Enter Discussion Forums

ck4829

Police narrative on Texas school shooting in question as new details emerge

(Yahoo News) At a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised police for their response to the massacre Tuesday that killed 19 kids and two teachers. However, the Associated Press reported late Wednesday that police waited outside the school for at least 40 minutes while parents and onlookers urged them to do something. “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” Javier Cazares, whose daughter Jacklyn was killed in the attack, told the AP. “More could have been done.” A nearly seven-minute video posted to social media seems to support the AP’s story, showing police restraining parents outside of the school, including holding one person on the ground.

Nevilledog

Republicans Have Turned America Into a Killing Field

(Charles Blow/New York Times) The Republican Party has turned America into a killing field. Republicans have allowed guns to proliferate while weakening barriers to ownership, lowering the age at which one can purchase a weapon and eliminating laws governing how, when and where guns can be carried. They have done this in part with help from conservatives on the Supreme Court who have upheld a corrupt and bastardized interpretation of the Second Amendment. But Republicans have also done so by promoting fear and paranoia.

RandySF

Abbott calls Texas school shooting a mental health issue but cut state spending for it

(NBC News) Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the Uvalde school shooter had a "mental health challenge" and the state needed to "do a better job with mental health" — yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs. In addition, Texas ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care, according to the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report.

Shell_Seas

Greg Abbott Said, "It Could Have Been Worse."

(LivingBlueTX) Yesterday, as Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, Ted Cruz, and a bunch of other far-right goons took a stage to give a press conference about the massacre in Uvalde, he told 21 grieving families, “It could have been worse.” Imagine your child’s bullet-riddled body has barely been recovered from the crime scene, and this is what you hear from the governor.

JHB

Thursday TOONs

babylonsister

Stop Saying "We" or "Americans" or "Congress"... Start Saying "REPUBLICANS"

(Daily Kos) Stop with the weak-ass generic speak, “Americans have a gun problem.” No. It is Republicans who have a gun problem. Republicans accept this carnage. Republicans refuse to join Democrats to pass common sense legislation. It is not “we”. It is not “Americans”. It is not “Congress”. It is not “Government”. It is not “our leaders need to do something”. No. This is 100% the fault of Republicans at every level of government.

Ocelot II

Here's How We Can Defeat The Gun Culture - Without Congress

(The Banter) Yes, guns have been hardwired into our national DNA ever since Bunker Hill and, to a slightly lesser extent, so have cigarettes. But in the face of almost universal smoking, the pushback began. In the year 2000, the Truth Initiative began running an immensely disturbing but effective campaign aimed at stripping away the “cool” allure of smoking. The ads were graphic and relentless. Likewise, the Centers for Disease Control ran its own series ads. Combined, these short videos were convincing enough to transform something that was romanticized in pop culture while intrinsic to social lives, into a grisly, disfiguring, useless, deadly addiction.

SunSeeker

The GOP's Only Answer to School Shootings Didn't Help in Uvalde

(Slate) The line has gone from crisis PR spin to Republican Party dogma. But while the “good guy with a gun” mantra has the ring of tough guy common sense, the empirical evidence suggests armed cops and civilians do less than nothing to deter mass shooters.

mia

Beto O'Rourke confronts Greg Abbott at press conference on Texas school shooting

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

Did Florida Rep. Randy Fine just threaten the president's life? Secret Service better find out

(Miami Herald) Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican member of the Florida House with a proven lack of impulse control, common sense or human decency, tweeted what sounds like a threat against the president. The Secret Service should take it seriously. We don’t know Fine’s true intent, and his denial is more muddying than clarifying, so the authorities must find out. He made this wretched comment after President Biden responded to the horrific massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, in which 19 children and two adults died.