Another School shooting at a Texas elementary school

[AgnosticBoy]

(CNN)An 18-year-old gunman on Tuesday fatally shot 18 children and an adult at a Texas elementary school before he was killed by law enforcement officers, officials said.
The shooter -- identified by Texas officials as Salvador Ramos, of Uvalde -- also shot his grandmother before going to the school, three law enforcement sources told CNN. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez told CNN the grandmother was airlifted to San Antonio and "is still holding on," according to information he was given by the Texas Rangers.

The gunman is believed to have acted alone, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo said.

The shooting was the deadliest at an elementary school since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut in 2012 that left 26 people dead, including 20 children between 6 and 7 years old.

Source: CNN

Reading this story of yet another school shooting really ticks me off. What ticks me off even more is the likelihood that partisan politicians will not solve this problem. You'll have one side wanting to ban all guns and another side just wanting to allow guns with little to no restrictions.

For debate:
- Is there a way to stop school shootings? Can it happen without banning guns?

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Here's an old debate on Guns (this took place around the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting):

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Of course, I expect hardline Democrats and Republicans to have different views. But what I want to see is how they will engage each other and get SOMETHING done given those differing views. Will there be any compromising? Any focus on similarities (as opposed to focusing only on the differences) AND acting on what they can agree on?

We'll see! I'm very skeptical that these partisan politicians will do anything given that they tend to be driven by money and power.

 

[2Dbunk]

- Is there a way to stop school shootings? Can it happen without banning guns?

No. Automatic and semi-automatic rifles should be banned, but here's a suggestion that I'm sure the NRA would highly approve:

1. If parents have but one child, the child should be home-schooled!
2. If parents have more than one child, they should send each child to a different school. That way, the percentages are better that some of them will return home from school in one given day.
3. Of course, home-schooling could be an option to the second suggestion, but it is important that the guns of the parents and children are locked-up before the lessons begin.

Kudos for Beto O'rourke for getting into Gov. Abbotts face yesterday! If I lived in Texas, he'd have my vote. If he runs for president in 2024, he will get my vote!

 

[AgnosticBoy]

No. Automatic and semi-automatic rifles should be banned

Your view should be taken seriously by both sides because we already ban a lot of high powered weapons, like rocket launchers. If there was any middle ground position between banning and allowing, then one solution would be to make these weapons harder to get. In some states, it's easier to get an assault rifle than a handgun. That's totally unreasonable.

1. If parents have but one child, the child should be home-schooled!
2. If parents have more than one child, they should send each child to a different school. That way, the percentages are better that some of them will return home from school in one given day.
3. Of course, home-schooling could be an option to the second suggestion, but it is important that the guns of the parents and children are locked-up before the lessons begin.

As much as the NRA would love to offer those solutions over banning guns, they would also know that none of the above items would get any votes.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Here are some more interesting and recent gun debates on CNN and Fox News:

AND

 

[TracyRN]

I feel for the parents of these kids having to go through the loss. We send our kids to school as part of our routine, never imagining that they won't come back alive for whatever reason.

Here in Florida we have red flag laws that allows law enforcement to take away the guns of those who become a threat. Our local news stations have reported that this law has been used thousands of times in Florida. Taking away the guns of someone who becomes dangerous has probably saved hundreds of lives.

Texas does not have any red flag laws and I say shame on them for not having one given that it is a gun friendly state. The leaders are responsible for this mass shooting.

Local NBC media station

Texas does not currently have a red flag law, which generally allows law enforcement or family to petition a judge to remove someone’s guns for a period of time if that person is deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

“Red Flag laws I think would be important to understand when someone sends a signal that they’re about to do something violent that we address that right away,” Texas Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D-47), who is on the Homeland Security and Public Safety committee, said. Goodwin told KXAN she has requested for the committee to meet before the regular legislative session to once again address gun violence in Texas after a mass shooting.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Welcome back, Tracy.

Yes, red flag laws are a start. Those laws should be nationalized, but I doubt even that will start all mass shootings, although nothing is perfect, anyways.

I feel for the parents of these kids having to go through the loss. We send our kids to school as part of our routine, never imagining that they won't come back alive for whatever reason.

An even more damning news is that the Texas school shooter was in the building at 11:30am, but was not taken out until 12:50pm. Apparently, the police were on the scene minutes later, but they did not engage the shooter immediately and that cost even more lives. Kids inside the classroom where the gunman was shooting were still alive and calling 911 all WHILE officers were outside the classroom.

That mistake is reported by MSNBC here:

And you can hear it from the mouth of Texas law enforcement (very damning):

(first 2 or 3 minutes of this video)...

 

[TracyRN]

Welcome back, Tracy.

Thank you, I read you guys posts here and there.

And you can hear it from the mouth of Texas law enforcement (very damning):

(first 2 or 3 minutes of this video)...

I saw the full press conference and it was disgraceful. There has to be accountability.

 

[2Dbunk]

2Dbunk said:
1. If parents have but one child, the child should be home-schooled!
2. If parents have more than one child, they should send each child to a different school. That way, the percentages are better that some of them will return home from school in one given day.
3. Of course, home-schooling could be an option to the second suggestion, but it is important that the guns of the parents and children are locked-up before the lessons begin.

From AB's post #5

As much as the NRA would love to offer those solutions over banning guns, they would also know that none of the above items would get any votes.

I hope you understand that those three suggestions I listed were tongue-in-cheek. I was trying to hi-lite the absurdity of this argument.

I was trained as an engineer -- engineers solve technical problems for a livelihood; this is as much a technical problem as it is social. To approach it from the social problem POV would be akin to collecting and sifting through clouds of flatulence for potential shooters (which Republican lawmakers aren't about to fund in ANY case). The engineering solution is to take away the one HARD ingredient in mass slayings: automatic and semi-automatic guns, pure and simple!