Gus Bova, Texas Observer: Greg Abbott Is Full of Shit [View all]

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

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

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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.

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