{"id":23971,"date":"2026-05-02T03:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/under-fire-camp-mystic-pulls-back-on-summer-plans\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T03:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:59:09","slug":"under-fire-camp-mystic-pulls-back-on-summer-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/under-fire-camp-mystic-pulls-back-on-summer-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Fire, Camp Mystic Pulls Back On Summer Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative\" data-narration-container=\"true\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">Less than a year after a devastating flood in Texas killed 25 young campers and two counselors, <\/span>Camp Mystic has abandoned plans to reopen this summer after backlash and ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The camp had initially aimed for a May 30 reopening, but faced intense scrutiny from Texas lawmakers, law enforcement, and victims\u2019 families. A recent state health agency review also found the camp failed to meet key safety and emergency requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/30\/us\/camp-mystic-texas-floods-closure.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> released Thursday, Camp Mystic said it would not reopen and is \u201cwithdrawing its application for a summer 2026 camp license.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July\u2019s tragedy,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>The camp said it did not want to \u201cremove any doubt\u201d that it had heard concerns from grieving families, state lawmakers, and the public, though it noted that <span style=\"font-weight:400\">\u201cover 800 girls want to return\u201d this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The announcement follows contentious hearings this week at the Texas State Capitol, where the Eastland family, which owns and operates Camp Mystic, faced hours of questioning from lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf y\u2019all are left as an operator in any form or fashion, what deterrent does that send to another operator that I can have kids die on my watch and still be an operator?\u201d State Senator Charles Perry said.<\/p>\n<p>State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst also questioned whether the camp was prepared to resume operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you really think you\u2019re ready to take on 500 children plus?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>The Eastlands defended their response to the disaster.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis flood, we did not see coming,\u201d said Edward Eastland, the camp\u2019s director. \u201cOur concept of high ground has now changed forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Edward Eastland\u2019s father, Dick Eastland, a former director of the camp, was among those who died in the flood.<\/p>\n<p>Mary Liz Eastland, who also helps run the camp, said the family is willing to step back if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re willing to take a step back, if camp can go on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight:400\">The camp is also facing multiple lawsuits from victims\u2019 families.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/under-fire-camp-mystic-pulls-back-on-summer-plans\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Less than a year after a devastating flood in Texas killed 25 young campers and two counselors, Camp Mystic has abandoned plans to reopen this summer after backlash and ongoing investigations. The camp had initially aimed for a May 30 reopening, but faced intense scrutiny from Texas lawmakers, law enforcement, and victims\u2019 families. A recent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-current-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}