10 dead in U.S. school shooting
Gov. Greg Abbott also revealed that the suspect, 17-year-old student Dimitrios Pagourtzis, obtained the guns he used from the cache his father kept at the family home.
Pagourtzis, who fired a shotgun and a revolver at his fellow students, was also armed with explosives.
According to information obtained from Pagourtzis' phone and personal computer, his intention was to commit suicide after the massacre.
Santa Fe is a city of some 12,000 people located 55 km (34 mi) southeast of Houston.
"We have two goals going forward. The immediate goal is ... to ensure that this crime is going to be prosecuted appropriately while also working in tandem to ensure that we provide the families and victims ... with the support, resources and counselling they need," Abbott said.
"Second," he added, "we need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families. It's time that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again."
The governor said that beginning next week he would assemble "all stakeholders" to work on "swift solutions to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again," including parents, students, educators, concerned citizens and "those that hold their second amendment right."
The shooting began shortly before 8 am at Santa Fe High School in Galveston County, Ed Gonzalez, the sheriff of neighboring Harris County, told reporters earlier Friday.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, commented on the shooting on Twitter.
"School shooting in Texas. Early reports not looking good. God bless all!" he wrote.
Gun violence is a major political issue in the US.
Trump said in a speech at the National Rifle Association's annual leadership meeting in Dallas, Texas, earlier this month that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects citizens' right to bear arms, would never be "under siege" while he is president.
Speaking about a February mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people, Trump said the solution was to allow "highly trained teachers to carry concealed weapons" in the classroom.
The president also said then that making schools gun-free zones was an invitation to mentally disturbed people to "come in and take us."