SAN ANTONIO — There's debate over what’s driving a rise in gun violence in San Antonio.
We asked police and a gun expert about whether the new constitutional carry law is a factor.
Even for police, its hard to tell.
Following a double homicide on Monday morning—Nicholas Soliz, public information officer with the San Antonio Police Department acknowledged a recent uptick in gun violence.
“Whether the laws are affecting it or not, it’s never good,” Soliz said.
Constitutional carry became law less than a year ago in September, it allows anyone who can legally own a gun to carry firearms without a license or training.
In San Antonio—we’ve had more homicides at this point compared to last year.
“To say, this one thing caused all that, I think it’s not a wise thing to say or think about because human behavior is very complex,” Louis Wichers, vice chair on the board of Texas Gun Sense said.
Wichers says the group advocates for evidence-based policies to reduce gun injuries and deaths
They were against constitutional carry.
“What this did was allow people without background checks, without training being allowed to carry firearms,” Wichers said.
But the bill had strong support from lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott.
Kens 5 asked SAPD and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office for its statistics on gun violence from January 2021 to April 2022 to compare gun violence 8 months before and after the bill took effect.
Wichers thinks it’ll take longer than that learn what impact it has.
“I think it’s going to be, you know, before we can come up with any good research on this, 5 to 10 years, because you have to have good research,” Wichers explained.
Wichers, a former police officer and teacher, says one thing has changed due to constitutional carry
“I have no longer any assurance that anyone I meet who’s carrying a gun has any training,” Wichers said.