Fourteen children and a teacher were killed today in a mass shooting in an elementary school in Texas. As of this writing no one is saying how old the children were. The suspected shooter, a teenager, is reported to be dead also. Other children have been hospitalized.
Early reports say the shooter used a handgun but may have had a rifle also.
Less than a year ago, Gov. Greg Abbott signed seven gun rights bills into law. One of them, HB 1927, allowed eligible Texans to carry a handgun without a license or without training. Another, SB 550, got rid of a requirement to keep firearms in a shoulder or belt holster.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed seven bills into law Thursday that will expand gun rights in the state. The signing took place less than a week after a mass shooting in Austin killed one person and injured 14 others.
“Texas will always be the leader in defending the Second Amendment, which is why we built a barrier around gun rights this session. These seven laws will protect the rights of law-abiding citizens and ensure that Texas remains a bastion of freedom,” Abbott said during Thursday’s signing ceremony at the Alamo in San Antonio. …
… “Those who believe and support Second Amendment rights, we support the right of every law-abiding American to have a weapon and defend themselves,” Abbott said.
Gun rights rally at the Alamo.
My initial reaction was "So what?".
Our country is averaging more than 1 mass shooting per day. Today makes the news only because of the quantity and ages of the dead. Nothing will be done to change the fact that we will see more and more mass shootings.
Prior to 2008, the Supreme Court had always ruled that the 2nd Amendment was intended to protect the right of states to have militias (National Guard). They had always ruled that states had the right to impose firearm restrictions. In 2008, the Supreme Court essentially removed "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State" from the 2nd Amendment Note: John Roberts became the Chief Justice in 2005.
Until a very large number of NRA bought (thru money or fear) republicans are booted from office (at all levels), nothing of substance will change at the federal level. At the state level, here in the Mississippi of the Midwest (aka Indiana) on July 1st everyone will be able to legally carry firearms without licensing or training requirements.
It is going to get even worse before (if ever) it gets better.
On a lighter note, how do you recognize the good guys with guns after a gunfight? The answer is look behind the cars or counters to see the 'good guys with guns' hiding the wet spots running down their legs.
Do stack the bodies at the altar of the Second Amendment for cremation. It's justified in the greater cause of gun worship.
Why is it that I'm not at all surprised?
Shocked? Yes.
Depressed? OMG, yes!
But surprised? Not one bit.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D – CT) gave a great short speech this afternoon in the Senate. He calls out the asshole RepubliKKKLANS in the Senate. Check it out.
When I first heard of today's horror, I wondered if it might make a difference that this happened in TexASS?
But then I reminded myself that TexASS leads the nation in importing and exporting assholes.
And it leads the nation in electing asshole RepubliKKKLAN politicians, so I doubt it. No difference.
Sometimes I wonder if Wayne LaPierre own a coffin-making company that specializes in manufacturing caskets for kids aged from 1 to late-teens.
So to sum up, imo, nothing will change.
Check that: These children, and the teacher, will be buried.
And that's all that'll change.
According to MSNBC, the murders of these innocent children occurred in a mostly Hispanic school, in a mostly Hispanic part of town.
So to most RepubliKKKLANS, these aren't White children. These are Brown children. In the bigoted White asshole's eyes, they don't count as much as if they were White.
So if we had any hope of changes, we can forget it.
There are days when I loathe this country. This is definitely one of those days.
"Only in America…"
Literally, "only in America…"
Race is more or less irrelevant to what happened in Uvalde.
Remember, the Sandy Hook kids were white, for the most part. I just knew then, that this would be the thing that would find some nugget of humanity in these otherwise soulless republicans. But the NRA's money meant more to them than the blood of even their own.
Which just goes to show, at the end of the day, its ultimately the money.
So, polls say reasonable gun control measures are the political will of the vast majority of Americans. What is the problem then? We have a representative government whose members want our votes and our contributions. Only if they know they will be electable and still displease us on this matter will they keep their jobs. We simply need to make this matter a single issue one. Ronald P. Regan has an organization in support of freedom from religion. A noble cause. We need an organization with the power of the NRA supporting freedom from guns. A noble and increasingly a more existential cause.
My congressional district hasn't represented my will since 1984, when Dick Armey won the seat.
When my daughter was attending HS in FL after the shooting at Stoneman-Douglas HS (26 dead), the principal at her school took the unprecedented step of hiring a pair of security guards who wear body armor and carry AR-15 rifles.
I had mixed feelings about turning the school into a militarized fortress. My apologies to the principal (Dr. Jones). The most recent mass school killing involves a shooter with an AR-15 and body armor who shot his way INTO the school past three regular cops.
Yes, we need to restrict assault weapons and hi-capacity mags. But that's not happening and this is a step that can be taken tomorrow in any school. IMO, protection should be mandated by the state and paid for by the state (Not out of the school budget).
My top priority isn't to make the NRA cry. I want the slaughter to stop and children have the highest priority in my book. This could pass in Congress and make schools a hard target.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/guns-in-schools.html
Since the Second Amendment has been functionally replaced by the Scalia Amendment, let's "repeal and replace" formally. Let's repeal the Second Amendment formally. Let's "return the issue to the individual states", exactly as anti-abortionists say they want to do with Roe.
A new amendment can allow states to regulate private firearms ownership and use. Wanna live in Texas and risk getting killed? Great! It's your life! Want to live in Massachusetts and know that you don't have to worry about whether that idiot over there is packing heat, welcome to the Bay State!
States' "rights", baby!
<i>Wanna live in Texas and risk getting killed? Great! It's your life! Want to live in Massachusetts and know that you don't have to worry about whether that idiot over there is packing heat, welcome to the Bay State! </i>
This means border controls between states but it might work.
I am watching a panel of white guys abbott ctuz police congragulate themselves over handling yesterdays mass murder.
Its more disgusting than the reality.
Law enforcement politicians dont give shit .pretend to care while handing pit more ar15s to every 18 yr old. Prohibot abortion and don't test rape kits either. They care so much about lofe.
I have a modest proposal, which I direct to the next mass shooter, on the off chance that it'll make its way to a blog that he reads. If you know any such blogs, then please forward this to there.
Dear Sir:
I get where you’re coming from. They don’t, but I do. Life sucks, doesn’t it? You’ve got no friends, and you get no respect. Girls won’t date you, the asshole boss pays an insultingly low slave-wage, so your revenge arsenal cost you all of your money. You’re trapped, you’re dying inside, you hate everything and everybody, especially yourself, so you want to go out with a bang. I get it.
I write to offer a suggestion. You see, all of your predecessors did their massacres all wrong, and we’ve grown bored with them. We’re jaded. Somebody shoots up a movie theater? Ho-hum. A school? Yawn. A church? Whatever! Then we do nothing, and a day later we forget all about it.
So what’s the point? Nobody’s impressed anymore!
The problem is the choice of target. Killing masses of unarmed civilians is for wusses. It’s unsporting; and what’s worse, it’s no fun. Sure, it’s practical to slaughter the defenseless, but what do you care about practicality? You’re mad as hell, and they’ll never take you alive! You want action, not survival; you want to prove something.
So leave the women and children alone. Target well-armed men!
Now, where can you find a big crowd of well-armed men? A crowd that you can walk right up to, while just as well-armed, and they’ll do nothing before you open fire? Not the police station, nor the Army barracks; those guys are paranoid about other guys carrying. Really the police and the armed forces are gun-control organizations. They’re all about control: of the guns, by the guns, and for the guns.
If you want a rabble of well-armed posers mentally unprepared for battle, then the best target for you, Sir, is the gun show.
Never mind the odds. If you kill two of them right away, then no matter what happens next, the score will be at least 2 to 1, so you win. And your spree might last longer than you’d expect. Plenty of your predecessors were never stopped by gun-carriers; sometimes because those carriers couldn’t make a safe shot, sometimes because they didn’t want to look like mass shooters themselves. Really it’s because they’re posers. They want to seem as dangerous as you really are.
If you don’t mind dying, then the gun show is a soft target. You’ll shoot down plenty of them before they shoot back, and then they might miss you and hit each other. You might even spark a random fire-fight! You wouldn’t survive it, but so what? Think of the headlines!
You won’t see them, of course, but we will, and finally we will be shocked. Shocked, I tell you! Finally a convincing rampage! Shooters shooting shooters: proof of the practical necessity of a well-regulated militia! Proof that even posers will believe!
We might even name the resulting law after you.
Think about it.
Sir.
Well, the Republicans are now the party of DEAD CHILDREN.