ONE YEAR AFTER THE ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING AND TEXAS SAYS MYEAH

     On May 24, 2022 at 11:30 AM, a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde Texas and began shooting. By this time he had already shot his grandmother in the face and fired at and missed two people near the school. He had also texted a German online friend, telling him that he was going to kill his grandmother and more could be expected. He had spent nine months obtaining the necessary equipment to do the deed. He was not yet 18 years-old when he started his quest. He first asked his sister and one other person to purchase the weapons for him. In spite of being Texans in good standing they both declined his request.

     In November and December of 2021 he was able to purchase online several accessories necessary to carry out his grim deed; a rifle sling, a carrier vest, a snap-on trigger system and 60 rounds of ammunition. It is not clear from the Texas House committee report if the seller of these implements asked if he was yet 18 years-old, or whether they were Texas companies.

In March of 2022 he told intimates on social media that he was planning to do something in May that would make him famous and " put me all over the news".  No one seemed to be concerned so far and it would appear he had not yet violated the community standards of Facebook or Twitter, or even Texas.

     On May 16 the shooter turned 18 years old, old enough to buy a gun in Texas. On Aug. 26, of that year, a mere four months after the Uvalde shooting, Texas passed a law removing the age limit on buying a pistol. They at least had the presence of mind (as Texas Republicans are measured) to keep the age limit on buying a rifle at 18. On May 16 he purchased a Daniel Defense AR-15 assault-style rifle and 1740 rounds of ammunition. It was clear to this young Texan that the original 60 rounds were insufficient to do the job. The next day he purchased a Smith and Wesson AR-15 rifle and an additional 375 rounds of ammunition bringing the total number of lethal rounds to 2175 rounds. This deadly total did not seem to disturb anybody in his Texas community. It should have alarmed his grandmother, as she would later learn. The soon-to-be shooter had in a matter of months purchased nearly $5000 in ammunition, weapons, and other deadly accouterments of death. A used car of recent vintage could have been purchased with that amount at that time.

     At 11:21 AM the shooter texted his German friend that he had shot his grandmother and that he was about to go shoot up an elementary school. Presumably the German friend was not concerned enough to report this disturbing text. Perhaps he wants to be a Texas citizen. We can assume the German friend is white enough to qualify.

     From 11:22-11:27 the young Texan stole his grandmother's pickup truck and drove to the elementary school, crashing it into a ditch. At 11:29 the first 911 call was sent. At 11:30 AM a coach, Yvette Silva sees the shooter and warns the school to lock down over a radio. The shooter walks through the parking lot with his lethal payload. At 11:32 he fired several shots outside the school including through some school windows. At 11:32 the school was locked down and a minute later the young Texan in good standing enters the school through a door that may not have had a working lock. He enters classroom 111 and went through the door to room 112. That door lock had been reported non-functioning, but the kid had a gun and a shitload of bullets, a mere lock would not have stopped him. The shooter briefly walks out of room 111 and then walks back in firing indiscriminately. One bullet went through the wall of room 109, injuring a teacher. Most of the wounding happened in this brief time. It should be noted that this is not a rare moment of a Texan exhibiting signs of being indiscriminate.

     By 11:35 the initial first-responders enter the school building from two directions. Two of the three officers have rifles, one had a concealed ballistic vest, insufficient to stop a high-velocity round. At 11:36 more officers enter the building through the door the Texas gunboy had used and approached rooms 111 and 112. Repeated gunshots could be heard from the outside, shot holes and debris could be seen. The Texas House Committee report states that none of the officers heard screams or had any understanding that people, children, had been shot. I should remind you that this is Texas and that Texans have no concern for anything that might be dangerous outside of Democrats.

     

     Thus begins a 73 minute siege involving at least 19 police officers from four Texas law enforcement agencies. The butchers bill included 21 people killed, 20 children, none older than 11 years old, and one teacher. Nearly all of them were Hispanic, what Governor Abbott, would later in another mass shooting, call "illegals". Compassion is not a quality exhibited by Republicans in any state, least of all in the state once known as, "the Law West of the Pecos" 

     This is not the only such shooting. And not the only state. There have been more mass shootings than days so far in 2023, most of them in red states, six in Texas. There are similar records of mass shootings every year since Sandy Hook which took place ten years before the Robb elementary shooter had been able to purchase his two assault-style rifles and the bulk of his ammunition.The first such school shooting occurred at Columbine High School in 1999.  Many if not most, of these shootings occurred by using the same type of weapons. We should remember that the assault Weapons Ban was signed into law on Sept 13, 1994, and was allowed by Republicans to expire on Sept. 8, 2004. In that nearly twenty years since the Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire for lack of Republican support, the Supreme Court had ruled in the Citizens United ruling that business could spend unlimited funds on campaign spending. The NRA now owns most of the Republicans in both houses of Congress including Senator Romney, who pretends to be a Republican of high moral standing. Researchers have revealed that mass shootings increased by 70% once the Assault Weapons Ban was allowed by Republicans to sunset. The Republican party has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NRA. Not even House Majority leader Steve Scalise, a victim of public gun violence, can be counted on to favor sensible gun regulation. Red states, according to the New England Journal of medicine have a far higher incidence of mass shootings than Blue states. Medical professionals are among the first to see the awful results of being shot with an assault weapon, they would know. Money has been funneled to Republican office-holders and certain candidates by a staggering assemblage of business and professional groups, not all of them scrupulously clean. As is now becoming clear, this influence of dirty money extends all of the way up to the formerly Supreme Court.  Russia spent $30 million on Republicans in 2016, much of it funneled through the NRA. And you are not safe in shopping malls, schools, churches and synagogues, and other public places, with the possible exception of a golf course.

     Don't  worry though, Republicans will prevent your gas cooking stove from being removed from your cold-dead hands.