High School Shooting in Texas

I just received a news alert on my phone

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/18/us/texas-school-shooting/index.html

Santa Fe, Texas, not N.M.

DaveSchmidt said:
Santa Fe, Texas, not N.M.

 Thank you. I corrected title.

The 2nd Amendment certainly is a bloody, demanding god if it needs the sacrifice of innocent lives so frequently and in such numbers.

I believe that Jefferson said that the tree of liberty must be occasionally watered with the blood of tyrants. 

It's beyond sick to think we need the blood of children.

ABOVE................We have met the enemy and he/she is us.

The logic is bizarre.  Some people claim the citizenry needs to be well-enough armed to stand up to the government.  Crazy.  The Chinese know all about that sort of thing - the Warlord Era.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlord_Era

Texas Sen. John Cornyn actually had the balls to announce today that he's sending thoughts and prayers to Santa Fe.  Is he so clueless that he doesn't know that phrase has become a sick joke at this point?  What an asshat.

Texas Governor

“In the immediate aftermath, we don’t yet have the solutions”

Yes, we do, Governor- we really, really do.

Want to see thoughtful discussion and possible progress? Donate to Beto for U.S. Senate (Texas). Everyone laughed when he announced his candidacy, but he is crushing Ted Cruz in fundraising. Beto's gonna win.

--------------------

kthnry,

As of this writing, at least ten killed and many more injured at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas. We're still learning more, but we know that students went to school this morning and didn't make it to the end of the day. Didn't make it to graduation, didn't make it to the rest of their lives.

My thoughts are with the community of Santa Fe. I'm thinking of the students, teachers, administrators, parents, and law enforcement. I'm deeply sorry that they are experiencing this.

I'm sorry that there are parents, brothers, and sisters who are grieving, who won't see their children and siblings at the next family dinner or baseball game. I'm sorry that there are teachers everywhere worrying about whether their classroom will be next instead of solely focusing on teaching those kids. I'm sorry that some of the students at Santa Fe weren't surprised that this happened because they expected it at some point. I'm sorry that more people have been killed at our schools this year than have been killed while serving in our military.

Either we accept this, and continue to be sorry, and prayerful and thoughtful. Or we act. That's it.

There are 535 members of Congress. Who represent 320 million people. All of us. Each member responsible for representing the interests of this country, of people, of human beings, of kids. Not responsible for PACs or lobbies, corporations or special interests. Not responsible for the next election.

Remembering that, we can meet silence with action. Tragedy with common purpose. The disagreements with compromise and consensus that allow us to do better -- not perfect, not your ideal, not my ideal, but better than what we have today. Shouldn't be too much to ask for the kids who died today, for the kids too scared to go to school on Monday, should it?

What if we required universal background checks to ensure that firearms only get into the hands of those won't harm themselves or someone else. Close all loopholes and exceptions. Every single gun purchase has a background check.

We can stop the new sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to ensure that firearms designed to kill as effectively and efficiently as possible on the battlefield aren't used in our schools, our streets, our churches, and our concerts.

We can give federal help to local school districts to improve on-campus safety. Local stakeholder solutions with assistance to make the necessary investments.

We can fully support federal research on gun violence so that we can better understand and address its root causes.

We can improve record sharing from the background check system, the ability for law enforcement to more effectively act on information that could help in the prevention of gun sales to those who shouldn't own them or stop those who do and pose a threat.

We can find a way to implement Extreme Risk Protective Order (ERPO) or Red Flag Laws. Successfully implementing these can stop shootings and might have a big impact on the suicides that make up 2/3 of our daily 96 gun deaths.

These are some ideas I've heard from my constituents in El Paso, from students at the town hall I held at Montwood High earlier this year, from those I've met along the road throughout the counties of Texas.

These ideas won't prevent every shooting, won't be perfect, aren't easy conversations to have. And there's no way that I would suggest I have all the answers. No one person does.

But any hesitation I have in stepping forward is overwhelmed by the justice demanded by the daily tragedy of gun violence. Any question on how to lead has been answered by gun violence survivors, young people, high school students who are already leading us (forcing us) towards the difficult, important conversation that this country owes them, owes all of us.

I want to use our proud history of gun ownership, gun rights, gun safety, and gun responsibility in Texas as a place from which to lead. I want to sit down with any person of any party in any place and at any time to figure out how we can make sure that this does not continue to happen.

It'll look a lot like our town hall on the steps of the Cottle County courthouse in Paducah on Sunday. I was asked about my stance on gun safety by a woman in the community. She certainly didn't agree with everything I said, and we came to different conclusions about the next steps. But we were able to have the discussion with one another. And we acknowledged that both of us love Texas and want what's best for our country, our schools, our kids.

The open dialogue we've been having across Texas is missing from Congress. The House of Representatives and the Senate owe this country a real discussion, debate and vote on these issues. I will continue to do my best to meet this crisis with the urgency it deserves.

All of Texas grieves today. All of Texas should join in leading the country to act tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Beto

Should I be saddened by the lack of activity on this thread? Does it mean that MOLers have become so used to this kind of thing as to be numb?

LOST said:
Should I be saddened by the lack of activity on this thread? Does it mean that MOLers have become so used to this kind of thing as to be numb?

What is there to say?  As long a enough voters believe our national ******** about the 2nd Amendment, we will continue to have blood sacrifice of children.

Having said that, I do have to wonder what is wrong with us as a country.  I grew up in a town with easy access to guns for most kids in my high school but we never had any shootings.

What is there to say anymore?

What's sad is that we're doomed to suffer for these shooting for many, many years, I fear. Beto's heart is in the right place, but the fact is that gun control measures like the ones he proposes aren't going to do anything to solve this problem.  Our society is poisoned by our gun culture and until we turn the corner and start taking back the 300 million guns out there and marginalizing gun ownership (rather than revering it) it's just going to get worse.

Damn the NRA and ammosexuals to hell.

@kthnry, I'm not sure which I would celebrate more, Beto winning or Cruz losing.

drummerboy said:
What is there to say anymore?

What's sad is that we're doomed to suffer for these shooting for many, many years, I fear. Beto's heart is in the right place, but the fact is that gun control measures like the ones he proposes aren't going to do anything to solve this problem.  Our society is poisoned by our gun culture and until we turn the corner and start taking back the 300 million guns out there and marginalizing gun ownership (rather than revering it) it's just going to get worse.


Damn the NRA and ammosexuals to hell.

 I'm optimistic. Laws are changing state by state. It will take time but it will go the way of public hangings.

"ammosexuals", I'm going to add that to my arsenal, no pun intended.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nightmare-pakistan-family-mourn-daughter-killed-texas-shooting-133247016.html

Above.............what a long way to come and be killed during Ramadan

Whose law?    Whose order?

A youth who always wore a black trench coat........even in 90 degree heat

And no one thought this was odd.

I mourn and hope for what seems beyond our ability.

Author, just a couple of days ago I was listening to an interview with Professor Brian Cox, the astrophysicist and former pop star, and in it he said when he was at high school he ‘was trying out being emo, wearing black, living in a trench coat all the time...’ and then even had purple hair for a couple of years. He didn’t speak to anyone, didn’t mix with any groups, the only thing that half-way interested him was physics (so that would be electronics, and the power of atomic energy).

He didn’t find a gun, explosives, acids, plot a nihilistic attack on himself or his school mates... 

(Actually, he went to a concert, discovered that girls were interested in guys in bands, and figured he could build a keyboard and learn to play it)

um, if we start investigating every teenager who dresses weirdly...

I’m not sure if you’ve heard that just over a week ago we had a shocking mass shooting over here, in Western Australia. It’s been described as horrific for several reasons - because it is, because it also shows how disaster and pain lurk under the surface in very normal, quiet places people think are OK (then in hindsight see all the clues they missed for years), and because a family is wiped out by one of its own. Plus, in numbers, we haven’t had anything like this for years. 

Three adults and four kids, all related, shot by three guns belonging to one man, all found dead on one semi-rural property. Turns out the husband/dad/grandad (gun owner) did it, including his suicide. 

I’m shocked by how our media handled this situation - I think more information was trickling out so they needed to control the flow. Usually we don’t cover these incidents in great detail, we don’t publish names for days, we try not to publish specific locations; basically, we starve the perpetrator and supporters/copycats  of PR, as well as publishing support group contact info. 

This particular incident played into the national coverage of our violence against women and domestic violence programs, as well as the Australian national debate on gun ownership, and on child abuse/endangerment.  We’re also in the middle of interminable polls for state elections and federal by-elections, and national debates on community safety and national security are big issues. 

People conflate all of these, emotionally and politically. So it’s hard to hold rational debates these days. 

If your own home isn’t safe, if your own family can’t be trusted, where would you go for safety??

Morganna said:

drummerboy said:
What is there to say anymore?

What's sad is that we're doomed to suffer for these shooting for many, many years, I fear. Beto's heart is in the right place, but the fact is that gun control measures like the ones he proposes aren't going to do anything to solve this problem.  Our society is poisoned by our gun culture and until we turn the corner and start taking back the 300 million guns out there and marginalizing gun ownership (rather than revering it) it's just going to get worse.


Damn the NRA and ammosexuals to hell.

 I'm optimistic. Laws are changing state by state. It will take time but it will go the way of public hangings.
"ammosexuals", I'm going to add that to my arsenal, no pun intended.

 Yeah, I mean I'm actually also a little hopeful, as we might be at a tipping point where we start to slowly wrest power from the gunners, who have been ruling the roost for many years. It's going to take a long time to see any real effects though, and I still think nothing meaningful will really happen, in terms of public safety, until we reach the point where gun buybacks become an acceptable policy. That will take some years though.

drummerboy said:
um, if we start investigating every teenager who dresses weirdly...

 There might be 10 more victims in Texas alive.  If metal detectors in doorways prove effective.........

an eye for aberrant behavior should be considered,

but, as we’ve discussed elsewhere, you can 3D print a working plastic gun these days. 

joanne said:
but, as we’ve discussed elsewhere, you can 3D print a working plastic gun these days. 

 True.............but every weapon used so far has been an automatic or semi automatic made of steel or the most recent steel shot gun and hand gun.   If we can eliminate the more common weapons in use then make an attempt at the more esoteric like plastic guns.......then we will do more than talking to each other.

I detest the thought that we would have to go to such measures...........but with the NRA wielding such power and a President who sits on his brains I would not anticipate any meaningful legislative help

author said:

drummerboy said:
um, if we start investigating every teenager who dresses weirdly...

 There might be 10 more victims in Texas alive.  If metal detectors in doorways prove effective.........
an eye for aberrant behavior should be considered,

 your'e living in a fantasy land.

Describe the intervention that would have prevented this.

the change right now is small and ridiculously slow. But nothing much ch will happen until we start voting out the “people” who are the puppets of the NRA. I’ll take this opportunity to plug my friend’s charity- orangeribbonsforjaime.org. 

Fred has been fearless in his quest for gun reform since the murder of his daughter in Parkland and I’m sure he will continue to be an important voice on this issue.

Little by little, perhaps the tide is turning. The Houston Police Chief speaks out.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/texas-shooting-art-acevedo-guns.html

drummerboy said:

author said:

drummerboy said:
um, if we start investigating every teenager who dresses weirdly...

 There might be 10 more victims in Texas alive.  If metal detectors in doorways prove effective.........
an eye for aberrant behavior should be considered,

 your'e living in a fantasy land.

Describe the intervention that would have prevented this.

 I so tire of those who pronounce it can not be done..........and those who think it can are living in

a fantasy world.  Every idea,  every concept begins with what some call a "fantasy'

Not that familiar with the concept but I know that in certain areas/schools, gang colors and attire are not allowed.  I once attended a meeting in Irvington that displayed a prominent sign " No colors allowed.  After the massacre at Parkland,  the students were all made to carry transparent backpacks.

Functioning metal detectors would be at least a deterrent to those who would smuggle real weapons into schools.  As to plastic guns........I don't think there is the technology yet to make them rapid fire weapons of mass destruction.

As far as imagining what can be done to prevent these killings......try doing nothing at all and see where it gets you.

As a young girl who started menstruating at age 10 years, with very heavy flow throughout my high school and uni years, I would have been mortified to be forced to carry a see-through backpack. How barbaric. (If you can’t see through the inner bags, there’s no point in the outer bag being transparent, especially since the latest incident included explosives)