At least 19 children and 2 teachers were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. The victims were in a single 4th grade classroom. The teenaged perpetrator wore body armor but was shot dead by police. The shooter was legally able to buy his assault-style rifle this month, the day after his 18th birthday.
In other Texas news, the National Rifle Association will hold its annual meeting in Houston on Friday. Scheduled speakers include Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R), South Dakota Governor Kristi L. Noem (R), Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R, TX-2), and former president Donald J. Trump. At this time, no grieving parents from Uvalde are on the agenda.
More:
“21 killed at Uvalde elementary in Texas’ deadliest school shooting ever,” Sneha Dey, Texas Tribune
“Firearms are now the leading cause of death for U.S. children,” Peter Weber, The Week
“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion
According to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “there will certainly be a time for that policy discussion to take place, but that’s not the place that we’re in at this moment.”
So we can’t talk about sensible gun control measures after a senseless mass killing. It’s like that guy who won’t fix the hole in his roof when it’s raining because he doesn’t want to get wet, and when the sun shines he says he doesn’t need to fix it.
More:
“Now is exactly the right time to talk about gun politics,” Mark Kelly, Washington Post
“Chuck Todd: ‘Why is now not the time’ to talk about gun violence?” Josh Delk, The Hill
“Mass shootings are an American problem. There’s an American solution.” Chris Murphy, Washington Post
“If Newtown Wasn’t Enough, Why Would Las Vegas Be Enough?” Charles P. Pierce, Esquire
“Why ‘thoughts and prayers’ is starting to sound so profane,” Kirsten Powers, Washington Post
“We don’t need your prayers in Sin City. We need gun control,” C. Moon Reed, Los Angeles Times
“Washington’s Ritualized Response to Mass Shootings,” Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker
The military firearms known to the Founding Fathers were single-shot, muzzle-loading muskets that could fire slow-moving lead balls 2 or 3 times a minute, at best, with accuracy up to about 60 yards. Even if the framers had conferred military gun ownership as an individual right, they could never have envisioned weapons that hold 30-round magazines and fire 45 aimed rounds a minute at 3,500 feet per second with 600 yard accuracy, like the rifles favored by America’s mass murders.
Four former Blackwater Worldwide “security contractors” were finally convicted for killing 14 innocent civilians and wounding 17 more in 2007 when they indiscriminately opened fire at a busy intersection at Baghdad’s Nisour Square. One of the victims was nine years old. Only one of the private army “contractors,” sniper Nicholas A. Slatten, was convicted of murder; the other three — Dustin L. Heard, Evan S. Liberty and Paul A. Slough — were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and the use of machine guns in a violent crime. The sentences for the machine gun convictions may actually be longer than those for taking innocent human lives.
“And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.
Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”
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