Gus Bova, Texas Observer: Greg Abbott Is Full of Shit

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.texasobserver.org/greg-abbott-uvalde-shooting/

*snip*

The Uvalde shooter did not kill those children with his purported mental health struggles. He did not shoot them with estrangement; he did not murder them with malaise; he did not ravage their little bodies with the inchoate rage of his misguided youth. He killed them with a goddamn assault rifle, and high-capacity magazines, designed for the precise purpose of human annihilation.

In perhaps his most deranged comment, Abbott said the massacre “could have been worse”—had law enforcement not so bravely and effectively intervened.

To the contrary, as more details emerge, we are finding that law enforcement may have botched the whole response. Why did it take an hour to take the shooter down? Why did state police report that an armed school resource officer confronted the shooter before he entered, only to later say this never occurred? Why are videos circulating of enraged parents outside, shouting at police to “go in there?” Why was one mother reportedly handcuffed, before escaping, hopping a fence, and running into the school to save her children herself? These questions are being investigated by the Texas Rangers and Congressman Joaquin Castro has requested an FBI inquiry.

Abbott also attempted to promote his policy record on the matter: “We consider what we did in 2019 to be one of the most profound legislative sessions not just in Texas but in any state in addressing school shootings,” he said.

Back in 2019, Texas’ biennial Legislature was under heat to do something after the Sutherland Springs church shooting of 2017, 26 dead, and the Santa Fe high school shooting of 2018, 10 dead. Even Abbott had changed his tune, pivoting away from full-blown God-tinged fatalism: “We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” he said after Santa Fe. He convened a roundtable and task force, but when it came time in 2019 to pass any meaningful gun restrictions—such as universal background checks or a “red flag” law allowing courts to seize guns from dangerous individuals—Abbott caved easily to the gun lobby and his right flank.

*snip*

[dalton99a]

1. Abbott is evil scum

[sop]

2. Great editorial.

"He began by saying that 'evil swept across Uvalde yesterday'—a cherished Republican misdirection that casts a policy matter in intractable and Biblical terms. Then, he pivoted to a more modern canard, one that speciously implies a policy agenda: mental illness."

[calimary]

5. That is ALL it is. It's the "modern canard."

Ooooooooooohhhh... mental illness! Mental illness. Yeah, THAT'S the ticket! Gotta be mental illness! But don't talk to me about guns.


"Guns don't kill people. PEOPLE kill people." To which I would quickly add - "Yeah. People kill people WITH GUNS."

[crickets]

3. K&R for visibility.

[Traildogbob]

4. Let's not forget

Another Texas Ass Hole, handed the presidency illegally, struck down the assault weapons ban that had been in place 10 years, in 2002. Texas has blood all over it. And is damn proud of it.

[MagickMuffin]

6. Correction, Texas republicons has blood all over them. Don't count me in on these massacres.

Greg Abbott signed this law. Him and the Texas republicons.

[Traildogbob]

10. My mistake

Apologies. Those republicans make damn sure Dem votes are not valid. Same here in NC. Imagine lives saved if Bush would have extended assault rifle ban. But trump would have trashed it. And just look at shootings in Texas alone since 2016.

[MagickMuffin]

11. Hopefully Greg Abbott is toast, but alas Texas republicons run everything

But I think Beto will make it a real race. And hopefully another scandal about Abbott reveals more corruption, and he IS extremely corrupt as is our AG Ken Paxton. Even Cornyn said Ken was an embarrassment.

[Traildogbob]

16. Paxton is

As much a criminal as Rick Scott. New charges just came up. How do people elect that crap, oh yea, they may re-elect trump, how much more criminal is there? We went Meadows, Cawthorn, the next up is a trump ass leech too. Pathetic that’s were the country is.

[H2O Man]

7. Recommended.

[love_katz]

8. Kick and rec.

This is the paper that Molly Ivins used to write for. As usual, the strategy of the GQP is to stump for Christofacist theocracy and domination and denial that their policies of gun proliferation and patriarchal authoritarianism are in any way at fault. A pox on Abbott, Cruz, and all the rest of their supporters and enablers.

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R

[Beartracks]

12. "The next day... it was almost like Abbott had taken notes. He deployed a teary voice repeatedly..."

Another performative piece from a Republican politician.

===========

[calimary]

17. Well, some of us could see it was an act.

My mom used to have a saying for that. “Heart like a BB.”

[dchill]

13. K&R.

[Hekate]

14. KnR

[IronLionZion]

15. He loosened already loose gun laws

making it ever more easier to get guns. So no could have seen this coming. He's totally stumped as to how this could have happened in his state.