It was in 1966 in Texas that the tower sniper set off the modern trend of shooting students as a public demonstration of fire power. Click here for the History.
Uvalde: “The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston. [Governor] Abbott and both of Texas’ U.S. senators were among elected Republican officials who were the scheduled speakers at a Friday leadership forum sponsored by the NRA’s lobbying arm.”
–ASSOCIATED PRESS
From NBC News: “Ted Cruz faces backlash over response to school shooting: ‘You can do more than pray’
Anisha Kukreja
3h ago / 4:38 AM PDT
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is facing backlash over his response to the elementary school shooting that killed at least 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.
The Republican senator, who said in a tweet he is praying for the victims and affected families, faced swift backlash on Twitter over his support for gun rights and for blocking measures on gun reform.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, criticized Cruz, a Republican, over plans to speak at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting set to take place three days after the deadly mass shooting.
“Aren’t you slated to headline a speaking gig for the NRA in three days — in Houston, no less?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “You can do more than pray. Faith without works is dead.”
The massacre at a Texas elementary school is not an isolated event. It is an example of 21st Century American culture. That culture is not a simple or isolated system. It is the result of centuries of change, tradition, revolution, anger and fear, trust and mistrust, religion, market capitalism, politics, folk wisdom, greed and experience. Only in America are school shootings this common and deadly. Some large countries with different cultures have none in recent decades: India, China, Indonesia, Japan,
Violence. From the days the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth or colonists formed Jamestown, guns have been crucial to the seizure of land from Native Americans and the expansion of what became the United States. I had a Dutch ancestor in New Amsterdam who was reknowned among his neighbors as an “Indian hunter” according to a family genealogy.
Guns. Why should profit-making businesses be able to make and market and lobby for guns designed as weapons of war? Most American mass shooters use weapons that are widely illegal in other nations. It is not usual for a mass killer to use a deer rifle or target pistol for mass shootings—the guns used in mass are those designed to kill a lot of people quickly.
Guns are specifically enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Tradition. Power backed by guns and bullets. Many presumed reforms do nothing to reduce gun violence here. The warnings from the teens who perpetrated recent mass killings in Michigan (his parents gave him a gun though he was under-age) and Buffalo (the killer had been ordered to take mental exam after previous threats) did not lead to any red-light warnings or police action. Police thrive on guns—an armed criminal can be justifiably shot. How many police murders begin with the official explanation “thought he (rarely she) had a gun”?
For a powerful segment of right-wing politics “gun rights” draws far more money and support than mere public safety. Is it now the patriotic and Christian duty of a ten year old student to die on behalf of gun rights?
Hollywood. Killing. Guns. Violence. Revenge. Macho anger. Video games of mass death and destruction. John Wayne. Clint Eastwood. “Game of Thrones”. Kill. Kill. Kill. Don’t ever mention the fact that nearly all mass killers are male, many young, none rich or powerful or famous or popular celebrities. Social outcasts getting revenge? Families stuck with violent proto-murderers and nowhere to turn?
Greed. Putting the age of legal gun purchase at 18 allows for more gun sales, more gun makers’ profit. In the U.S. profit drives many decisions. We just made it legal for an 18 year old to drive a large truck across state lines,. Even though, as CNN reports, “The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shared statistics with CNN from a University of Michigan study indicating a 500% increase in injury crashes for truck drivers younger than 21 compared to truck drivers overall.”
Money is speech. A corporation is a person. Money has utterly corrupted American politics and acts as primal barrier for many who might run for office. If you are not greedy for attention, money and/or power, why bother? Power players like Putin and the Chinese government clearly have found ways to funnel money to their chosen disrupters. An American civil war #2 would nicely fulfill their goals for future world dominion (see Uighurs, Taiwan, Ukraine, Crimea).
Tradition. filibuster. A Supreme Court that wants to dismantle federal regulation.
Bullets. Buy as many as you want. Why shouldn’t an eighteen year need 500 bullets that can kill? He might be off to protect the US border, or turn away a Martian pedophile. Or protect his grandmother (if he dioesn’t shoot her himself) from violent immigrants. Bullet limits would be un-American, part of the worldwide anti-right white conspiracy, and will be so exposed on Faux News and websites galore.
Social media. Ted Bundy. Charles Manson. Previous mass killers. Columbine. Christchurch. Any furious 18 year old can find plenty of emotional ammo to fire up a public attack.
Gun maker. Pentagon and White House could put serious pressure on gun manufacturers. They don’t and won’t. This country is now spending billions on new generation of guns from SigSauer, owned by a German holding company. How about SigSauer forcing dealers to do civilian background checks on their guns with a little billion-dollars nudge from the Pentagon?
Schools are not protected like airports because those are NOT important people. Trains and buses are not protected like planes…not important. Right-wing says teachers should carry guns…so why not flight attendants? Shop clerks? Church ushers?
Prayer for the families? Puke.
MASS SHOOTINGS: https://www.infoplease.com/us/crime/timeline-of-worldwide-school-and-mass-shootings
Here’s the paltry list of school shootings NOT in the NRA’s homeland over last 27 years;
’96 Scotland
’97 Yemen
’99 Canada, Netherlands
’00 Germany
’01 Sweden
’02 Germany
’04 Argentina
’06 Canada
“07 Finland
|’08 Finland
’09 Germany; Azerbaijan
’11 Brazil
‘12 France
’17 Mexico; Brazil
’18 Crimea
’21 Russia; Afghanistan (bomb)
This is who we are. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2022/05/25/texas-school-shooting-gun-violence-america/9749453002/
School shooting primer. For the first time in 2020, guns killed more youngsters in the U.S. than traffic accidents! Click here for summary.
Heather Cox Richardson summarizes the rise iof the NRA, assault rifles and huge ammo magazines in today’s America. Click here.
Veblen21 