The state approved new laws in 2019 to arm more teachers, lock down schools and train for threats. The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, located in a predominantly Latino community between San Antonio and the southern border, had a robust security protocol that counted social media threat-monitoring software and a small campus police force among its defenses by the time of Tuesday’s nightmare.

Yet a school safety researcher and an advocate for superintendents said calls to flood schools with added security distract from the problem of preventing easy access to firearms wielded to kill children. And as Democrats rage in Washington, in Texas and across the country about a lack of federal action to enhance background checks with legislation already approved by one chamber of Congress, Abbott made clear restricting access to firearms is a non-starter in his state…

Uvalde’s school district also supplemented its small police force with a range of security measures, according to school district documents.

The district said it had assigned a group of support counselors and threat assessment teams to each campus and that it used software known as Social Sentinel that monitored “all social media with a connection to Uvalde” to identify any possible threats. Robb Elementary was also one of a group of campuses that used perimeter fencing designed to limit access to the building, according to the school district.