What have we learned about Salvador Ramos, the Uvalde, Texas murderer?

by philg

The shooting in Uvalde, Texas is dominating my Facebook and Twitter feeds. Here’s an example:

(Joe Biden has been in the Senate or the White House since 1973. He didn’t do anything about gun laws, common sense or otherwise, during those 49 years, but “we have to do more” today.)

From an older guy in Maskachusetts on Facebook:

Does anyone really need these kinds of guns. I think if you want to shoot these kind of weapons you can only shoot them and keep them at gun ranges. Other than that, no one, other than law enforcement should have these weapons. I am sorry. There is ZERO need for them out in society.

What has been learned about Salvador Ramos and his motivation for killing elementary school kids?

From skimming the news, it sounds as though Mr. Ramos confirms the findings in The Son Also Rises. His grandfather was unsuccessful (“[grandfather] Rolando Reyes also said he has a criminal background and cannot have a weapon in the home.” (ABC)) and Mr. Ramos was on track to be unsuccessful (“The Robb Elementary School shooter went on the deadly rampage after apparently fighting with his grandmother about his failure to graduate from his Texas high school, according to a report.” (New York Post)).

“Salvador Ramos Was Bullied for Stutter, Wearing Black Eyeliner: Friend” (Newsweek):

“He would get bullied hard, like bullied by a lot of people,” Garcia told the Washington Post. “Over social media, over gaming, over everything.”

Could this be the motivation? Plenty of teenagers in the 1970s had access to guns. Bullying in the 1970s was far worse than today and physical violence was common, as it was outside of school as well during the high-crime 1970s. In the junior high school that I attended, kids could get bullied for wearing Sears Toughskins rather than Levi’s blue jeans. I don’t think coming out as transgender or gay would have gone over well. On the other hand, 1970s bullies couldn’t follow the weak members of the herd into their own homes via social media.

What about pills? Kids weren’t medicated back in the 1970s. Psychiatrists today poke at random into a complex system that they don’t understand (the brain). Some of the most commonly prescribed medications may push pill-takers toward violence. See “Precursors to suicidality and violence on antidepressants: systematic review of trials in adult healthy volunteers” (2016): “Antidepressants double the occurrence of events in adult healthy volunteers that can lead to suicide and violence.” But there is no evidence that Salvador Ramos was taking any pills.

What has been learned that could explain this terrible crime? (other than, in a country of 330+ million, there are going to be terrible crimes periodically)

Separately… gun nut readers: How are you going to sweep this episode of gun violence under the rug? If Americans were willing to shut down schools for more than a year and be locked down at home in hopes of slightly reducing the COVID-19-tagged death rate, why aren’t these same folks willing to repeal the 2nd Amendment? (China is the dream society, I think, for about half of Americans. China has zero COVID and no private gun ownership.)

Related:

  • the worst trauma is suffered by those who cower on the edge of a battle: “Amid criticism of the police response to the gunman’s hourlong rampage, including outrage among frantic parents who said that heavily armed officers stood outside the school restraining them rather than storming the building themselves, Texas officials on Thursday sought to express the difficulty facing community members and law enforcement responders alike. “It is so hard,” said Victor Escalon, regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety. “We’re hurting inside. We’re hurting inside for the community members. We’re hurting inside for our local partners.” (NYT)

70 thoughts on “What have we learned about Salvador Ramos, the Uvalde, Texas murderer?”

  1. I think we can all agree with Alex (1.0). Gun control is very important. (gun control always means hitting your target!)

    • @TS: That’s an oversimplification of my position! I think that one definition of gun control is hitting your target!

    • The leftist definition of gun control is that they control all guns. Anyone who’s not a cult member isn’t allowed any guns.

  3. To all those who are jumping on the bandwagon of Uvalde, Texas mass shooting, shame, SHAME on you for taking advantage of this shooting to get your 5 min of fame while the victim families are still grieving. This includes news media, politician and activates. Why? For every 1 mass shooting, there are 100’s of other shooting that go unnoticed or get a 30 second mention on the news. Here are some samples, for the year 2022 ONLY:

    “6 killed and 18 others wounded — including 12-year-old boy — in weekend shootings in Chicago” https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/5/8/23062027/weekend-roundup-chicago-shootings-homicides-may

    “Louisiana leads nation in rate of mass shootings in 2022” https://www.wwno.org/news/2022-05-25/louisiana-leads-nation-in-rate-of-mass-shootings-in-2022

    “Baltimore Homicides” 130 killed so far in 2022: https://homicides.news.baltimoresun.com/?range=2022

    • Shame on you for trying to tone police and gatekeep when people are allowed to discuss important issues.

    • Imoprtant issues like how coddling of crimunals and SAAAFETY FIRST turned police into armed bureaucrats who are only good for harrasding law-abiding citizens?

    • I would rather have a “beer summit” with a room of 100 corrupt cops rather then with 1 gang member. My chances of being killed by a corrupt cop is far less than a gang member.

    • @George A

      What is the practical difference between the Blue Gang and the Hells Angels or whatever hypothetical gang you’re fantasizing about? They both are violent criminal organisations.

  4. The 2nd amendment is regarded by some as a kind of superveto. Or, last chance veto. As the gangsterism of the ruling class becomes more obvious this becomes more credible.

    My view is that when 3D printers can print gun barrels the question will be settled just like ru-486 should have settled the abortion question. But even then, nitrocellulose can’t be printed.

    • 3D printers are going to have a hard time printing gun barrels or other high-stress parts like the receiver and chamber because of the pressures and temperatures. They will have to be special 3D printers like the ones we use to print parts of the Falcon Heavy rocket engines, but they’re expensive, IIRC.

    • @onetwothree:

      By the way, I saw that John Malkovich/Clint Eastwood (1993) movie too, the one with the RC helicopter (which we would now call a “drone”) carrying a plastic gun to assassinate the President. Hollywood is always way ahead of the times thanks to the vivid imaginations there. Their job is to help “upend the culture” whenever they think it’s important and for their own reasons, though, so they can’t be blamed.

    • onetwothree, even now pipe cutting machines can make barrels, it has been possible for very long times. What’s your point?
      2nd Amendment is a basic law. Part of first 10 amendments called Bill of Rights. Pushed by free northern states looking at violence in revolutionary France among other things. The thing that makes America America

    • Slavery was part of the Constitution too but a little thing called progress allowed America to move past that mistake.

    • @Anonymous,
      Yeah, sure, let’s trun US into a feudal society where only nobiluty and their thugs are allowed guns. We are half way there already.

    • Here in Australia citizens are allowed to own guns, but they have to be stored safely and you need training. What an unimaginable feudal hellscape!

    • Anonymous #1, you seem to want to cancel freedom Amendments that made short work of compromises in original US Constitution that allowed slave sates to join Union. And nowhere US constitution directly endorsed slavery. You want to end something called Bill of Rights fore pete sake. Do you also consider ending 13th Amendment to US Constitution that directly prohibits slavery and involuntary work? With my experience working for big liberals I’d say that’s their real goal.
      Anonymous #2, your laws seem to pass as logical and safe for Aussies, excuse my friendly joke, but do you really care if Ramos safely stored his firearm before he decided to murder his grandma, random people and children?

    • Low Braincell Immigrant –

      A large number of gun crimes are committed with stolen weapons. Safe storage reduces this risk. It’s pretty basic stuff.

      Going through gun safety classes, regular shooting requirements, etc further expose gun owners to community scrutiny and outliers have a chance for intervention. Again pretty basic, but your straw man, pathetic and lazy arguments prove you’re just a sad troll who loves gun violence.

    • @Anonymous, a large number of car accidents, family breakup, workplace issue, et. al. are committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs, so why not require alcohol and drugs be stored safely and training be required? After all, there are more death from alcohol vs guns.

    • Anonymous, you are confusing good practices with law and believe that government creates civil society and not that civil society results in good government. Most gun owners follow good practices that you mention. Making it a law will rip protection off most vulnerable who may need protection the most, such disabled and old who may not be able to retrieve their firearms in time or even own them if such law could pass. Unfortunately I know examples from other countries when state revoked firearms from individuals who spent their entire lives protecting others while sacrificing their personal well-being and income just when they got old or when their political stance differed from the governing hierarchy stance, leaving them and their families defenseless against many threats . Not surprisingly, those countries also trying to position itself as a good government example for the world.
      According to Obama administration, there are between 500,000 and 1,000,000 defensive use of firearms in the United States annually, and many of them by old people who would not pass perfect health test (in many cases that’s why they need firearms). Such cases are abundant and some of them publicized weekly.
      However, health check, safe storage or firearm proficiency laws would have no effect on those who decide use firearms for malice.

  5. This isn’t going to be “swept under the rug” by anyone, because it’s going to happen again, and everybody will be reminded of the last time it happened. That’s because this country is too stupid to learn from its own mistakes. It has raised a generation of young, disturbed males who are addicted to the internet and meanwhile, for the ones who fall through the cracks, nobody wants to do anything to help them. Some chick in the New York Post says they have to be “cut out like a cancer and cured.” What I think she means is that young angry men are a cancer and cutting them out will cure society. That’s a nice way to think. Maybe that’s the reason some of these guys are so mad!

    Listen, when the shooter gets to 1) Shoot his grandmother in the face after she call the cops on him. 2) Crash his truck into a culvert and then still have the ability and time to gather up his guns and ammo and 3) Walk into the school through an unlocked door after shooting outside the building for 12 minutes and then 4) Go inside to a classroom while heavily armed and body armored police wait outside for an hour, well, guess what you’re going to get: a lot of dead bodies.

    The only way to stop an active shooter in a soft target situation is to charge the shooter. That’s it! There is no other way. If you stand outside and let him keep shooting, he’s gonna keep shooting until his gun stops working or he runs out of ammo, which is what happened in Florida at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High, while the police stood outside and Nikolas Cruz walked right out of the school and went to McDonalds because the closed-circuit cameras were on TIME DELAY. Great job!

    We don’t know much about this kid. He obviously had a troubled family. The mother refuses to comment on her son. I haven’t seen much from the high school he wasn’t graduating from, either. Evidently he didn’t like being there much at all and didn’t want to stay there. I don’t have any idea why he shot up the elementary school, except maybe that there were a lot of kids who were children of border patrol agents in the classroom that he chose to kill. Nobody is mentioning anything about his ethnicity. Was he a member of LaRaza? Were there other precedents in his family regarding the border patrol that he didn’t like? Apparently he had a juvenile arrest record but I haven’t seen it yet. But it sure seems like he was a deeply troubled kid, since he shot his own grandmother in the face to kick it all off.

    The media is now laser focused on the “police waited” angle so they can go after Abbott in Texas. Nobody is talking about his family life or his troubles with his high school. Those were very critical to both the Parkland shooting and Sandy Hook / Adam Lanza. Since the media has its own agenda and asks its own questions, we may never know any more about the background. And that’s why it’ll happen again, even if you “ban” assault weapons.

    You are correct: something in our culture, actually many things, have changed since the 1970s. We are too stupid to figure out what it is and how to counteract it in terms of terrible events.

    I think the United States is too stupid to own guns, including the military. But that’s OK, because I don’t think it’s going to be here in 40 more years.

    • Addendum: I don’t think he was on any psych. meds either but that is TBD. Maybe he should have been if he wasn’t. But in general, I do agree with you that we are in the stone age when it comes to psychiatric meds. We have just have a remarkable ability to convince ourselves that our #Science is so awesome that it cannot possibly be these drugs that doctors use to poke around inside the brain. And many of the prescribers are the most unqualified people in the world and shouldn’t be allowed to give anyone anything more powerful than a Vitamin C tablet.

      It’s all a big experiment, and America is gonna do what it is gonna do, ’cause that’s the way we do it!

    • Addendum II: Obviously I don’t have access to the shooter’s mental state (nobody else does now, either) but one reason he may have chosen the elementary school is because it’s an even softer “soft” target than the high school. At his high school, it’s possible he figured there would have been some students or others who would have charged him and taken him down. Fourth graders and their teachers are no match for someone wearing body armor with a rifle, or a slingshot for that matter.

      The police have already revised their Official “Timeline” of events a couple of times now. I wonder what his juvenile arrest record looked like? There’s a big question in my mind whether anything on that arrest record should have precluded him from purchasing the weapons when he became an “adult” – almost to the day. It seems to me that he premeditated the timing – so someone else must have known. It looks like he waited until he turned 18 for a reason.

      Do juvenile arrest records show up in the database in Texas? Did someone in a law enforcement agency get a tip and “forget” to forward it on to the field office?

      I mean, as you’ve pointed out, philg, even smart people at Yale are smart enough to cure SARS-COV-2 but not smart enough to notice someone stealing $40 million dollars. So lots of things can go wrong. Happens all the time.

    • Yale? Smart? Don’t make me laugh. I just attended a PhD thesis defense in neuroscience. To put it mildly… the level of research involved would be good for an undergrad 40 years ago. And this one was recognized as the best work of the last year, with photos from it proudly decorating the airport of the university town.

  6. > On the other hand, 1970s bullies couldn’t follow the weak members of the herd into their own homes via social media.

    This statistic certainly supports this thesis:

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/811487/number-of-mass-shootings-in-the-us/

    Large scale mobbing and social exclusion started around 2012 on the Internet and was ramped up in 2016, when the Internet cliques went completely insane. On the Internet it is always individuals who are targeted, shunned and cancelled for various transgressions, never the mob or the power centers.

    Since 2012 hardly anyone on the Internet criticizes employers, mainstream media, universities, economic exploitation etc., at least when posting under their real names. The target is always some relatively powerless individual who is “different” or uses mean words.

    In other words, in the 1970s people (including high school students) were more united against oppression from above, now they fight against each other. Works fine for the elites, who have an additional talking point for the 2022 elections.

    • You are absolutely right. I myself have followed a similar line of thought for a while but until now remained unable to articulate it in a way as eloquently as you. Thank you – I will save your post.

  7. And in case anyone thinks the culture hasn’t changed since the 1970s – in some ways for the worse – since we keep having these copycat shooting events – even Yahoo! news knows:

    https://news.yahoo.com/ellen-degeneres-ends-pioneering-talk-023631615.html

    “There is no doubt the cultural landscape has been upended since rising comedian DeGeneres came out in 1997 — simultaneously as her character on sitcom “Ellen,” and in real life with an interview on the cover of Time magazine.”

    Of course, it’s a good thing when the “cultural landscape has been upended” if it comes to openly lesbian comedians having their own talk shows. Everybody celebrates that! But nobody wants to talk about how “upending the cultural landscape” might have a lot of negative effects, particularly on young males who are having serious problems as they turn 18. We can’t admit mistakes! Better to “cut them out like a cancer.”

    https://nypost.com/2022/05/25/our-greatest-public-health-crisis-the-angry-young-american-male/

    “The Angry Young American Male is our greatest public health crisis. He should be treated apolitically. He is an emergency we’ve tolerated as a chronic malady rather than what he is: a cancer to be cut out and cured.”

    She rants a lot in that article about incels, and also manages to elide right past the fact that Adam Lanza was developmentally disabled (that’s why his parents MOVED to Newtown, CT – because the schools were better resourced) and that *his mother* taught him how to shoot.

    With media like this, we’re never going to figure it out.

  8. Finally, one more, because this subject has a lot of important wrinkles:

    > Bullying in the 1970s was far worse than today and physical violence was common, as it was outside of school as well during the high-crime 1970s. In the junior high school that I attended, kids could get bullied for wearing Sears Toughskins rather than Levi’s blue jeans.

    In the 1970s, we made comedies starring Walter Matthau that not only showed bullying as being a part of growing up, it showed kids being stuffed into trash cans by other kids! And for the most part, people laughed at it because … what? People were tougher? They taught their kids how to stand up to bullies?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9goLghpPBg

    And in the 1980s, I was the captain of a high school rifle team! We had literally dozens of kids (both genders at the time) shooting real guns several times a week during the school year, and we marched all the guns right out the front door of the building and put them on a school bus. Our worst injury during my time on the team was a sprained ankle. This was pre-Columbine, and after that the coach retired and the team, of course, was never revived because guns are bad. Politically impossible.

    We didn’t have the Internet, though, because nobody except academics and the military did. I just read this:

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/father-of-uvalde-shooter-salvador-ramos-says-he-shouldve-just-killed-me

    “He said he offered to let his son move in with his own parents, but that the teenager declined, citing the lack of WiFi. (The teenager’s final dispute with his maternal grandmother before he shot her was reportedly about his phone bill.)”

    So if he was being tortured over the Internet, it certainly seems that he nevertheless wanted his WiFi access!

  9. Here in the Canada, we have lifetime background checks for firearms purchases.
    https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/firearms/bill-c-71-need-know
    A first step for the US would be to adopt the same background checks that we have here in Canada.

    But the NRA would probably recommend to arm every teacher with a FGM-148 Javlin, to enable teachers to take out active shooters at long range.

    • I knew the menace from the north would rear his ugly head! A NOTE TO READERS: PAVEL IS A FOREIGNER WHO HAS ADMITTED TO MEDDLING IN OUR ELECTION.

    • Let Canada be Canada and let American laws make a little sense unlike in Canada.
      How could this torturous Canadian law prevent anything? And why Canadian put up with senseless intrusion in their regular lives.

    • Anonymous, Why would background checks be senseless?
      Your comment does make any logical sense. Background checks would not limiting the type of weapons that you can buy, but it should lower the number of crazy people buying guns.
      The US firearm related death rate is 12.21, for Canada it is 2.05

      If you like your school shootings, you can keep your school shootings.

      The 2nd amendment is kind of useless today. If you want to overthrow the political party that stole your election, small arms are not going to be of any use. You will need heavy weapons like tanks and missile launchers, or at least lethal loitering drones. With today’s open source autopilots, open source computer vision libraries and other very capable technology you can do much more damage than with a rifle.

    • Please don’t tell me why Canada is “less violent” – the big reason is that it has the United States between it and anywhere else inhabitable. It has very strict immigration policy. Canada picks and chooses the people it allows to visit and live there very carefully. The United States allows just about everyone in, by the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions – all of which is going on right now across our southern border. The Donks don’t want to stop that, they want to promote it.

      Let’s share. When Canada decides to take 1/2 the people the US allows across its southern border, I’ll think about your offer. You guys should be able to absorb them, right? Or do you have enough problems already with the Chinese buying up your real estate?

      https://canadianform.com/citizenship-application/?msclkid=1ed6b29b27f519d69590d00a9098b437

      The Socialists in Canada have banned semiautomatic weapons because the goal is eradicate them all, since guns are bad – but they were never a problem in Canada, except to ideologues. We saw this before in Australia. Since they never had a 2nd Amendment and property rights are really just a figment of people’s imagination there, a flack from Soros’ foundation was able to fuck everyone over.

      Your courageous leader fled to an undisclosed location when he was confronted at a big distance by some truckers who were sick and tired of his policies. They were labeled by the media as “fascists.” He couldn’t even rely on his own government to protect him! Is he sane?

      And if drones are more dangerous than semiautomatic rifles, why ban them? Ban drones!

    • Taco Hell, here in the People’s Republic of Canada we are a bunch of commie socialists, you win. And yes, we have a large number of Chinese laundering money in our casinos and buying luxury homes.
      https://www.amazon.ca/Wilful-Blindness-network-tycoons-infiltrated/dp/0888903014

      I did not say anything about banning semiautomatic weapons, all I asked is why would background checks be senseless?

      For example if you work with youth sports in Canada, you need a background check from the RCMP, would I be correct that you also need a background check to work with youth sports in the US?

      Why is everybody so against background checks for firearm purchases?

      To turn drones into lethal weapons (i.e. loitering drones), still does take a fair bit of technical knowledge and skill, purchasing a gun and shooting people can be done by low IQ individuals.

      Why do people in the US need to be able to buy semiautomatic assault rifles? They have no logical purpose in civilized society, their only purpose is to make it very easy to kill people around you. Small arms could have been used to overthrow the government when the 2nd amendment was written, but today you are going to need tanks and missiles. Or is everybody in the US getting ready for “Red Dawn” or the attack of the Zombies.

      It is fascinating looking at the US from Canada, there is lots of good things about the US, but some things (i.e. poverty rate) that should never happen in a first world country. The US seems to only work for top, some get there by hard work, others by climbing socially or politically, but about 18% are in poverty compared with around 12% in Canada. Can you blame this immigration or is this a cultural issue? Do you have some numbers to support that poverty in the US is caused by immigration?

    • Pavel likes to talk about overthrowing governments! A NOTE TO READERS PAVEL IS A FOREIGNER WHO HAS ADMITTED TO INTERFERING IN OUR ELECTION. “Calgary Ted Cruz” was just a warm up act for the menace from the North. President Kamala “Montreal” Harris seems to be the main event! As the great Barack Obama always said… If you like installing Manchurian candidates to the dummies down south you can keep installing them!

    • @Pavel – in US background checks (basically, a federal database search) are done for every firearm purchase which are done through licensed (FTL) dealers.

      Trying to control access to 100yr old technology with products already widespread is totally fool’s errand. It only inconveniences law-abiding citizens while doing absolutely nothing (or even worse, creating business opportunities) to deter criminals.

      The only reason leftists cannot get this simple truth is because they believe in complete malleability of human nature… a man can become a woman, a murderous psychopath can become a normal human, and vice versa… if you pass laws the men will change accoedingly.

  10. Raise the gun ownership and voting age to 25. These days people are children at the age of 18.

    Surely the Democrats should be very happy with this proposal!

    • Friends on Facebook who support Joe Biden have been suggesting a voting age of 10-16 and a minimum gun ownership age of 21-25.

    • By the founding principles of the nation, if your labour is being taxed you should get to vote right?

    • As a consequence, if you don’t pay taxes you should get no vote.

      This will eliminate the ever growing free shit army.

    • Here: I’ll give everyone the answer:

      Broken families produce broken children who do fucked up things while copying each other.

    • @averros who doesn’t pay taxes? Not anyone that is a resident of the U.S.A that’s for sure.

    • Anonymous, 18 year – olds in US are encouraged to join US military and play with real guns and fight in real wars to protect freedom and real money of our liberal elites. On this background your suggestion sounds hypocritical. Why punish all 18-year olds because of one monster whose transgressions were swept under the rug by misguided woke law-enforcement and secondary school behavior response rules that also enabled him to pass background check?
      Why is it hard to protect children in schools? Who would suffer if every school reinforces entryways and classrooms and has 2 armed guards? We just threw trillions$$ o the wind and paid politicians in failing blue states and bought them votes. We can spend billions $$ to protect every school. It would not be much. Most of them are already being protected.

  11. America was born in freedom and advanced in freedom. US did many things that used to propel it that were right things to do and that no other country in world had done, such as having civil war to end slavery in minority of US states and to push other states to end state antisemitism (Lincoln did this two things). It bully had been and to some degree still is a beacon of liberty for billions. This is not separable from 1st and 2nd Amendments of Bill of Rights. US can not be another China, US could become a very miserable place without its traditional freedoms.
    We need to secure schools, most of the schools are already secure but if some are not then we could do it on federal or state level. Democrats are playing politics with lives of children and in US Senate (specifically Democrat Speaker Sen. Schumer) already tabled pending Republican proposal to secure schools; similar proposal of Republican Sen. Cruz was filibustered by Democrats before. So it is up to states to secure schools, and this is most constitutional method anyway.
    It is a myth that US has most mass shooting per capita. Scientists John Lott and Michael Weisser: ” Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public shootings, the US ranks 56th per capita in its rate of attacks and 61st in mass public shooting murder rate. Norway, Finland, Switzerland and Russia all have at least 45 percent higher rates of murder from mass public shootings than the United States.” https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/05/america-56-in-mass-shootings.php
    Schools that have not protected itself are still vulnerable, unfortunately insane murderer was able to walk into open door of Uvalde school not challenged by anyone. By an idiotic law the schools are “gun-free” zones, schools should be protected at least as well as our politicians.
    I always feel better when I know some of the parents at school event is an off-duty cops who could carry concealed in school anyway.
    Civilian gun ownership also played a role in stopping Ramos, border control officer that ran into Uvalde school was armed with his barber’s gun, he picked it up when he was called up for this hideous crime response. Right now Democrats want to pass law that would make this illegal.
    US gun ownership is at the same level as it was 50 years ago. What changed that ubiquitous media reporting makes some sickos live in infamy; we should not end our freedom of speech because of it. We should protect schools. We are protecting everything else. Children are most important.

    • sorry for the typos, ” It bully had been” = ” It truly had been” , “some of the parents at school event is an off-duty cops” = “some of the parents at school events are off-duty cops”, etc… . Is busy today and typing too fast on a too small screen

    • > We need to secure schools, most of the schools are already secure but if some are not then we could do it on federal or state level.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States

      We also need to secure grocery stores, fast food restaurants, churches, night clubs, subway cars, massage parlors, birthday parties, workplaces, concerts, Walmart, bars, music festivals, hotels, hospitals…, a police state utopia indeed

      Good Luck!

    • Inthewoods, as of 2018 US was ranked 56th in mass shootings, and based on reported data we are neither first in 2022, far fewer mass shootings per capita then in exemplary happiest nations of Norway, Finland and Iceland (the last one I guess had a really big pub brawl, dnk why statisticians use that tiny town-sized nation as a comparison)
      https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/mass-shootings-by-country
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mass_shootings_in_Europe
      Other countries have significantly less firearms per capita and more shootings
      Law-abiding people were not able protect themselves is not going to reduce number of murders, opposite is true. Most of the shootings are in “gun free” zones or zones with harsh local restrictions on the firearms. We must protect kids though.

    • @Low intelligence immigrant

      Yes turn every school in to an armed fortress, let freedom ring!

    • @lostinthewoods, many urban schools do remind fortresses, but it does not have to be that way. Most schools have strong double doors with space between that are always locked and require buzz-in them and one or two police or resource officers in a room to the side of main entryway. Add fire exists that open only outside and it is protected. Most of the schools already have this and do not look like prisons or forts. Being myself I would also put bulletproof glass into school windows, money well spend unlike those to use to prop “liberal” politicians’ failed policies

    • @LSI:

      When I was a really young child at an elementary school in suburban NJ (it was a large school, lots of kids) I once got locked out of the building. Or so I thought. And I ‘vanished’ for a while, and it turned into a minor panic incident for everyone.

      What happened?

      I came back from lunch/recess to my second grade classroom and realized that I brought my jacket back (it was an overcast day, so I had a rain jacket) but I had left a paper bag outside one of the back doors of the school – completely by accident. Inside the bag was a cheap kid’s wristwatch (a Timex) I had taken off after lunch so it wouldn’t get damaged. I rolled it up into my lunch bag, and stuffed in a corner outside a door. I intended to grab it when recess was over and everyone went back inside, but I forgot!

      Once I got back to the classroom I was mortified! I said to my second grade teacher: “Can I go to the bathroom please?” and of course she said “Yes” and gave me a hall pass. I ran to the back of the building, pushed open one of the heavy reinforced doors, and the bag was right there with my watch in it. The door closed and locked behind me. My elementary school had big, heavy doors that automatically locked closed.

      Then I totally lost it. I was locked out. I pulled on the handle and it was like being in prison, except I was outside! In a panic, I forgot that I could just go to the front door of the school (which was unlocked) and walk back in. After a minute or so of freaking out, I decided to WALK HOME.

      That took about 40 minutes. It rained! I just kept going.

      I got home, let myself in with the “secret” key and then the phone calls started coming in. The school was looking for me! I picked up the phone and it was the Principal! I said: “I’m sorry, I lost my watch and then the door locked, so I walked home.” Then it was my Dad! “Are you OK? What happened?”

      “I just walked home, I almost lost my watch.”

      End of incident. I just panicked because I screwed up!

      Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that – at least when I grew up (I was seven years old) – there were only one or two doors at the elementary school that didn’t automatically lock themselves from the inside. They would slam shut like the vault at Fort Knox.

      Why don’t they now?

    • BTW this was 1977 and my wristwatch was a birthday present from my uncle. I probably shouldn’t have worn it to school but I really loved it – not to show off, but because I thought it was awesome. But back in 1977 we had recess with kids outside, we had automatically-locking reinforced doors on the school, we could walk home at seven years old in suburban NJ without worrying, even in the rain, and we didn’t have people trying to gain entry to the school because we have now transcended all the boundaries of morality and family and civilized society that I have ever known.

      And I’ll tell you this: AR-15s were available in the 1970s. But a lot of other things have changed, and when drugs run the culture, everyone is in real trouble.

    • @Alex,

      > And I’ll tell you this: AR-15s were available in the 1970s. But a lot of other things have changed, and when drugs run the culture, everyone is in real trouble.

      Those were the times when people were busy, working to make an honest living. All that change when our central planners started social programs by giving away freebees in the name of eliminating poverty.

    • Alex, when I was growing up elementary through middle school I could leave the school and skip some classes in the park, or walk to another neighborhood to watch movies. Teachers sometimes would curse but most of the time did not pay attention. One time I had a close call, as a 8 or 9 year old I was chased by a mad driver when I crossed busy road on traffic green light, that was the closes I got in trouble, but I survived..
      “there were only one or two doors at the elementary school that didn’t automatically lock themselves from the inside. They would slam shut like the vault at Fort Knox.
      Why don’t they now?” – that exactly how it works + police cruiser in front + at least one armed officer inside + school security around + buzz – in double door at rural sprawling schools that look like large estates that I visited as a parent, that’s why all situation around this tragic Uvalde school looks fishy, but I am do not say anything because I do not know their circumstances.

    • @LSI: It looks very fishy. I’ll say this: in the relatively poorer town I live in now, all the big problems I can recall in the past decade have been drug-related. Spate of car break-ins and theft? Drugs. Attempted murder? Drugs. Institutional theft by officers of an organization? Drugs. People running around half naked at night screaming at the top of their lungs? Drugs, and more drugs. Efforts to pack the town elections with candidates favorable to a plan to expand drugs? Drugs. Lots of ambulance calls for accidents, strange falls and heart attacks? Drugs.

      Mostly meth. around here, for a while at least. Now it’s fentanyl. Of course the healing marijuana and alcohol flowed freely, even during the deepest, darkest hours of COVID.

      This is a little rural Texas town. The dropout kid had a $40,000 truck and about $4 grand worth of guns and ammo. His grandmother paid his phone bill – so the phone was probably in HER name. I could be wrong, but I’m betting: DRUGS.

  12. The Buffalo shooting is apparently close to entrapment again:

    https://nypost.com/2022/05/27/feds-probing-if-retired-agent-had-notice-of-alleged-buffalo-shooter-report/

    Two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the probe told the Buffalo News that the feds believe the former agent — believed to be from Texas — was among at least six people who regularly communicated with alleged gunman Payton Gendron online about his racist views.

    How many of these racist forums are run by authorities?

  13. I don’t know anything more about the gunman or his motives except that he apparently had a very nice truck for an unemployed high-school (wannabe) dropout who couldn’t live without his WiFi connection.

    Oh, and the police are now admitting that they made the “Wrong Decision. Period.”

    Is anyone going to get fired? I doubt it. Making the “Wrong Decision. Period.” probably doesn’t count as cause for termination under the contract. It’s just one of those little brain farts that can happen to anyone – he just needs more training!

    I think we’re going to see that a whole lot of people dropped a whole lot of balls, and hey! it’s not their fault!

    • And for a guy who couldn’t graduate from high school, he sure had enough money to buy some expensive AR-15s! I wonder where all that money came from? There’s just no telling. Gosh, it’s so tough to figure this out! But I think I have the answer: money comes out of the sky and hangs on the trees in rural Texas! It comes right out of WiFi and just floods people!

      We should all move to Texas.

  14. WAPO says he had a stutter and lisp. Mother a drug-addict.
    Kid was relentlessly bullied. Especially when he wore eye-liner for some reason.
    Probably not good school, possibly developmentally deficient.

    Lots of behaviour warning signs noticed by his (former) friends. Fondness for guns.

    It was as predictable as these things can be.

    • Mom was a drug addict, Dad was a criminal who was digging telephone pole holes for a living. Kid didn’t like being bothered y his grandmother over his telephone bill, he loved his WiFi, and somehow he had enough money for a nice truck and a couple of expensive AR-15s. He had a long history of “taking things too far.”

      The cops didn’t want to charge the shooter because…? It can’t be because they didn’t know who he was.

      Well, I won’t speculate further. It’s all going to come out, one way or the other. It’s all going to be a very sordid take from the ongoing American Apocalypse.

  15. My absolute final comment in this thread:

    A relatively long time ago, there was a great movie shown in theaters, and it was the last one I saw in a theater. I promised myself after that, I’d never give Hollywood another dime to watch a movie in a theater: “No Country for Old Men.” I don’t want to sound trite, but the opening monologue said it all, and it’s not because I didn’t like the movie. It’s because I knew it was true.

    “I was sheriff of this county when I was 25 years old. Hard to believe. My grandfather was a lawman. Father too. Me and him was sheriffs at the same time, him up in Plano and me out here. I think he’s pretty proud of that. I know I was.

    “Some of the old-time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lot of folks find that hard to believe. Jim Scarborough never carried one. That’s the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldn’t wear one up in Comanche County.

    “I always liked to hear about the old-timers. Never missed a chance to do so. You can’t help but compare yourself against the old-timers. Can’t help but wonder how they’d have operated these times.

    “There’s this boy I sent to the electric chair at Huntsville here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killed a 14-year-old girl. Paper said it was a crime of passion, but he told me there wasn’t any passion to it. Told me he’d been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said if they turned him out, he’d do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. Be there in about 15 minutes.

    “I don’t know what to make of that. I surely don’t. The crime you see now, it’s hard to even take its measure. It’s not that I’m afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He’d have to say, ‘OK. I’ll be part of this world.’”

    https://www.amazon.com/Country-Old-Men-Tommy-Jones/dp/B006H8JJXS

    It’s getting worse. There are too many corrupt people trying to avoid their responsibility for everything. It won’t last much longer, whether you do background checks or not. Whether you ban this type or that type or firearm or not. Whether you pray or not. You can’t stop the culture from going to hell when it wants to, and you can’t fight it. That’s the Zeitgeist.

  16. > You can’t stop the culture from going to hell when it wants to, and you can’t fight it.

    It’s inevitable that any liberal (“progressive”) society will always devolve into social/cultural chaos. The newly drawn lines of what’s considered liberal and what’s considered conservative will never be enough so they’ll continue to push. Because absolutely nothing is sacred except to continue to move the line further left. An older generation’s Liberal will become the new generation’s Conservative until the culture implodes on itself, yay!

    I’m not a raving Conservative but some things must be considered sacred, no? But here we are on this slippery slope..

    • Agree 100%. Though there’s way back. Learn from Russians, they have been down that road all the way to hell, and still managed to claw their way back. It is precisely because I was there and talked to old people I view every single “liberal” as a terminal idiot, a walking mortal danger to everyone.

    • Yes, these 2022 Russians are so enlightened! They scorn rifles, hell, shoot ’em up with multiple rocket launchers so you don’t even have to hit them, just crumble the building on them. and the homefront Russians are largely in agreement.

    • > Learn from Russians

      Ha ha, good one.

      If progress == chaos to you, please stay in the caves w/ the Taliban and leave us out of it you simpleton.

  18. What will everybody do in Texas when China shows up under the UN banner? Shoot them.

    • Canada sent Ted “The Canadian Candidate” Cruz to de-arm and de-capitalize Texas, to make it more Canadian. He is doing the exact opposite of what he was programmed to do, please return him to Canada at the earliest convenience for a software upgrade.

      Toucan Sam, is shooting white UN vehicles a war crime in Texas?

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