure this out, because I have a feeling that a lot of folks just say, this is just part of life.”
“It shouldn’t be,” he said.
Frazier’s state house district borders Allen.
He told WFAA he is “absolutely” willing to consider changes, particularly to laws surrounding AR-15 style weapons.
“Are we making it too easy for them to get these weapons? Why is that particular weapon the weapon of choice every time?” he asked.
“And that’s something we have to take a hard look at, and that hard look needs to come from the 2A grass roots. It has to come from the NRA. That sit down has to happen," he said.
Frazier defended his two Republican house colleagues, state Rep. Justin Holland of Rockwall and state Rep. Sam Harless of Spring, who voted yes on Monday to advance out of a select committee a bill raising the age to purchase certain semi-automatic weapons like AR-15s.
The committee vote on House Bill 2744 was unexpected and was considered a victory for families who lost children in Uvalde.
Many have been to the Texas Capitol week after week lobbying for it.
But, the bill’s future remains uncertain as the powerful calendars committee has yet to consider whether to advance it to the floor, and the deadline to do it is looming.
Holland and Harless were attacked on social media for their support of the bill, Frazier said.
“They’re doing it from their heart. They’re not doing it because they hate guns. We’re gun wearers,” Frazier said. “Why would we want to take guns away from citizens to protect themselves? We want citizens to be armed. We want citizens to protect themselves, but we also don’t want maniacs with pure evil in their hearts to go out there and kill our families and everyone else’s family.”
Roxanne Frietze lives in Frazier’s district.
She’s the mother of two daughters, ages 10 and 12.
All three of them sat in a hallway Tuesday writing letters to members of the committee where HB 2744 now rests.
“It’s getting too close and I have two girls that I want to see grow up,” Frietze said. “So, we have to let our presence be known.”
She was shocked to hear of Frazier’s softening stance on gun laws.
“Wow,” she said. “That gives me hope.”
“I did not vote for him, but if he can do something as little as this, I can stand behind him.”
Frazier said he’s “begging” his colleagues to have the hard conversations needed for any movement on gun legislation to happen before the end of the session, which is less than three weeks away.
“I’m very hopeful we can come back and show these families and show our constituents we’re really working hard. My phone has been blowing up with constituents asking, what are we doing? And these are folks that voted for me,” he said.
“I’m a Republican through and true, but this needs to be where we come together and figure out how to fix this.”