AUSTIN -- The first meeting of legislative panels created to address recent mass shootings in Texas convened Tuesday to hear what steps the state's top law enforcement agency was taking to prevent similar attacks.

The House Committee on Mass Violence Prevention and Community Safety -- made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats -- was created by House Speaker Dennis Bonnen after mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa last month that resulted in the deaths of 29 people. It has been tasked with recommending laws to prevent mass shootings.

Here are five takeaways from the first meeting.

DPS is getting more proactive

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told lawmakers his agency was taking a more hands-on approach to identify online behavior that gave authorities reasonable suspicion that a person may commit a crime. He pointed to the El Paso shooter's affinity for websites like 8chan, an anonymous online message board frequented by extremists because of its ethos of unrestricted free speech. The shooter posted a manifesto to the site shortly before he shot 22 people at a Walmart.

McCraw said his agency is also monitoring other subgroups it has identified as potentially dangerous, such as Neo-Nazis and "incels," a group of self-styled "involuntary celibates" who have created large networks online.

Social media part of the solution, not the problem

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, asked how law enforcement agencies went from identifying a potential threat online to determining the threat was actionable.

He said a law enforcement officer told him that when his agency obtained a court order from a judge asking a social media company to turn over information on a suspect, the companies either did not turn over the evidence or were slow to do so.

McCraw said that some companies are less timely than others but that they have become more willing to help law enforcement in the aftermath of the shootings in El Paso and Odessa. But he agreed that DPS still did not have a foolproof plan for receiving information in a timely manner. Capriglione said he would look for ways to help with that.

Cracking down on people who falsify information to buy guns

Part of the panel's task is to find ways to close holes in current laws to prevent guns from falling into the hands of felons or other people banned from owning them.

Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, said people who lie on federal documents required for a gun transaction commit a federal felony but are rarely ever prosecuted. He cited a report by the United States Government Accountability Office that found that in 2017, federal background checks resulted in 112,000 denied transactions because of falsified information on gun transaction records. But only 12 of these cases had been prosecuted by U.S. Attorneys by June 2018.

Geren said if federal authorities weren't going to crack down on those crimes, local district attorneys could get involved.

McCraw said he would ask federal authorities if they could provide that information to the state.

Making in-state arrest warrants part of state background checks

Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, questioned why in-state arrest warrants weren't included as factors that prohibited a person from buying a gun under state law.

In his home district, if someone with an arrest warrant in neighboring New Mexico crosses into El Paso and tries to buy a gun, that person would be flagged by a state background check because they crossed state boundaries. But if a person made a much longer trip from El Paso to another part of Texas and had an in-state warrant, that warrant would not come up in a state background check.

"That is a hole in the law," Moody said after the meeting. "You can have an active [in-state] felony warrant for name-the-crime and it's not gonna pop up because we don't have a trip wire on that piece of the law."

Requiring the reporting of stolen guns?

Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, asked McCraw what data his agency kept on crimes committed with guns that were part of "straw purchases" — when guns are purchased by one person who can legally buy a gun for another who can't.

Skylor Hearn, a deputy director with DPS, told Blanco that information on straw purchases rarely surfaces during an investigation and that the agency doesn't have a plan for identifying them.

Then, Moody interjected asking whether DPS kept data on crimes committed with guns and whether those guns were lawfully owned.

"Only if it is reported," Hearn said.

"Do we require people to report if firearms are stolen?" Moody prodded further.

"No," Hearn said.

"Would that information be useful?" Moody asked.

"Yes," Hearn responded.