Another school gun massacre in the US ....
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Robb Elementary - Now A Crime Scene |
What can you say, that hasn't been said a thousand times already over the last five decades .....
I once wrote that "... while they are shocking, we kind of assume that these school shooting events are kind of bi-annual" .... well make that an 'annual' event now. I have recorded these events ever since this blog started in 2007
- 2007 - Virginia Tech University.
- 2018 - Benton, Kentucky.
- 2019 - Saugus High School, in Santa Clarita.
- 2021 - Oxford School Shooting - Michigan.
and now to that roll call of national shame, we can add ...
- 2022 - Robb Elementary School Texas.
By that I mean, that I have just recorded the wholesale scale gun shootings that have made international news headlines, as actual gun incidents at US schools number over 100 every year, but usually don't result in deaths or make international news.
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School Shootings 2022 Where Figures Available |
These are often defined as a K2 shooting incident - being any time a gun is brandished, fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason. In 2022, up to the start of May, there were between 119 and 289 recorded K2 school shootings in the United States. Of these incidents, only one had been declared as an active killing shooter incident until this week.
Now 19 children aged seven to 10 and three adults (including two teachers), lie dead at the hands of 18 year old Salvador Ramos (who also killed his grandmother) .... 17 more were left injured as well (some critically), he was wearing body armour and was carrying a handgun, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity magazines ... all 'legally' obtained as soon as he was 18 (the ammunition magazines over the Internet).
Of course he won't stand trial, as he was shot dead by a US Border Patrol official (but only after he had allegedly been left unchallenged by the Texas Rangers for nearly an hour). Two other border agents were reportedly shot and injured (not critically), by the gunman, and the husband of one of the murdered teachers later died from a heart attack (or grief).
So many lives ruined, by one armed teenage scumbag. But this probably won't be the last such gun incident ... after all it's only ten days since 10 people were killed in a mass shooting in New York, and we still have seven months to go of this year. Guns have overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the USA ... nowhere else in the Western world can get anywhere near that statistic.
The right in America, especially on the Trump side of the party, are not displaying themselves with any great honour in the wake of this latest school shooting. Take for example, Rick Manning, who was southeastern states lobbyist for the National Rifle Association for nine years, and is currently President of the campaigning group Americans for Limited Government.
He has already published a piece claiming that President Biden, had committed a 'bald-faced attempt to score political points rather than provide a voice of healing and comfort', by 'asking Congress to renew what he called the “assault weapons ban” on certain semi-automatic rifles'. He went on to claim that 'the opportunity to look at and learn from the assailant and the protective systems in place in the schools to hopefully create a better opportunity to protect our nation’s children from future attacks by the insane are thwarted.'
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Calls To 'Arm The Teachers And School Staff' Are Wheeled Out By The Gun Lobby Each Time. |
The obsession of the gun toting arm of the Republican Party, with such ideas as introducing more guns in to schools, by arming young female teachers, to shoot it out with teen gunmen armed with semi-automatic rifles and body armour, that they bought under the lax gun rules, is as stupid as it can get. Schools shouldn't have to become armed fortresses to repel gun bearing teenagers ... they need to stop arming the teenagers in the first place.
Some officials are even blaming the elementary school for not having an armed guard to challenge the gunman, or not having locked all the doors .... can they even hear themselves for fucks sake!? Where else in the civilised world does an elementary school need armed guards and locked doors?
Even the Texas Rangers, who contrary to the official guidance that became standard police practice after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre - which states that the first officers on the scene should do whatever they can, and as fast as they can, to stop an attack, without waiting for backup - didn't directly challenge the gunman for an hour after initial arrival, and initially tried to blame the school (rather than themselves), for having no armed school guard on patrol to challenge the teenage attacker.
They even allegedly ignored calls from desperate family members, to challenge the gunman immediately, and even handcuffed or pepper sprayed family members who tried to enter the school building to save their children.
There is, maybe a valid argument for hand guns, and possibly rifles in private citizens hands in the US context .... but not the right to buy or own body armour, or automatic or semi automatic weapons. By defending private ownership of these assault type weapons, the gun lobby actually weaken any arguments for the idea of any guns being held in private hands, full stop.
The fact that even if in some unlikely event, all guns were banned in the US tomorrow, 400 million of them would be left in private hands (probably for hundreds of years), meaning that in reality only a limited ban specifically on assault weapons, could ever be successfully implemented. Why the NRA and right, can't just accept that a sensible limitation, specifically on assault type weapons is something that would be a good thing for them, as well as the rest of the country, is beyond me.
But only the citizens of the USA can explain why so many in the US agree with the NRA and gun defenders. After all, assault type weapons can only be used on people .... nothing else, so why allow them in private hands when they have no other use?
At least 185 children, teachers and other people have been killed in US school attacks since the 1999 Columbine High massacre, so in all reality, the USA will simply discuss the issue of guns, reach the same old impasse ... shrug its collective shoulders, and continue to teach school children what to do if a gunman enters their classroom ... until the next massacre (probably next year).
The Texas Rangers have lierally just admitted that they failed to storm the classroom as they didn't realise that it was still an active shooter situation. They waited instead for the janitor to turn up with keys.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61613177
And this incompetence is meant to be the way to deal with school shooters? This is a state where Senator Ted Cruz has defended having few gun controls.
Its the US's decision to accept this as the way things are, even if it seems mad to the rest of the world.
DeleteIt's actually to the USA's eternal shame that they have ended up with this becoming, like you said, an annual culling of children. The Hunger Games writ in real life.
ReplyDeleteAs I have said above, the USA seems to collectively be willing pay this annual price. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteIn a separate story, a woman in Charleston, West Virginia, a woman who was legally armed, fatally shot Dennis Butler, a man with a criminal record, who had opened up with a AR-15 type rifle, on a student graduation-birthday party being attended by 40 people. Butler had apparently felt 'disrespected' after he had earlier been warned to slow down when driving round the neighbourhood, because children were playing nearby. He drove off, returning a short while later and started shooting with his semi-automatic on the party.
ReplyDeleteCourt documents reveal Butler had been previously been convicted of two felonies: child abuse and child neglect. Charges such as those made it illegal for him to possess guns or ammunition, although obviously that was no hinderence to him. Butler was found dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
The woman who fired back, did not have any law enforcement background, and she has not been identified. Police said that charges will not be filed against her.
National Gun Violence Awareness Day is on June the 3rd in the USA.
Only in America.
Former President Donald Trump has attended a pro-gun conference by the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Houston, Texas, and has said that "Congress should vote immediately to take back every penny of unused Covid relief money, Take it back from the states and use that money to quickly establish impenetrable security at every school all across our land."
ReplyDeleteHe also questioned how the US "has $40 billion to send to Ukraine" but cannot ensure security in schools. "Before we nation-build the rest of the world, we should be building safe schools for our own children in our own nation." ... this to much applause from the audience.
As you might expect, he rejected any idea of tightened gun controls, saying that decent Americans should be allowed firearms to defend themselves against "evil" (like teenagers armed with assault type weapons?). Trump then proposed that there be a "top-to-bottom overhaul" of school safety, with fortified single points of entry including metal detectors and at least one armed police officer on every campus. This is infant and elementary schools remember!!
He had started his speech with a rather bad taste display in which read out the names of the Uvalde shooting victims, with each marked by a bell toll ... this at a rally in which the manufacturer of the rifle used in the Uvalde attack had been slated to have a stand (they pulled out).
The frightening thing is that they can't see anything wrong with any of this.
I don't think anything we say, especially outside of the US will make any difference. Its a situation cast in stone.
DeleteI generally admire the US. I believe that they are a force for good but on this and abortion rights I believe that they are completely off beam. How can they hapily accept this culling of their children on the altar of the vey dubious right to bear arms?
ReplyDeleteAs I said in reply to the previous comment, its a situation cast in stone. The US is split over guns and abortion, where half the population are 'conservative' in their outlook, and nothing seems capable of breaking that mould. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteNearly 30 school shootings have taken place in the US this year and the solution, is not gun control, but according to Axon, a US maker of Tasers, is for stun gun-armed drones. It suggests that the "fruitless" debate on gun policy in the US means that only a high tech solution will help stop school shootings. Axon's founder and chief executive Rick Smith said that "Politicians in the US have not been effective in dealing with this," adding that suggestions that teachers be armed are "a very risky thing to do that will lead to more accidents than solutions".
ReplyDeleteIts almost impossible to believe that the leading free and democratic state in the world, is reduced to this level of debate.
50 US Senators will block even mild gun reform in the the US Senate. Some like Ohio Republican Jim Jordan said. "What this bill does is take away second amendment rights, God-given rights, protected by our Constitution from law-abiding American citizens." Why they think that "God" gave them these rights is a mystery. It wat a bunch of revolutionaries who had just won a guerilla war.
ReplyDeleteIf they can't be shamed by the blood of babies, in to cutting down on even assault weapons, then nothing will ever make them reform the gun laws. Shame on all those Republicans. Can you imagine Republican Presidents like Eisenhower blocking gun reforms if this had been happening in the 1940's and 1950's?
Your right of course. Its a blood price the USA is apparently prepared to pay for being a US citizen. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteA mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter. The US has now surpassed 200 mass shootings since the beginning of 2022. The leading cause of child mortality in the US is gun related deaths.
ReplyDeleteNothing more needs to be said. Those 3 simple sentences say it all.
I am not surprised that this post has had the most comments I've had on a single post in some time. I guess its because non Americans find the apparent support for private citizens having guns, especially assault weapons, baffling. Its noticeable that the gun lovers rarely (never?) respond, except by claiming that its their 'god given right' to have them ... which of course is nonsense. Thanks for the comment Antoinette.
DeleteAntoinette in the latest figures it's now 277 reported mass shootings - an average of more than one per day.
DeleteThe madness creeps over the border to Canada. Jordan Daniel Goggin was shot dead by the police after shooting 4 (wounding 2, and killing 2, homeless people, both women), in a mass shooting spree in Langley, British Columbia, on the Pacific coast. Goggin was known to police, but had only had “non-criminal contact” with them (car crash legal issues?). The condition of the 2 wounded hasn't been reported.
DeleteMy last comment - The US Supreme Court has just struck down a New York law restricting gun carrying rights and thus has expanded gun owners rights. This decision jeopardises similar regulations in states like California and New Jersey, and is expected to allow more people to carry guns legally. All this of course while a fierce national debate over the issue has resulted in political paralysis in the USA .... US President Joe Biden said he was "deeply disappointed" by a ruling that he said "contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should trouble us all".
ReplyDeleteBut obviously doesn't trouble the Republicans or the US Supreme Court ....
Well they got what their laws deserve, with 6 dead and 24 hospitalised in Highlands Park on the 4th of July parade. One killer with a military style sniper rifle. Why they feel that simply curbing or banning military style weapons would somehow curb their civil rights is beyond everyone else looking on.
DeleteBut its the price that many US citizens seem willing to pay.
Apparently so. But condolences to the families of the innocent victims because a sniper killing is such an impersonal calculated thing to be the victim of. There has been one mass shooting incident in the USA, every week of 2022 so far, with no sign that they are going to stop with Illinois Governor Jay Robert Pritzker warning that mass shootings were becoming an "American tradition". Thanks for the comment.
DeleteThe roll call of mass murder spree shootings continues with yet another school shooting. This time 3 adults and 3 children at the private Covenant School in Nashville. The shooter was an unnamed young woman who was killedin a showdown with the local police.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65092102
Hi. Yes I was just reading the story today. Apparently the shooter was later identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale who was carrying two assault rifles and a pistol when she entered the school through a side door. Its hard to try and comprehend the incomprehensible. Thanks for the comment .... I'll probably post on this myself.
DeleteWe are now shooting our kids if they go to the wrong house, or approach the wrong car. God help us.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65330696
Hi. In the interest of balance, as you have used the BBC web link, but refer to them as 'our children', it hints that you are American, here's a US media link.
Delete1. NY Post version
It does look like this is going to be a very bad year for random gun killings in the USA. But lets be truthful, and admit that nothing is going to be done to stop it. Especially with Trump on the election campaign.
Additional Comment:
DeleteI believe that the commenter was also referring to a couple of other cases:
1. The shooting of 16-year-old Ralp Yarl, who was shot twice after ringing the wrong doorbell in Kansas City, Missouri, and
2. The shooting of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, who was shot and killed after her friend accidentally turned into the wrong driveway in up-state New York.
It just keeps a coming: In North Carolina, police are searching for Robert Louis Singletary after he shot and injured a 6 year old, her father and two others (a woman and a man) after a basketball landed in his garden (yard). Mr Singletary was previously known to police for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend with a sledgehammer in December.
ReplyDeleteLast comment from me: Two more incidents.
ReplyDelete1. A Mexican gunman killed 5 people in Texas.
2. Nine people have been injured after gunfire erupted at a teenagers' party in Jasper County, Texas.
Firearm incidents are now the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Someone should be ashamed at this carnage.
In an unusual event in Europe, there has been a mass killing in a school by a 13 year old boy in Serbia. Seven girls and one boy, plus a school security guard have been confirmed among the dead, with a teacher, plus four further boys and two girls critically injured.
ReplyDeleteMass shootings are comparatively rare in Serbia, in which there are very strict gun laws, but legal/illegal gun ownership in the country is among the highest in Europe and the world (2nd only behind the USA and Montenegro) with hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons washing around the Balkans following wars and unrest in the 1990's. The boy is below the age of criminal responsibility in Serbia, and both his parents have also been arrested.
Well apparently not so unusual. A second mass shooting in Serbia in just two days. What on earth is going on?
DeleteBrazil also has school shootings issues. They loosened gun controls a few years ago and are now paying a heavy price in young lives lost.
DeleteSadly the USA has returned to the headlines with eight reportedly killed by a gunman in the Allen shopping mall, a small town north of Dallas, Texas. A police officer in the mall on an unrelated call killed the gunman after hearing shots being fired from an AR-15 style rifle, and heading towards the shooting. The victims' ages range from 5 to 51, according to a hospital spokesperson. The usual 'thoughts are with victims families' platitudes that Republican politicians mouth on these occasions e.g. Governor Greg Abbott described the shooting as an "unspeakable tragedy."
ReplyDeleteDemocrats (who didn't restrict gun ownership when they had house majorities), also mouthed the same worn out words e.g President Biden calling it a "senseless acts of violence," adding "Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough."
But nothing will be done .... and everyone knows it
Just another random mass killing, this time in Philadelphia. Five killed and two children wounded.
ReplyDelete