AUSTIN, Texas — Lawmakers heard more public testimony Monday morning as they attempt to find a solution to gun violence in Texas.

The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee discussed "red flag laws" in the wake of the Santa Fe shooting.

State lawmakers started working on the idea after Gov. Greg Abbott suggested it in his safety plan last month. The laws would allow law enforcement, family members or school employees to file a petition to restrict a person's access to guns if they believe the person is dangerous.

Mercedez Stone is the sister of Christopher Stone, 17, who was killed in the Santa Fe High School shooting. She traveled with her cousin early Monday morning to speak for the first time to lawmakers in honor of her brother.

"Us being here and us trying to talk to them was all about, we do care and we want change and we are doing this for Chris," said Stone.

Authorities say the Santa Fe shooting suspect used his father’s guns in the massacre, but the family will likely not be held accountable because he was 17, too old to be covered by Texas’ child access prevention law.

MORE | Texas GOP opposes 'red flag' gun laws

Now, Texas lawmakers are looking at changing the limit to 18. Former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wrote the Texas concealed carry law when he was a state senator in the 1990s.

He said the fix does not lie with telling parents how to lock up their weapons.

"A PSA, Trigger-lock giveaways are another way of reminding parents, if you got a gun it needs to be inaccessible to a child and you as a parent can make that decision on how you make it inaccessible," said Patterson.

But Patterson said he could get behind a ‘red flag law’ as a means of reducing school shootings.

"As long as you have due process, protect the second, fourth, fifth and fourteenth amendment. That's what we should look at," he said.​

A red flag law allows a judge to take a person’s guns if someone can demonstrate they pose a threat to other’s safety. Greg Hansch with the Austin chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said he supports it if there are certain protections in place for the mentally ill.

"It's really important that this process exits in the civil court system not in the criminal court system because people with mental illness are far too often criminalized for their diagnosis," said Hansch.

Other red states like Indiana have already rolled out "red flag laws."