Uvalde, Texas, the 27th school shooting in just five months
It’s a sad fact that, in the United States, the lives of children are less important than the continued proliferation of guns. With every mass shooting, 212 in the first 5 months of 2022 alone, the people who have the power to make changes to the US’ gun regulation offer “thoughts and prayers”, while denying that America has a gun problem, often advocating that the solution is more guns, scapegoating mental health, attempting to deflect attention away from the real issue, which is the ease of access to firearms.
Yesterday, an 18-year-old Uvalde high school student, who I will not name, entered the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and proceeded to open fire with his AR-15 rifle, shooting students and teachers. At the time of writing, 19 children, all 4th graders, and two teachers have been killed. To put this into perspective, most of the victims barely reached double digits of age, it’s truly heartbreaking.
I don’t want to hear about a good guy with a gun as an argument for more firearms, there was an armed school police officer, plus two other officers on site, and despite these “good guys with a gun”, the shooter still entered the school, and 21 people are dead, 19 of which had barely started their lives.
A day later, it emerges that a whole slew of “good guys with guns” stood outside of Robb Elementary for up to an hour, stopping parents from trying to save their children, while 19 kids and two teachers were massacred. Police officers take an oath to protect and serve, in this case, they failed miserably to uphold this oath, schoolchildren did not agree to take a bullet, because these cops don’t want to get shot.
Texas has unbelievably lax gun regulation, as proven by yesterday’s events, soon after the shooter’s 18th birthday, he went into a gun store and bought two semi-automatic rifles, which he used to murder 21 people a week later. I don’t need to hear a word from politicians in Texas and Washington, we already know how this is going to go, thoughts and prayers will be offered, followed by it’s not time to talk about gun regulation, mental illness will be blamed, and after a handful of days, there will be radio silence, and we move on with zero action taken to address gun violence, until the next mass shooting.
There will be calls to not politicize this tragedy, now is not the time to talk about gun regulation, while furiously writing fundraising emails to people, using this massacre to get campaign donations. This is both Republicans and Democrats, pandering to their particular base, whether its parents outraged by another school shooting or gun fanatics who want to right to buy infinite firearms. Don’t give them a cent until we see real change, not more empty promises and fake outrage from the Washington DC elite.
President Joe Biden gave a somber speech last night, talking about how America must act on gun regulation, but I feel that it’s nothing more than lip service, we’ve heard it all before, with zero action from Congress, the majority of whom, on both sides of the aisle are in the pocket of the NRA.
Assault rifles were banned by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, but this ban was only in force for 10 years, and after that time elapsed, Congress allowed it to expire, and in those 18 years since, these AR-15 style assault rifles have been used in hundreds of school massacres.
I’m sure the second amendment will be invoked should President Joe Biden actually do something in regard to gun regulation. To which I say, fuck your second amendment rights, lives are more important than a piece of metal, that is designed to injure or kill, guns are not very pro-life, are they?
The second amendment was never designed for firearms of the 21st century, in 1791, the legislature that ratified the second amendment could never have imagined how firearms would have evolved into mass killing machines, capable of spraying bullets, ending the lives of dozens of people every minute.
A second amendment era rifle could fire 3 lead balls per minute, depending on the proficiency of the gunman, with a muzzle velocity of 1,000 feet per second, and accurate to a maximum of 50 feet. Compare that to a modern-day AR-15, capable of firing 45 bullets per minute, a muzzle velocity of 3,260 feet per second, and accurate up to 500 meters. The second amendment is in desperate need of modernization.
It has emerged that parents had to give DNA samples to identify victims of this massacre, because of the injuries sustained from the shooters’ rampage. I cannot imagine what the parents are going through, not only losing a child but having that child’s body be so horribly disfigured that DNA has to be used to identify them. All because the gun nuts can have the freedom to buy unlimited guns and ammunition, while these ‘babies’ have lost their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
My thoughts and heart are with the friends and family of those who lost their lives in Uvalde.