It’s a small town police force but I would be surprised if they didn’t have the same weapons the killer had.
No, that is not fortunate. We don’t need guns. Australia and other countries are proof of that. I’m really sick of gun nuts. I really am.
This is true. Not just the poor, but minorities too. Corporate greed is more important and greedy corporations would love to enslave all of us and gladly see us all die too.
Yes, it was a factor. It’s as obvious as the nose on one’s face.
Texans are racist too, but the majority in that school were of Latino descent.
And there’s the difference- both were white. In this case, it was pure racism the did not act. It’s very obvious.
Yes, lousy, apathetic racist cops.
Yeah. Think about it. I’m sure they do have those weapons. It’s a small town in Texas near the border. This is the typical place that gun rights people have said they SHOULD have weapons to protect themselves. And they changed that laws so they could have them. How did that work out? The way they said it would? Where a good guy with a gun would show up and save the day? Or, the way I said it would, where some kid had easy access to a killing machine and did something stupid?
Someone heard him shoot his grandmother, saw him drive his truck into a ditch, literally got shot at, what else needs to happen for anyone to know the guy is on a rampage? Where are the vigilantes with their police scanners? And oneguy is right, it wouldn’t make a difference if it was people, as we saw in Florida, another well armed state that is afraid of brown people.
I don’t have much to add, I’ve been watching this build up, fearing the outcomes and none of this is much of a surprise. {Trumping, I told you so you stupid f… so’n sos, is pointless, even if it’s how I feel.} Still sometimes I read stuff others write that’s worth sharing with folks still capable of pondering this problem and possible solutions.
Here’s another column by Paul Waldman that nails it.
Opinion Our gun laws were built on fantasy and terror
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/27/gun-laws-built-on-fantasy-and-terror/
Those who designed and built America’s horrifying status quo on guns are now begging us to talk about anything else.
We must not “politicize” the latest mass shooting, they say, by exploring what made it possible and what policies we might change to make such massacres less likely in the future.
But to imagine something different, we have to understand the ideology that created our current legal regime.
It was constructed on a foundation of fantasy and terror, one that elevates imaginary threats and decrees that our response to those threats can only be confronted by each of us alone, never through the institutions we create or the government that represents us.
No, only the isolated, heavily armed, perpetually terrified individual can hope to keep his family safe — so don’t even think about changing the laws, unless it’s to put more guns in more people’s hands. …
That’s basically it. However, you can’t talk to someone like that, and tell them they are living in a fantasy. You would get the same result as you would if you talked to the mass shooters themselves, and told them that killing children won’t solve their problem. It’s the Liberal fantasy that you can calmly explain a rational choice to an irrational person. It’s the basic human tendency to go from thinking the person just needs to facts, to thinking they are stupid so they need education, to thinking they are evil and should be quarantined.
Not sure if opinion pieces are behind the firewall. This one is by a person who lives there. I could cut and paste some. Basically, yes, Uvalde is heavily armed, but the school was in the Hispanic part of town. Sadly, the guns were purchased in the white part.
Yeah I read that one also, my wife and I subscribe to the Washington Post so those I can access.
It definitely painted a clear picture of the scene.
The city has about 15,000 residents; more than 80 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Most of Uvalde’s political leadership and the heads of the largest employers are White. At the center of town on the courthouse grounds, you’ll find a monument to Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president — installed when the Ku Klux Klan dominated Uvalde politics. (Some of us tried to get the monument removed after the murder of George Floyd, but that’s a story for another day.)
When I heard reports about the shooter, a young Latino, I winced at the reflexive disclaimer that he wasn’t an “illegal immigrant.” It wasn’t surprising to learn that he was bullied for a speech impediment, may have come from a broken family struggling with drug use and had experienced problems in school. Drug use plagues the city, and the courts struggle under the weight of young people’s encounters with the legal system. About 1 in 3 Uvalde children live in poverty. …
… I wasn’t surprised to see the Republican panel of politicians at a news conference the day after the shooting, almost all White and in top positions of power in the community and the state, taking the lead. In Uvalde, the custodians of order — the chief of police, the sheriff, the head of the school district police — are Hispanic, but here they were largely silent. Unsurprisingly, they now bear the primary blame for the disastrous response at the school. …
I think we need them if we can’t rely on police.
Like I said, the police did not do their jobs. And if the townspeople had the ability to stop the shooter and didn’t then they will have to live with that – but I doubt that was the case since it happened in the middle of the day and the redneck vigilantes you’re imagining were probably at work.
The redneck vigilantes do not exist in my imagination. They dont exist at all. Where are the good guys with guns? At work? If the police are supposed to stop these shootings, why aren’t they?
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Oh please! There were 19 of them against one gunman and they were walking around like old time B&W cops and robber movies for a damn key, only this wasn’t funny. They could have busted the door down if they wanted to do so. They could have done a lot of things since they outnumbered the gunman. Not only that, they admitted they made mistakes and didn’t do their jobs. So no they did NOT do their jobs and they admitted it.
Obviously extra training is needed for small police forces with rampage killings skyrocketing that they did hesitate shows the lack of training .
So anyone who owns an AR what kind of animals do you hunt with it? I have shot prairie chickens geese deer moose wide hogs and even got a bear with a bow but I don’t see anywhere where I would of needed an AR to hunt.
I did my hunting in the 70s and 80s I sold all my guns in the 90s and have no interest anymore in hunting or guns.
That won’t solve the issue. We must create gun regulations and laws.
No civilian needs an AR anything for any reason.
You grew up.
I thought (some claim) that an AR is the only way to fend off hordes of feral pigs.
The other thing I think about is all those people in the magical land of prison with deep regret of their status and if they had no gun at the time of the incident they wouldn’t be sitting in prison - it happens all the time in the moment of anger but unfortunately you have to wake up to the consequences and many I guarantee wish they had not had a gum. Many more will go to prison and it will be the only time they fired a gun at a person not evil people. Emotion run away and with a gun around it can end tragically and has for many in the grave and sitting with a life term in that magical land .
Take the 3 amigos in Florida who chased down the black kid and killed him they thought they were right bet there is massive regret there they will never get out and have to live the horrors of prison for the rest of their lives it must be the most horrible feeling in the world.
Where? Are you really falling for that ridiculous statement. Hordes of feral pigs???
You’ve got to be kidding!!
I just wanted to see if it sounded as ridiculous coming from me as it does from a Senator.
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