This hits close to home. My dad grew up in Sabinal, about 20 miles from Uvalde. His family owned lumber yards in both towns. I know people always say this, but it’s last place you would expect something like this to happen.
Someone posted a list of all the mass shootings in Texas. The first was the UT Tower shooting, and the gunman was a student of my dad’s. Dad was his advisor and said he never would have dreamed the guy was capable of that.
A nightmare for those parents. I would bet Ramos was on the radar of the police, or known by his family to have mental health issues. There need to be ways for family to have the mentally unstable person put on an involuntary psychiatric hold. No sane person does this.
The serial mass massacres of kids and adults alike in their schools, workplaces, places of commerce, worship, entertainment, their homes, need to stop. We can navel gaze and psychoanalyze the killers and our society in general after these events have been eliminated. Last I read 18 2nd to 4th graders were murdered at their school today along with 3 adults. Can we all hear them screaming?
Don’t mean to answer you. Just the thread in general.
A couple in my town was killed by their mentally ill son. It was well known that they tried and tried to get help for him, but adequate help was not available. It’s not always simple for families to get their children the help they need. I suspect that some are like the parents of the mass murderer who shot up a local school - who seem to have ignored his mental issues - but I believe that some of those who are worried their sons might do this can’t necessarily stop it.
No one should be able to buy assault weapons on their 18th birthday.
…really.
The Second Amendment itself says this:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
First, it’s circumscribed by the phrase “well regulated Militia”. There are a lot of arguments in the Second Amendment jurisprudence as to the meaning of this phrase, and I won’t go into that here. But there is the plain text of this provision to consider.
In addition, there are a number of rationally based and Constitutionally protected restrictions so the Second Amendment is not completely unfettered. For example, passengers aren’t allowed to bring firearms on commercial planes, in federal buildings etc. We are now to the point that many states do not even require registration to purchase, keep, carry, conceal carry etc. That is NOT progress.
The NRA’s Annual Meeting is taking place in Texas at the end of this week. I would be most curious as to what it and the speakers there will say except “this is a time of grieving, and it’s not appropriate to discuss legislation at this time.”
Here is a partial listing of those speaking/appearing at the Annual Meeting: Abbott to Address NRA Conference 72 Hours After Elementary-School Shooting
Ted Cruz too.
I am heartbroken and angry. We need gun reform now. This murderer had pictures of his rifles online showing them off like it was the latest pair of sneakers.
I am sure people will say he was troubled, loner, blah, blah, blah, Enough, we the trying to figure out why these losers do this. Restrict access to weapons!
We’ve tried for years in Maine to make it easier to hold someone involuntarily. Many, many family members have testified about their sad stories. Children who have killed themselves. Children who have murdered someone. But then “peers,” the term for mentally ill people, testify that they don’t want their rights taken away. If they’re in a healthy enough place to testify, they come across very convincingly and legislators think, “Wow, someone like that should never be hospitalized against their will!” I’m so sick of it.
We did get a law passed to make it a little easier to hold someone, but it’s still not enough.
Oh, one point. If a person is held involuntarily in Maine, he or she is never allowed to handle a gun again.
I honestly don’t understand how assault weapons can be legal. The right to bear arms doesn’t mean “any” arms. This has absolutely nothing to do with my politics. I have felt this way for many years, including when my leanings were closer to the side opposite where they are today. To me, it’s common sense.
Agreed. I ain’t no expert, but I am pretty sure that the Second Amendment does not allow people to own nuclear “arms”.
That’s exactly the example I use when discussing this issue. “Well regulated militia” sure as hell didn’t mean a free for all.
Hmm, I read the part about the Newtown killer’s brief interlude on meds. The psychologist could see that he was getting worse and that homeschooling *might make him worse. They put him on drugs which made him feel terrible, and what parent would keep their kid on drugs like that? Better to keep homeschooling in the hopes that he would outgrow with a lot of support. I think most of us would probably do what the mother did (except the bit with the shooting range).
There was a recent article in the NYT that advocated for tolerance of non-violent but neuro atypical outbursts.
I think things are coming to a head in our society. Many channels of information for people to look up and indulge their kinks and enough affluence and leisure time to do so. Plus guns.
Texas has over 1 million residents with concealed carry permits. The answer to gun violence is not more guns.
The assault rifle ban was passed in the Senate with a vote of 95-4 in November 1993. It passed the House in August 1994, with a vote of 235-195, and the reconciled version passed the Senate four days later. It was signed into law by Clinton as part of a larger crime bill on Sept. 13, 1994 and it was quite effective.
The bill passed with a sunset provision of a decade in place, meaning that when lawmakers agreed to it they knew that it would automatically expire in 2004 unless renewed through another vote.
Congress did not reauthorize the ban at that time, meaning that the sale and manufacture of those previously banned weapons was legal once again on Sept. 13, 2004.
Believe me, a lot of parents put their kids on meds which they’re not thrilled with. If you’ve seen your child during a psychotic episode, which I have, you will do anything to keep it from happening again. No, I most certainly would not homeschool my seriously mentally ill child and hope he got better.
Yup, and just so we are clear - emblazoned in the lobby of the NRA headquarters, they have conveniently left out the words “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state” so it just says “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”
The NRA knows very well what they did.
Texas is one of those states where you can pretty much buy guns more easily than candy. It has the most lenient gun laws in the country. You no longer require a permit and you certainly don’t require any training. Open carry is considered a birth right.
Have they reported which firearm was used in this shooting yet?
An “assault rifle”, as is available to the general public, is a semiautomatic rifle, capable of one shot with each pull of the trigger. It is similar in that regard to many other rifles and the majority of handguns.
Handguns are the majority of weapons used in mass shootings as well as the homicides plaguing the majority of our urban areas. Handguns are more concealable. One firearm is not necessarily more deadly than another.
This was a tragedy. It will be good to find out what the motive was. What the underlying cause was. I would certainly bet mental illness plays into it. It’s certainly an area where we are struggling as a country. Not enough providers, lack of, stigma, etc.
Many schools in my area thankfully have armed school resource officers on hand to assist. In many areas there has been a push to remove these officers or disarm them. I just don’t understand that thought process.
It’s tragic that this happened to these innocent children. Evil people do evil things. Thankfully he is no longer around to cause more harm in the future.
This school had at least one armed officer on the premises. I believe he was the first one to interact with the shooter.