Dear Lord, I’ve covered too many of these. Watching, listening, researching, then writing from the heart until I have a pit in my stomach, and an empty feeling inside. And all of you have read about, and watched, and listened until you’re sick. But here we are again.
I wrote yesterday that there was something different about this shooting. It was different simply because the GOP seemed to be back on its heels, unable to respond to this tragedy when they were called out about their lame bullshit. And it is. But there’s something else that’s different about this situation, and it has nothing to do with the GOP, but it may well spell trouble for the Texas GOP in November.
There is something very wrong in Texas with this massacre. 12 days ago, the city of Buffalo called a retired Buffalo PD officer a hero for engaging the Tops supermarket shooter when he walked in, in his role as a security guard. He lost his life. The first 2 Buffalo cops on the scene charged in and engaged the shooter, wounding the shooter while one cop was wounded, only to bring him down later.
In the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, in the Colorado theater mass shooting, in the Santa Barbara office complex shooting, at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, everywhere the cops garnered praise for storming the building and at least attempting to stop the slaughter. Even at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Baltimore newspaper shooting, rapid PD response saved lives.
But not here. Not in Uldave. This tragedy is a massive police cluster fuck, and every time the authorities open their mouths, they only make it worse. First, according to authorities, there was a school police resource officer at the school who engaged the shooter with gunfire before the shooter entered the school. Then it was that the resource officer engaged the suspect without gunfire before the shooter entered the building. Now today we’re told that the resource officer was in a car somewhere from 1 to 2 blocks from the school when the shooter entered the school. Which the fuck is it? They don’t seem to know.
And now it’s worse. There is video of anguished parents standing at the perimeter of the school, confronting officers and demanding that they get their asses into the school and save their children. One parent could clearly be heard shouting, These are little kids man! They don’t know how to defend themselves against a shooter! Get in there! Another video showed a panic stricken father try to break the police line to rush the school, only to be handcuffed and led away to safety.
The Texas Department of Public Safety’s own timeline is a dogs breakfast of bullshit. The report came in at 11:28 AM that a truck with a shooter had crashed next to the school The shooter fired at possible witnesses in front of a funeral home across the street, climbed the fence of the school, and entered the school at 11:40. The Udalve police department is 1.2 miles from the school. Observing speed laws, it takes 5 minutes. Balls-to-the-wall it takes less than 2 minutes. The first unit arrived in 14 minutes.
And when the cops got there, it all fell apart. They set up a freaking perimeter! Every other police response has been to rush in and engage the shooter, seconds literally count. Cops started pulling kids out of classroom windows, charged to the door of the barricaded classroom, and shouted at the killer to talk to them. It took an hour for a special SWAT team to get there, break in, and kill the shooter. And you know how they broke in? They got the fucking master key to the door from the principal! Something the 1st cop in the door could have done.
Do seconds count? You bet your ass they do. When the CBP SWAT team broke in and killed the shooter, there was a 10 year old girl laying on the floor, shot, trying to play dead under the body of another child. She was transported to the hospital and died. And her parents, and every other parent of a dead baby will spend the rest of their lives asking themselves one simple question, Was my baby alive? Would she still be alive if they had moved in instead of screaming and yelling at the shooter?
And this could turn into an albatross around the GOP’s neck in November for one reason. Thank God for Beto O’Rourke! I wrote about how he crashed Greg Abbott’s moonshine-and-smoke-up-your-ass presser, and put the blame squarely where it belonged. He pointed his finger at the stage and yelled out This was totally predictable, and it’s on you! And Abbott was too flummoxed to even respond.
This is a debacle for the Texas GOP. Abbott is appointing a team to look into the shooting, but since they’re all faithful flunkies, there will be no GOP blame there. But I don’t think that this lame bullshit will work this time. The last time I saw an anti police response from the public to a shooting like this was Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school shooting, when the school resource officer hid behind a wall and waited for help to arrive.
This isn’t going away anytime soon. Abbott has scheduled another press conference for tomorrow, and if the previous pressers are anything to go by, Abbott would be better served by hiding his head under his blankets. Grieving families and relatives and friends are pissed, and Beto is going to keep that spotlight turned on the entire Texas GOP until November if he can. Don’t touch that dial.
I posted this before, a day or so ago.
The leading cause of DEATH of children in the USA today is gunshot. The leading cause of death of children in Ukraine and in Yemen, countries where wars are being fought, is not gunshot, let alone in ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
And this from the risibly self-named ‘pro-life’ side, so that their morbidly insecure men can show off their ‘manhood’.
Every time someone says more guns would have helped, remind them that gunned police did nothing to save those children.
Every mass murder has one common thread…assault rifles, in particular the AR15. It’s time to ban them and any weapon that can use a large capacity magazine. Enough bullshit. Texas politicians babbled incoherently to blame this on videos, the internet, etc., all the same thing every other countries kids have. They neglected to mention the AR15. No surprise, no excuse. All owned and operated by the NRA. I have heard all the excuses- “Then only criminals will have guns”- criminals don’t shoot up schools. “Wouldn’t you rather have a good guy with a gun…” How many times has that happened? Show me. “Guns don’t kill people” – What the fuck else do they do? Ever seen an AR15 darn socks or milk a cow? AR15’s are designed to kill a lot of people quickly. Unless you plan on killing a lot of people, you don’t need one. “We have to do something about mental health…” – Any attempt at gun control requiring any mental health exam results in a filibuster in the Senate, and people claiming that mental health has nothing to do with the 2nd amendment. “The 2nd amendment yada yada…” It was penned when flintlocks were the only guns. It was penned to help defend the states from foreign powers. There was no army, navy, air force (no airplanes!) etc. Now we have defenses at our borders. This amendment needs to be revisited to clarify it’s true meaning. America has proven that the public cannot be trusted with certain weapons. President Clinton but a Federal ban in place. President Bush let it expire. Yes you can still shoot people with other guns. But not nearly as many or as quickly or as easily. And yes sometimes the imagined rights of others get stepped on to protect the populace as a whole. It’s called the greater good. I’m so sorry if someone does not get to play Rambo anymore. Peoples’ lives are at stake. Someone please grow a set and ban them now.
We have a,well bordered militia. It is called the National.Guard.
As for hunting–! Do what is done in Japan: Keep hunting rifles in an armory, storage if which is paid for by the owner. When you present a hunting license, you can check them out. To getvthatblicense, you must pass a,training class’s and not a,4hour one either; at least a,week. You.just also pass,a practical.test and show proficient nxt with rgexweapon. Can’t hit the broadside of a barn? No.license. You return the gun after you hunt.
Before you can buy a gun, you should have a psych eval.beginning with the,MMPI. Plus basic gun safety classes and a proficiency test. Concealed carry should only be allowed for people with actual.need:managers x who make night deposuts,,pharmacists who are vulnerable to drug robbery,,etc. Open carry is out up unless you are in law enforcement hand security guards need to be retired cops x with training,,not random guy with no experience.
There’s no doubt in my mind. Abbott has a Beto problem. And he will be like a fighter that smells blood. Abbott showed a weak spot and unless I’m crazy, which the jury is still out on that. But I think Beto is going after Abbott. It’s like when the fighter throws a punch, and the other guy winches from it. Keep at it Beto.