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(Dawn Holmes)
The pandemic inspired Austin-area resident Dawn Holmes to get a license to carry a concealed weapon.
When single mom Denise Thurston prepared to drive with her young son from her Austin-area home through Houston in June, just as anti-brutality protests were boiling over, she was glad she had just bought a handgun.
Thurston, 45, worried that something like a highway shutdown would leave them vulnerable to protests, or counter protests, or non-protest opportunists who saw a woman and child stuck in an immobile car as easy targets.
"I'm not a big person," Thurston said. "I need some power behind me somehow, and that was my way of doing it."
A chaotic year
Thurston bought her 9mm Glock pistol and became licensed to carry after the March lockdowns began. Previously a firearms novice, Thurston also now owns an AR-style shotgun she purchased this summer for home protection.
She is among hundreds of thousands of Texans whose pandemic-era gun purchases broke state and national records.
Those at ground zero for this phenomenon—trainers, retailers and students—say a wave of fear ushered in by societal destabilization in March, social unrest in May and police walkouts in June have driven the purchases both by newbies and by more experienced owners.
"It shows how people are not trusting their government, they're not trusting what's going on or the information they're receiving, and so they want to take their personal protection into their own hands," said Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin.
As a result, Texas gun owners have filled up classes, emptied ammo shelves, and swamped gun stores and manufacturers.
"It did heighten my concerns, and it definitely prompted me to get more aggressive with getting comfortable with my gun and to start carrying, absolutely," said Austin-area resident Dawn Holmes, who got her license to carry last week.
Soaring numbers
In Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted 121,926 background checks for handguns in June, more than three times the number the same month last year.
The number was even higher in March, right after the pandemic lockdowns began, and the FBI warned that some state shutdowns threatened to reduce the staff available for background checks on new sales and that the surge would create a backlog that could further delay new gun sales from being approved. Checks for Texans seeking to purchase handguns soared from 60,512 in February to 147,714 in March.
That number alone was more than double the checks that took place in December—the highest number of last year—and more than triple the monthly average for 2019.
Nationally, the FBI said they had done some 3.9 million background checks in June, the highest monthly total on record.
'They're afraid'
"It's based on a variety of reasons, but they're afraid," said instructor Tina Maldonado, who works with the local shooting league A Girl And A Gun, and who has more than doubled the amount of time she spends on the range with students since the lockdowns began. "Most of them are families, or parents whose spouses travel a lot, and they just decided they need to protect themselves."
Cargill said he has seen lines out the door and double the number of students since March 13, what he calls "D-Day," the weekend the first wave of new purchases hit.
Cargill predicts another increase around the election. Supporters of President Donald Trump are worried about their gun rights if Democrat Joe Biden wins, he said, and African Americans he's spoken to are worried about the empowerment of white supremacy and the growth of racism if Trump gets re-elected.
"I ask people questions, when they come in the store, to see where their heads are at," Cargill said. "Everyone should just take a deep breath and settle down a little bit. We need to be a lot nicer to each other. Worry about controlling yourself instead of controlling someone else."
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(Project Connect)
Project Connect is starting to take shape, Capitol Metro announced, and officially beginning with the scoping phase that includes an environmental report set to go on from now to 2022.
<p>Although that may seem like a long process, the Project Connect, a complete overhaul of the city's public transit system, is starting a timeline of 13 years before it is complete. Capitol Metro representatives met Monday to discuss the future of the orange line, that is expected to be complete in nine year. </p><p><span></span>The orange line will connect North and South Austin, starting at Tech Ridge, with 22 stops along the way until it hits Slaughter Lane. There will be service every 10-15 minutes, according to officials.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-height="898" data-rm-shortcode-id="ad2c8ff862a0d910ecdb8acfb6335ab7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTUzMzkxOC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjQ2Nzg0NX0.Ygxo0qUUQRlIyqDnbW3I65mT2xphZHjDDEgdaNxj-98/img.png?width=980" data-width="1600" id="6d394" type="lazy-image"/>
</p><p>The orange line is expected to be complete in nine years.<br/></p><p>Before the project moves any further, an environmental impact statement must be developed. The EIS is part of the National Environmental Policy Act and is a crucial step to beginning new developments because it scopes the surrounding area and helps engineer better ways for the project to fit into the community.</p><p>As part of the scoping period, AECOM's Orange Line project manager Jerry Smiley said they will be asking for public feedback regularly for the next several years. </p><p>Since construction of the new lines will begin at different times, some lines may be done before then, like the red line, which starts construction of two new stops and a second track this year.</p>
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(Emma Freer)
Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who represents District 2 in Southeast Austin, and Travis County Judge Andy Brown tour the Austin Region Infusion Center earlier this month.
The COVID-19 therapeutic infusion center in South Austin is expanding.
The pop-up center opened outside of the Montopolis CommUnity Care location on Jan. 6 with nine infusion chairs and monoclonal antibody treatments donated by area hospitals. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that the center will now offer 33 infusion chairs, thanks to additional support provided by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
<p>"These treatments are essential in our fight to keep hospitalizations down and save lives," Abbott said in a statement. </p><p>The <a href="https://austonia.com/austin-covid-antibodies" target="_blank">intravenous treatments</a> are administered to high-risk COVID-19 patients in the early stage of the disease in an effort to help neutralize the virus and prevent hospitalization. Patients must be referred by area physicians or contacted by Austin Public Health and CommUnity Care after receiving a positive test result at one of their sites. </p><p>Austin's three hospital systems—Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White Health and St. David's HealthCare—are referring eligible patients to the infusion center, according to a joint statement issued on Monday. </p><p>Since opening, the center has treated 279 patients, most of whom are 65 years of age or older, at a rate of around 26 per day. Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said Friday that the goal is to increase the daily capacity to as many as 75 patients.</p><p>The Montopolis center is administering the monoclonal antibody treatment Regeneron, one of two such medications that have received emergency use authorizations from the FDA. The other—from the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly—is also administered via IV. The entire treatment process takes about two-and-a-half hours, with an hour-long infusion plus time to check-in and monitoring afterward.</p><p>With wider treatment, the Austin area may start to see a meaningful reduction in the number of patients hospitalized with COVID. "You have to treat about 10 people to prevent one hospitalization," said Dr. Jack Bissett, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with Ascension Seton.</p><p>Although the moving average number of daily COVID hospital admissions in the Austin metro has fallen over the last two weeks, it remains squarely in the Stage 5 risk category—the highest according to Austin Public Health's risk-based guidelines. There are currently 26 low- and moderate-acuity COVID patients being treated at the alternate care site downtown, which is intended to relieve pressure on hospital ICUs.</p><p>Preliminary study data reveals that monoclonal antibody treatments are most effective in the few days after COVID symptoms present themselves, so experts recommend that patients seek out testing and medical care early, which could lead to referral. </p><p>"If you belong to a high-risk category, don't waste time," said Dr. Mezgebe Berhe, an infectious disease specialist and the principal investigator for a Regeneron trial conducted by Baylor Scott & White Research Institute.<br/></p>
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