No more thoughts and prayers

Jimmy Kimmel roasted the conservative hacks over Uvalde, as they tried to blame every other thing except guns for yet another school mass shooting.  Many of them subscribed to the open door theory where a witless teacher had left the back door open while smoking a cigarette, thereby giving the shooter free entry.  Turns out the teacher had gone back to shut the door before the shooter entered the building.  Unfortunately, the door didn't lock properly, so Ramos was able to enter and lay siege to the elementary school. This only after the heralded Uvalde police force had failed to subdue the shooter outside the school building, despite having recently completed active shooter training.

I understand no one wants to confront an active shooter, especially when decked in tactical gear from head to toe, but that's what these guys are paid to do.  Not teachers or mothers.  Yet, teachers and mothers showed far more composure and bravery than did the police force.  One mother literally hopped a fence and went into the school to retrieve her two small children, after being handcuffed by police for "intervening in an active crime scene."  Teachers did their best to shield their students from the active shooter, with two losing their lives.  The police only received superficial wounds after finally breaking into the building and killing the shooter some 40 minutes later.

Yet, the venerable Ted Cruz said the police did their job, offering his hug and prayers to one bereaved Uvalde cop.  It was the school's fault for making it so easy for the shooter to enter the building.  He like many other conservative "knobs" now believe a school should only have one heavily fortified entrance and exit.  Schools are already beginning to resemble prisons with all the safety precautions they have taken in the past twenty years, but you still need to be able to escape a building from multiple points in case of fire.  Not to mention most American schools are sprawling buildings, having been added onto repeatedly.  In many cases, they have portable classrooms like these due to overcrowding.  But, you can't expect Ted "Ooze" to know this.

These knuckleheads refuse to admit the obvious.  You shouldn't sell semi-automatic weapons and tactical gear to teenagers, especially troubled ones like Salvador Ramos.  He bought his two AR-15 style rifles with over 1600 rounds of ammunition on his 18th birthday a week before the shooting.  No questions asked apparently.  He could even carry them straight out of the store as Texas has an open-carry law, if you can call it a law.  Ironically, he couldn't buy handguns.  That's because many states go out of their way to regulate handguns but treat "long guns" as hunting rifles, even semi-automatic weapons.

The vast majority of school shootings are carried out by teenagers.  The median age is 16!  With little control and the ease with which persons can purchase these weapons online, young teens are able to buy these weapons too.  All they have to do is lie about their age, or name a surrogate, usually the one on the credit card. Guns are easier to purchase than cigarettes and beer.

Any normal person would see the fatal flaw in these lax laws, but the National Rifle Association continues to pitch the idea that any form of gun control is an infringement on the second amendment.  It doesn't matter that this amendment was written more than 200 years ago and specifically mentioned militias.  The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the amendment was part of our individual rights, striking down the District of Columbia handgun laws in the process.  So now states can pretty much throw out regulations all together.  Some states like Texas go so far as to ban federal gun laws, so that these laws can only apply to federal lands.

Sadly, nothing will come of this tragic shooting because conservative lawmakers refuse to give an inch on gun laws at the federal or state level.  They will continue to give their thoughts and prayers, as if their empathy means anything after the lives of 19 young children and 2 teachers were tragically cut short.

You can blame the tragic incident on unlocked doors or flimsy fences or cross-dressing teenagers or even the Uvalde police department.  Ultimately, the fault lays at the hands of conservative lawmakers who refuse to accept that these lethal weapons have no business being in teenagers' hands.  Any hands for that matter, as nothing warrants the ownership of assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and tactical gear, unless you were truly arming a militia, and even then you would have to ask what for?