AUSTIN, Texas — It has been almost two years since Carla Byrne lost her younger brother, 40-year-old Joe Griffith.

"His favorite things were cheesy dad jokes, actually. He was good at impersonations. He was a godly man," Byrne told Spectrum News 1.

But even after all this time it still feels surreal, she says.

“It just still feels like somebody is going to pinch us and say it was just a bad dream. But, I think what's really critical for people to know is that we're so arrogant as a people that we think this is not going to happen to me," Byrne said.

Griffith was one of seven victims in a 2019 mass shooting in Odessa. The shooter bought his gun from a private seller who did not run a background check. The gunman tried to buy a firearm in 2014, but was unable to after a nationwide criminal background check flagged him due to his mental status.

Byrne and her sister Marcy Askins were at the Texas Capitol Thursday to testify in support of House Bill 118, which would require such checks for nearly every gun sale, including private and commercial. The House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety held a hearing on HB 118 on Thursday.

“My brother was a good guy with a gun, but he did not know that he was sitting in the middle of a war zone on a Saturday afternoon with his children in the backseat on their way to take family pics. You know, he didn't need, he didn't know that he needed to have his gun up and at the ready," Byrne said. “The only way to ensure that good guys with guns are actually good guys, is to put them through background checks.”

Texas lawmakers are considering are slew of gun-related bills this legislative session, as mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado have made headlines.

According to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, 93% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans said they favored subjecting buyers to background checks at private gun sales. Another poll from Quinnipiac University in 2019 found that 87% of national gun owners support requiring background checks for all gun owners.

But Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety Rep. James White, R-Woodville, has some issues with the proposed legislation.

"What if you're in a situation that we had several weeks ago, when the power is out, and you can't purchase a weapon, even in a private transfer, because you can't get to a Federal Firearms License dealer?” White told Spectrum News 1. “That bill would say in situations where the communication systems are down, there's no way to communicate through these computers, you cannot lawfully gain access to gain possession of a firearm. I think that's dangerous.”

This comes as the state’s Republican leaders push to protect Second Amendment rights. Gov. Greg Abbott was quick to slam President Joe Biden’s executive actions on Thursday aimed at tackling gun violence. Biden’s orders include a crackdown on “ghost guns,” which are self-assembled firearms without serial numbers, as well as regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces. In response, Abbott once again urged lawmakers to make Texas a “Second Amendment sanctuary” state.

Following the 2019 mass shootings in Midland-Odessa and El Paso, Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick expressed some willingness to discuss some gun control proposals, but it seems this year they reversed course. Patrick also has several legislative priorities on guns, but neither have specifically signaled support for a bill on the “constitutional carry” of guns.

The House committee recently passed that proposed legislation in House Bill 1911. White, who authored the bill, said it would allow Texans to carry firearms without a permit, as long as they are not prohibited by law for possessing a firearm.

“Both constitutions expressly, literally, all of that right, uphold the right of Texans, law-abiding Texans to be able to lawfully possess, and I believe carry your weapon," White said.

For Griffith’s sisters, HB 118 is not about infringing on anyone's rights.

“We're not asking for anyone to take away anyone's guns. We are gun owners and Second Amendment proponents. We want ineligible buyers like the monster that murdered our brother to have to be subjected to a background check, and that would have prevented this death," Askins said.

As filed, HB 118 does have exceptions for gun sales between law enforcement officers and family members. The bill was left pending in committee Thursday night.