Reminders of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School — and the town's resolve in the face of tragedy — remain one year later, Axios' Megan Stringer writes from Uvalde.

Details: Crosses surround the bright blue fountain in a downtown square. Friends and family have left notes for their loved ones in English and Spanish, recalling yearbook signatures. Dried flowers cover the ground.

• There are unmistakable signs of childhood placed alongside the crosses: a large plush shark for Maite Rodriguez, bubble wands for Annabell Rodriguez, Sour Patch Kids and Airheads for Amerie Jo Garza.
• A giant stuffed lion for Uziyah Garcia has matted hair, like the other stuffed animals, presumably from their exposure to rain and sun.
• A Mothers' Day balloon swings in the breeze next to a cross for Eva Mireles, a teacher killed in the shooting.
• "Uvalde Strong" signs still sit in the windows of local businesses, where passersby can see the bold colors of murals reflected back at them.

There are other tributes to the 21 victims. Colorful murals are scattered throughout the South Texas town, one for each of the 21 people killed.

The big picture: Memorializing a traumatic event can help a community move forward, Abel Ortiz, a Uvalde-based artist and art professor at Southwest Texas Junior College who helped organize the mural project, tells Axios.

• But memorials also must strike a balance so as not to further harm those affected.
• Ortiz got consent and details from the victims' families for the murals.

In one mural, Amerie is surrounded by some of the things she loved — art, a Starbucks vanilla bean latte and Chik-fil-A eight-piece nuggets with fries.

What they're saying: "They're still kids at the end of the day," says Alina De Leon, who worked as an assistant artist on Amerie's mural.

• "They had a lot to look forward to. You want to keep that image of them — that they're still full of life."

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In the year since the shooting, the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature has largely ignored pleas for stricter gun laws from Uvalde victims' families who have been spurred into activism, Axios' Nicole Cobler writes.

The big picture: Over the summer and fall and during the legislative session, families drove 2 1/2 hours each way to the Capitol to press for gun restrictions.

• But the issue remained intensely partisan, with Republican leaders unwilling to restrict firearm access. Instead, they moved to beef up security measures in schools, arm teachers and provide more access to mental health care.

Background: In the 140-day legislative session, a bill to raise the minimum age to buy certain semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 — a priority for the Uvalde families — advanced in a dramatic vote when two Republicans joined Democrats in advancing the bill out of committee.

• The vote from the Republicans, who represent the Dallas and Houston suburbs, came after the shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas, that left eight people dead earlier this month.
• But Republicans blocked a debate on the bill in the full chamber.

Yes, but: Gun control activists say they saw some signs of cracks in the Legislature this session, which ends Monday.

• Texas Gun Sense executive director Nicole Golden called the committee's approval of the bill "a milestone achievement," and the first time in recent history that gun control legislation inched forward.

The other side: "We firmly believe that anyone who can exercise the fundamental right to vote or is considered old enough to die for their country should also enjoy all the protections our Constitution guarantees," the Texas Young Republican Federation said.

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Coming Thursday: The efforts Texas lawmakers have made to make schools safer.

State legislators around the country have passed more laws expanding gun access than they have measures on gun control in the year since the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting, according to an Axios analysis of data provided by the Giffords Center.

By the numbers: More than 1,700 gun-related bills have been introduced in state legislatures since the May 24, 2022, shooting, and 93 of them were signed into law, Russell and Axios' Erin Davis write.

• Of those, 56% expanded access to firearms or benefited the firearms industry by, for example, allowing manufacturing in the state or protecting them from liability lawsuits, an Axios review found.
• About 44% of the bills passed restricted access to firearms or supported victims/potential victims in gun-related cases.
• Last year, President Biden signed into law a bipartisan gun safety bill that includes enhanced background checks for those under 21, funding for mental health and school safety, incentives for states to implement "red flag" laws and limits on the "boyfriend loophole."

Zoom in: In 14 of the 17 states that only enacted bills loosening gun restrictions, Republicans control both chambers of the legislature and the governor's office.

• The other three states — Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina — have GOP-controlled legislatures but Democratic governors.

Zoom out: The Axios review found that some bills aimed at protecting gun access passed were so-called "financial privacy" bills.

• Those measures made it harder to track gun sales by barring merchants from using gun-specific codes in credit card billing.
• Other bills also made state government funds divest of any ESG funds.

What they're saying: "It's a mistake. It is costing lives. It really is that simple," Rudy Espinoza Murray of California Moms Demand Action, a gun safety advocacy group, tells Axios.

• "We're not trying to restrict access for responsible gun owners. What we are really trying to do is ensure that the guns don't end up in the wrong hands."
• Espinoza Murray said the toll on families of gun violence victims is hard when "common sense" gun proposals don't pass. "But we tell them we just have to keep going."

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More Uvalde families are in need of mental health support as the trauma of the shooting intensifies for some people one year later, Axios' Madalyn Mendoza writes.

What's happening: About 2,000 Uvalde residents have sought mental health support from the Ecumenical Center since the shooting, and the organization saw increase of about 20% in the number of people reaching out as the one-year mark approached, CEO Mary Beth Fisk tells Axios.

• Ecumenical Center and Family Service, two San Antonio-based nonprofits providing services, are trying to ensure on-demand help for residents tomorrow by pulling in additional counselors or having staff on standby.
• Alejandra Castro, rural services director for Family Service, tells Axios the provider's Uvalde office has also seen an uptick in visitors in recent weeks.
• In addition to experiencing anxiety and trauma, many community members are dealing with financial stress as parents have missed work to help their children through their concerns, Castro says.

The big picture: Jessica Gomez, executive director of the Momentous Institute and a licensed psychologist based in Dallas, says mental health providers everywhere are increasingly encountering people struggling with trauma and chronic stress from violence in their communities. How they're treated — which is a challenge in view of the shortage of mental health professionals — varies by person, Gomez adds.

• "Some people, it might be talk therapy, but for others it might be music therapy, art therapy, movement, and so we have to adapt to how the person processes trauma, because we know that trauma is trapped in the body, it needs to find a way out."
• Trauma from a mass shooting can be exacerbated around the date of the incident, she adds.
• "My deep worry right now — and what I'm hearing just from the school and the mental health programs that we do at Momentous Institute — is the chronic stress that people are experiencing. Just when we think we recover from one thing, there's another one."

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Uvalde survivors AJ Martínez, Gilbert Mata, Kendall Olivarez and Miah Cerrillo during a mid-April interview. Source: via Noticias Telemundo

Four children who survived the Uvalde shooting are getting ready for a Disneyland trip partly paid for via an online fundraiser, Marina writes.

Details: A GoFundMe was set up last month by parents of Kendall Olivarez, Miah Cerrillo, Gilbert Mata and AJ Martínez, all survivors of room 112, one of the two adjoining classrooms in which most of the victims were found. Their parents chartered a bus to drive from Texas to California.

• "We wanna stay in the future, not the past," AJ said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo about why he and the other children asked for the trip.
• Two of the four have not returned to in-person classes as they remain fearful. Bullet fragments are still embedded in the wounds AJ, Gilbert and Miah suffered.
• The families are planning the trip this weekend.

What they're saying: "They don't want to remember the bad times, they want to have something joyful," Miguel Ángel Cerrillo, Miah's dad, told Noticias Telemundo in April.

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