4 ms·

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/you-are-doing-nothing-erupt-after-beto-orourke-interrupts-texas-gov-greg-abbott/ https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/you-are-doing

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/you-are-doing-nothing-erupt-after-beto-orourke-interrupts-texas-gov-greg-abbott/ https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/you-are-doing-nothing-erupt... "These massacres are not natural disasters, acts of God, or random. They are totally predictable, direct consequences of the choices made by Greg Abbott and the majority of those in the Texas legislature," O'Rourke wrote to supporters in a Wednesday email.

whatshisface 4y ago
Something can be random and also preventable.
- bifrost 4y ago
  Its true. Texas had a plan in to spruce up school safety, they just didn't go forward with it, its pretty sad. I read through it, it looked like it would be very effective. Luckily first responders neutralized the shooter otherwise more kids would've died.
  - WillPostForFood 4y ago
    All the details aren't in, but this case apparently involved a police chase that led to the school, a school resource officer was present and wasn't able to stop the shooter from entering the school (nor were the pursuing police officers). The first responders called for help, and a Border Patrol agent came to the scene, ran in alone and killed the shooter.
    - throwaway662577 4y ago
      > … and a Border Patrol agent came to the scene, ran in alone and killed the shooter. Note that Border Patrol Tactical Unit (Bortac) agents were the ones who confronted and shot the shooter. They aren’t your run of the mill agents and they also ignored the others waiting for backup and went in before backup arrived. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were former military with downrange exposure. Lots of people criticize police in these situations waiting for backup, but the reality is a real firefight your first time is fucking terrifying, even when you outnumber the shooter. Paralysis in these situations that are more similar to urban combat than daily police work is expected.
  - jkestner 4y ago
    This school has in fact more than doubled their security spending in the last five years, including hiring their own security force, for what good that did them. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-security-plan-rcna30568 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uvalde-texas-school-sho... I think we need something other than “sprucing up” school safety. Only trying to stop the shooters at the point of attack is pathetically ineffective. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...
bifrost 4y ago
Beto is right and wrong at the same time. This psycho kid had red flags everywhere and there was no real mechanism in place to close the loop.
- discreteevent 4y ago
  The psycho kid waited until he was 18 and then went and bought an AR because he could. He could not have done that in most other countries. And most other countries also have psycho kids. The only downside of this is that normal kids in other countries cannot buy an AR when they turn 18.
  - bifrost 4y ago
    Thats pretty orthogonal to the issue at hand. There are over 350 million legal gun owners in the US, we're statistically safer than any other country.
    - krapp 4y ago
      >There are over 350 million legal gun owners in the US, we're statistically safer than any other country. You're using the fact that the Constitution defines a right to keep and bear arms for all Americans to imply that all Americans are legal gun owners, which is incorrect. It's actually impossible to know how many legal gun owners there are in the US, because collecting that data is prohibited by federal law, but it's certainly not every American. However, the polls that I've seen estimate gun ownership at between 30% to 45%. And no, US gun owners are not statistically safer than any other country. Other countries with high per capita gun ownership also statistically have a far lower percentage of gun violence than the US.
    - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
      There are barely 350 million people in the US, and most do not own guns.
jjcon 4y ago
> They are totally predictable, direct consequences of the choices made by Greg Abbott and the majority of those in the Texas legislature I don't understand blaming Texas laws, California has much stricter laws and has technically more mass shootings per capita than Texas[0]. To me these are all such low numbers that it is hard to draw any conclusions based on policy, let alone specific legislation from a specific Governor. I'm all for practical solutions (hell I'd have them throw the second amendment out if it were even possible) but I don't know that there are many easy answers to the problem. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/811541/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-state/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/811541/mass-shootings-in...

whatshisface 4y ago

Something can be random and also preventable.

bifrost 4y ago
Its true. Texas had a plan in to spruce up school safety, they just didn't go forward with it, its pretty sad. I read through it, it looked like it would be very effective. Luckily first responders neutralized the shooter otherwise more kids would've died.
- WillPostForFood 4y ago
  All the details aren't in, but this case apparently involved a police chase that led to the school, a school resource officer was present and wasn't able to stop the shooter from entering the school (nor were the pursuing police officers). The first responders called for help, and a Border Patrol agent came to the scene, ran in alone and killed the shooter.
  - throwaway662577 4y ago
    > … and a Border Patrol agent came to the scene, ran in alone and killed the shooter. Note that Border Patrol Tactical Unit (Bortac) agents were the ones who confronted and shot the shooter. They aren’t your run of the mill agents and they also ignored the others waiting for backup and went in before backup arrived. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were former military with downrange exposure. Lots of people criticize police in these situations waiting for backup, but the reality is a real firefight your first time is fucking terrifying, even when you outnumber the shooter. Paralysis in these situations that are more similar to urban combat than daily police work is expected.
- jkestner 4y ago
  This school has in fact more than doubled their security spending in the last five years, including hiring their own security force, for what good that did them. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-security-plan-rcna30568 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uvalde-texas-school-sho... I think we need something other than “sprucing up” school safety. Only trying to stop the shooters at the point of attack is pathetically ineffective. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

bifrost 4y ago

Beto is right and wrong at the same time. This psycho kid had red flags everywhere and there was no real mechanism in place to close the loop.

discreteevent 4y ago
The psycho kid waited until he was 18 and then went and bought an AR because he could. He could not have done that in most other countries. And most other countries also have psycho kids. The only downside of this is that normal kids in other countries cannot buy an AR when they turn 18.
- bifrost 4y ago
  Thats pretty orthogonal to the issue at hand. There are over 350 million legal gun owners in the US, we're statistically safer than any other country.
  - krapp 4y ago
    >There are over 350 million legal gun owners in the US, we're statistically safer than any other country. You're using the fact that the Constitution defines a right to keep and bear arms for all Americans to imply that all Americans are legal gun owners, which is incorrect. It's actually impossible to know how many legal gun owners there are in the US, because collecting that data is prohibited by federal law, but it's certainly not every American. However, the polls that I've seen estimate gun ownership at between 30% to 45%. And no, US gun owners are not statistically safer than any other country. Other countries with high per capita gun ownership also statistically have a far lower percentage of gun violence than the US.
  - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
    There are barely 350 million people in the US, and most do not own guns.

jjcon 4y ago

> They are totally predictable, direct consequences of the choices made by Greg Abbott and the majority of those in the Texas legislature I don't understand blaming Texas laws, California has much stricter laws and has technically more mass shootings per capita than Texas[0]. To me these are all such low numbers that it is hard to draw any conclusions based on policy, let alone specific legislation from a specific Governor. I'm all for practical solutions (hell I'd have them throw the second amendment out if it were even possible) but I don't know that there are many easy answers to the problem. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/811541/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-state/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/811541/mass-shootings-in...