I’ll admit it I’m callous. If the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistake over and over again expecting a different result then Texas takes the cake for the country. The after tragedy gaslighting of weak minds by Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbot and Texas law enforcement after will serve to insure it happens again and again. After all folks Abbot gets 24/7 protection, likely from seasoned professionals while kids are expected to make due with Barney Fife.
Where Were the Police? ~ Graeme Wood
Luckily the good folks at Vice were able to fill us in a bit later as they were likely in a planning session for their next social media PR video:
Uvalde SWAT Team Bragged About Training at Schools on Facebook ~ Matthew Gault
The sad truth is an army of Barney Fifes, for all their bravado on Facebook and your local media, will never be the solution to the problems involved with weapons of war being made available for mass consumption.
There is a silver lining though, Republicans suddenly want to talk about the societal problems associated with mental illness. Let’s review:
Trump Signs Bill Revoking Obama-Era Gun Checks for People With Mental Illnesses ~ NBC News 2/28/17
President Donald Trump quietly signed a bill into law Tuesday rolling back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun.
The rule, which was finalized in December, added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and people deemed unfit to handle their own financial affairs to the national background check database.
Had the rule fully taken effect, the Obama administration predicted it would have added about 75,000 names to that database.
President Barack Obama recommended the now-nullified regulation in a 2013 memo following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 first graders and six others dead. The measure sought to block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns.
The results of the jackassery from the radical right are painful to witness:
Uvalde student says she covered herself in classmate’s blood, played dead to survive ~ Chloe Folmar
An 11-year-old student who survived the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday says that she covered herself in a classmate’s blood and played dead to protect herself from being shot.
Miah Cerrillo told CNN on Friday that she dipped her hands in the blood of a dead classmate after the shooter left her classroom and wiped it on herself to play dead in case he came back.
Cerrillo was treated in the hospital for wounds caused by bullet fragments, and her mother Abigale Veloz says the girl is “traumatized.”
Sounds like she needs some mental health assistance but never forget poor Miah lives in Texas so she is likely shit outta luck:
Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the Uvalde school shooter had a “mental health challenge” and the state needed to “do a better job with mental health” — yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs.
In addition, Texas ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care, according to the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report.
The grit and grind of making society actually work is more than fighting bullshit culture wars, as fueled by New York media companies, which are in turn used by politicians as an excuse to do nothing other than line their own pockets. Owning the libs carries a heavy hidden costs, just ask Miah and her parents.
Finally the two best ideas I’ve seen in the aftermath of yet another school shooting, one deadly serious and one appropriately absurd. First is the public accounting that needs to happen as all the school shooting crime scene photos should be released to the public so everyone can see what the sack of shit politicians have wrought:
Or maybe we should just give everyone what they want:
Don’t hold your breath anything gets done, the “Dear Republican Leader” Pays His Fealty today to the NRA at an event today where guns of any kind are not allowed.