Fog of Guns 🌻🌻🌻

So much for the Good Guy Theory: Almost everything we first learned about the deadly Robb Elementary shooting in its immediate aftermath and much of what law enforcement officials said during yesterday’s truly bizarre news conference is wrong and a lot still remains untold or unclear or both.  Among the disputed facts:  that school safety officer the shooter encountered on his way into the school, there wasn’t one; the shooter didn’t run right into the school, he spent some time firing one of his AR 15 guns outside before entering; and despite initial reports that he did all his killing in one classroom, that’s not true either.  Also, in addition to the 19 children and two teachers who were killed, and despite no reference to them in early reports 17 more were injured and incredibly sadly, the husband of one of the dead teachers died of a broken heart yesterday leaving their four teens orphaned. Most damning but not at all shocking, despite those constant assurances from the NRA and their paid politicians, as in Buffalo “good guys” with guns weren’t able to save the day, in part because they appeared to be ill prepared for the task and hear me out on this one, possibly taking out a maniac with an automatic rifle isn’t all that easy.  It turns out that the day’s heroes were mostly parents some of whom managed to run into the school to grab out their kids even though at least one of them initially got into trouble for refusing to stand idly by.  

Mental Gymnastics:  Governor Abbott, who freaked out at his Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke for “rudely” interrupting him during his press conference, the one where Abbott blamed the deadly shooting spree on mental illness rather than guns, as if the US is the only country with mental illness, and who also recently stripped funding from state mental illness services because that’s who he is and what he does, revealed this morning that he’s not going to the NRA Conference not because he doesn’t want to go but because he’s fears that Beto might be making inroads with voters.  As to the Houston NRA conference Texas Senator John Cornyn has cancelled his scheduled appearance due to a sudden “conflict” but Senator Ted Cruz is still planning to attend.  Cancun Ted will probably use the opportunity to further expound upon his one door theory, because he’s now pushing the mantra that trapping students in schools in violation of fire codes is a much easier solution than making it as difficult to buy an AR 15 as it is to get Sudafed or adopt a shelter dog.  Of course the Former Guy is also planning to attend the NRA conference and because he’ll be there, naturally none of those gun things will be allowed. Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t reveal the solution that Georgia’s Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has proposed:  “what about getting a department that could look at young men that’s looking at women that looking at social media…if we can stop that that way?” No typos, those are his words.  Highly likely that Herschel will refuse to debate his opponent Senator Raphael Warnock but if he does show up it will be entertaining in a car crash king of way to say the least.  On the Senate front, Pennsylvania’s too close to call Republican race is in recount mode.  Republican leader Mitch McConnell has given the go ahead for a few of his Senators to “negotiate” some kind of gun restrictions with Democrats led by Connecticut’s Chris Murphy, at least for the moment and only because he thinks it’s to his benefit to look like he cares.  And because he’s still playing Lucy with a football, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin is now teasing cooperation on build back better, again.

Happy Memorial Day.  Enjoy the weekend but stay away from COVID, Monkeys and AR 15s.