Texas school shooting!

[youngestisapsycho]

Just watching on news now.. shocking!

Unfortunately it really isn't even in the slightest bit shocking anymore.
It's always just a matter of time before the next one.

Thanks for sharing.
I was just talking to my son about this saying I can't even imagine the feeling of sending your kids off to school when there is a risk of this kind of thing happening.

I said for me the only worries I ever had were a split second worry when I see the schools phone number come up, which would normally just mean the kids were sick or bumped their head or something small like that.

So I just can't imagine what it feels like for parents to have to send their kids to school in America.

Not ANOTHER school shooting.
How awful and tragic.

Guns are a ''Right''? in certain States in USA?

What gives disturbed kids or adults the 'Right' to commit murder easily with a firearm?
It seems a crazy rule, but the pro gun lobby allows it again and again and again.

These Murdered children are just so young... Between 7 and 10 yrs old.
Yet the Texas senator Cruz won't control guns, or the ease with which they and ammo can be purchased.

So this will just keep on happening.

Can people please stop saying Americans love guns
Half the country hates guns and wants stricter laws, lots of gun owners want stricter rules too
The problem is some parts of the country love their guns and the NRA has bought the Republicans and Congress

All the marches and protests in the world can't overcome that, just like the marches in London couldn't stop the Iraq war
My old city tried to ban handguns, the Supreme Court overturned it
Ordinary people can't do anything

I’ve wondered for a few years why so many children in US are homeschooled. Can only assume events like this are a big reason.

Homeschooling families tend to be fundamentalist Christians and people who think the public schools are instruments of the Satanic US Department of Education, and are very likely to have a house stuffed with guns they believe they will need to protect themselves against the gummint one day.

I'm in the US too, and I agree with Ponderingwindow. I feel lucky to live in a very blue section of a blue state.

Americans must be terrified to send their children to school.
Not especially. This may be hard to understand. But America is a huge country and it's possible to believe that you personally dodged a bullet (so to speak) if someone else got hit. Plus, schools tend to take precautions such as locking doors to the outside, installing interior doors that can be automatically locked if an intruder gets in, etc.

Want to reiterate what Ponderingwindow said up thread about the structural problems with our federal government. We need to amend the constitution to abolish the senate and electoral college. If the house and a popularly elected president ran DC we would have better gun control laws. We can't have real change in this country without making structural changes to the federal government.

Seconding @mathanxiety @dreamingbohemian and @Ponderingwindow

been living in a very blue corner of America and I don’t know a single person who isn’t as (if not more) outraged and upset by yet another massacre - we had a lockdown at my DS school
last week and I can’t tell you how triggering and frightening it is

We’re moving home in 5 weeks

From the BBC
"Texas Attorney General suggests arming teachers
In response to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says the solution may be arming teachers"

Yup, the answer to gun violence is MORE guns.

@mathanxiety interesting, I’m not American but I do live in the US.

I’m hoping to have kids and the healthcare and gun laws worry me enough that I’d want to move home to have them.

oops, just read the thread, and noticed I'm not the first to mention the BBC story about arming teachers. Apologies.

Attorney General Ken Paxton asked for prayers for those impacted by the Uvalde shooting.
"Lord, our refuge and strength, we pray for the souls of those lost, those who were wounded, their families, and our brave first responders," Paxton wrote on Twitter.
In a TV interview shared online, he said it didn't make sense that guns should be banned from law-abiding citizens.
"I'd much rather have law-abiding citizens, armed, trained so that they can respond when something like this happens, because it's not going to be the last time," he said.

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Uvalde-school-shooting-Texas-17196069.php

@Cartoonmom
If the house and a popularly elected president ran DC we would have better gun control laws.

You do realise that this could result in a GOP president having the backing of a GOP House? How would this improve the gun laws?

The whole point of the system is that there are built in checks and balances to prevent that spectre.

I'm a Brit living in the US. Really brings it home when my own DC are the age of the kids who were killed. Can't stop thinking about it.... it's sickening and I've just listened to some former Trump staffer blaming it on mental health and Covid. Nothing to do with gun laws apparently. What an absolute load of bollocks. Kids with mental health problems in other countries do not go and kill a class full of 10 year olds.

I would also add though and what isn't often mentioned is how incredibly easy it is to get on school grounds here during the school day... most schools are open plan, no security fencing at all... doors wide open during recess and lunch... makes no sense when school security is so much tighter back in the UK. Not saying it would stop it entirely- but surely it would help!!

I can’t get my head round the mentality of people who defend the right to carry arms and are pro life. I’m pretty sure they’re one and the same.

Guns are a ''Right''? in certain States in USA?

The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which covers all 50 states. Municipalities which have had gun bans have been defeated in the courts.

Whether the right is absolute and untrammeled or whether it should come with responsibilities such as taking out insurance, registering the weapon, having a license to have a gun or to carry it, etc, is an ongoing debate.

Also debated is the question of whether the Founding Fathers envisioned a 'well regulated militia' to bear arms under specific conditions, or for random angry men to bear arms and to shoot their female relatives and proceed to kill schoolchildren.

The Second Amendment:
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.

How many times has a GOP presidental candidate been popularly elected since Regan? A GOP house without their gerrymandering and voter suppression of brown people is equally unlikely. The majority of Americans support stricter gun control laws. This whole idea that America is a center right country is bullshit. The current set up only subverts the will of a majority of Americans.

Yes… Guns are a “right” and staying alive is a privelage.
America the Beautiful.

The BBC is now reporting 21 dead - 18 children and 3 adults, and that the killer was armed with a handgun and a semi automatic rifle, with high capacity amunition magazines. So basically he had military type weapons if I have understood correctly.
That is insane. Nobody needs those kind of weapons. I cannot think of a single legitimate reason for owning guns like that.
I live in a rural part of the UK where gun ownership is probably significantly higher than average but that doesn't worry me because it is controlled. I live next door to a farmer, and the guy 2 houses down the lane is a gamekeeper. They both have guns in their houses. Legal, licensed, locked away and appropriate to their needs. If the US introduced gun controls then presumably the same would apply there? If you shoot for sport or live somewhere where you really might get eaten by a bear or something then you apply for a licence and provided you pass the necessary checks you can still have one.
Obviously you can't eliminate risk. Crimes are still sometimes commited with legally held weapons and any gun can kill or seriously injure. But it's a great deal harder to kill a lot of people in a short time with a shotgun than a semi automatic rifle and if checks are applied properly the risks are fairly low. There will also always be bad people who get hold of guns illegally of course, but again, surely it's a lot harder if there are less in circulation and you can't basically walk into a shop and buy one, no questions asked? Even if they just restricted the types of gun that could be sold it would be a start! I don't understand why it is so hard for US legislators to look at the rest of the world and see the differences. It is absolutely tragic and the fact that these things happen so often and the politicians of both parties have basically done nothing is unbelievable.

they suggested arming teachers the last time there was a shooting in a school as well. Obviously thats what the US needs -more guns.
The company i work for has a big office in Texas- gun control is a dirty word in the office -its a blind spot. It is trickier - they can't just go to where the UK say is now re guns (even if they wanted to) - they would need to manage the huge amount of guns out in the population as well

If I lived in the US my children would be home schooled. It is not safe in their schools.

@Cartoonmom

Since Reagan? (two terms, eight years total)
GHW Bush - one term, four years
GW Bush - two terms, eight years
Trump - one term, four years

Twenty four years in total since 1980, sixteen years if you leave Reagan out.

On the Democratic side:
Clinton - two terms, eight years
Barack Obama - two terms, eight years
Joe Biden - so far, two years

Let's say twenty years since 1980, counting up for Biden.

How much legislation to tackle the gun problem?

A GOP house without their gerrymandering and voter suppression of brown people is equally unlikely.
House districts are decided at state level, not federal. It's a state power.
If you want to stop gerrymandering you are going to have to tackle it at state level therefore. The Supreme Court has been leery of tackling gerrymandering, partly because redistricting falls within state powers.

There is an argument for the elimination of the EC.

But they can stop ammunition at the source.

MrsAvocet - US lawmakers don't even have to look at other countries. Congress enacted an assault weapons ban in the US after Columbine. But republicans let the ban expire when W was president. Even recently (I think) the house has passed legislation strengething background checks. But it doesn't matter because the republicans in the senate will block it. It's disgusting.