All That Other Stuff
Our politics seems to have hit a single note these days and I would love to apologize for that. However, we’ve hit an existential crisis and we seemingly have any number of solutions that people are throwing out there. Then, there’s this guy.
It’s not the gun. It’s the evil. Raise your damn kids. Take them to church. Spank them when they deserve it. Be good to your neighbors. Throw this woke shit out of the window. Fire the blue-haired school teachers. Get in the room when the babies need you. Man up. — Robert J. O’Neill
He was a part of the seal team that took out Osama Bin Laden, so as much as I would love to throw all the snark I can at this guy, let’s treat him with the respect he deserves. So, let’s take these shots seriously. Asserting that a mass shooter is evil is like saying water is wet. A mass shooter must be evil or disturbed to shoot a room of strangers. So, saying the problem is evil is not particularly helpful. How does one identify evil before it acts? Therein lies the question.
Well, based on statistics on church attendance, 41 percent of Christians in the United States attend weekly or more as of 2018. Believe it or not, that puts the U.S. at about the midpoint in the world. Most of the countries in front of them reside exclusively in Central America, South America, and Africa. Japan is the notable exception to that. Of course, this is the percentage of Christians that attend at least once a week. It doesn’t count people that don’t identify as Christians. Poland comes in tied at 41 percent. Otherwise, every other industrialized country in Europe comes in below that. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the United Kingdom all came in at five percent or lower.
Of course, then we get to the parenting advice portion of the tweet. We should spank our kids when they deserve it and be good to our neighbors. I’m not sure about the spanking part, but clearly something is going on when 18 year old kids want to rush out and buy a military grade weapon. Something is missing there. So, I’m not tossing this sentiment away. We can reasonably debate the best way to raise kids, but I think most reasonable people would agree that an 18 year old (or anyone else) shouldn’t have access to semi-automatic weapons or enough bullets to take out an entire elementary school.
Of course, the focus of the message was probably the reference to “woke shit” and blue haired teachers. I’ve only worked with one that I remember, so I’m not quite sure what he thinks is going on in schools. Naturally, it is a lot easier to simply say “woke shit” and not define your terms. I can imagine the very worst that way. The truth of the matter is that teachers encounter the world and the whole gamut of options on a daily basis. Most of us deal with that compassionately. A few of us don’t. We tolerate all of our students because that’s what compassionate people do. We certainly don’t preach one way or the other. We accept. I suppose if that qualifies as “woke shit” then call me guilty.
I certainly don’t mean to pick on Mr. O’Neill too much. After all, he is a legitimate war hero and he deserves our respect. That being said, he is trying really hard to blame anything else for these tragedies except the one thing we know is at fault. It is the one thing that separates us from the rest of the industrialized world. There are bad parents, Godless heathens, and mentally ill teenagers everywhere. What there isn’t is easy access to guns. Let’s keep our eye on the ball here.
Fact is, an ideal childhood doesn’t guarantee anything.
My children had two caring and accepting parents, attentive grandmothers, a comfortable home and a wonderful church. One had anger issues at a pretty young age, including a fascination with weapons. He found his “third place”, doing something physically challenging with people he respected, and turned it around, but it was a rough road for all of us. Not everyone is able to find that place.
He’s in a really good place now.
1I am sick to death of reading and hearing opinions that say that anything that changes the current gun status quo will not work. The only change to the status quo was back in the 90s when this country had the good sense to outlaw semi-automatic weapons. Other than that, it has been same old same old for at least the last century. So as we all know, the rate of gun deaths went down dramatically in the way-too-few years we actually did something sane with gun laws. Since then, back to same old same old. So as far as I’m concerned the mentality we have had for the last century at least is what’s not working. It’s not working at an increasingly violent and deadly rate.
This guy is blaming everything but what’s to blame. Evil has always existed in our species. Spanking is not going to fix any of that. What we need is to make sure evil can’t get the tools to kill the rest of us.
2“It’s not the gun.”
It is if one gun is in the hands of a well-trained member of the militia, and another held by a young fool. One gun is in Pakistan and the other in America. One is used to take out a mass murderer, and the other is wielded by a mass murderer.
3Some dimwitted rePUKEians said…Guns are not the problem after all there were knife deaths in England!! BFD!!! How many MASS knifings were there??? Also if some one came into school to knife a few, I know most kids could out run him. They can’t outrun an AK47!!! YES!!! GUNS!! are the problem. compared to a knife a gun only requires a finger twitch! A knife requires you to get up close and personal, and most people could not handle that. An impersonal twitch of the finger from a 100 ft is easy by comparison. I have no problem making knives legal and AK47s illegal!! Especially since an AK47 has only one purpose…to kill lots of people, quickly!!
4The country never outlawed semi-automatic weapons, only the assault rifle class of semi-automatic weapons. Full automatic weapons have long been restricted, but the past couple of decades have seen those restrictions weakened a bit. The definitions of assault weapons were weak and did not cover all possible classes of such. We could reinstate the ban, further define it, and make it more effective if it were not for the GOP and lobbyists. They’re as much the enemy of the public as the shooters, whether their fingers were on the triggers or not.
5People seem to focus on the teen killer, but what about the dealer who sold him guns. Uvalde isn’t a large town and most people probably know the people in town who have problems. First the dealer might have thought how did he get the money, then why did he want those high gunpowder bullets. We need to focus on dealers and under the table sales as much as the killer. As for teaching kids ethics, it’s monkey see monkey do.
6WOKE definition: “having or marked by an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those related to civil and human rights”
7I am proud to be WOKE. And Nick, what’s your definition of a “goddess heathen? I might be one to you.
This guy may be a hero, but his current flaws are overshadowing his past good deeds.
Of course there’s evil people but doing everything possible to put weapons in their hands, especially assault rifles, is crazy. Texas cRazy.
I read a couple comments in an article in the Oregonian this morning from gun owning Texas conservatives that I thought were appropriate. One gun owner said if he had his way, he’d ban assault rifles, expand background checks and raise the age of gun ownership to 21. Another guy said similar plus he said if an 18 YO could buy 2 assault rifles and 100’s of rounds, the retailer should have alerted the police. These people need to get in Abbutt’s face, too.
Meant “godless heathen.”
8Maj Gen Bendict Arnold won 8 important battles in the NY State area for Washington who thought highly of his abilities. He was put in charge of West Point which was at that time an important, strategic bend on the Hudson River. Arnold didn’t feel he was being promoted to higher rank he believed he deserved.
9As a consequence, he tried to provide intelligence to the
British but was found out and deserted to join the British.
This guy was a genuine hero winning some critical battles for Washington at the beginning of the war.
So, “I certainly don’t want to pick on Mr. O’Neill too much” but where is the line that denotes crossing it? I am not implying that he has crossed it but am noting that Arnold doesn’t get too much credit now for his good actions. How much slack should a person be cut based upon past events?
IMO, there is no one nice, neat, answer.
slipstream wouldn’t mind meeting a goddess heathen.
10So, ‘All that other stuff’..
OK, here goes a random sample of stuff related [mostly] to the Uvalde school massacre/terrorist attack, in no particular order.
From the perspective of a South Texan familiar with the area [who’s spent time there and most of STX for a lifetime].
I’ll spare y’all a lesson in the various ways “Uvalde” is actually pronounced, based on the speaker’s demographic [hint- a ‘v’ isn’t always a ‘v’, nor the ‘u’, etc].
1. Incompetent law enforcement– many probably don’t realize that small-town Texas police, especially the chief and ranking officers, but also patrolmen, are often selected by their coziness to the local politicians and PTB. Not on their abilities or fitness for duty. Now factor in a ‘sick SOB’ RWNJ like the mayor of Uvalde… Cronyism and nepotism often rule the roost [to make a baad pun..].
2. Uvalde, like many LatinX majority S/Central Texas towns and counties, is still largely controlled by a wealthy land and business owning Anglo –minority–. This results in many, usually bad for the ‘zens, odd, subtle, and deleterious stuff happening.
It’s always been this way, with very gradual change. Uvalde was only almost fully desegregated in the 90s [there are only about 200 blacks and other ethnicities in the whole county of ~26K].
3. Uvalde, city and county, hasn’t voted Democratic since LBJ’s first run; and grows more Rethug every election [2020 = ~70%]. Not as bad as many around here, but for a 75%+ Hispanic demo the –Dems have a problem–, verdad?.
4. The local news spent a lot of airtime on segments about some 200 LEO’s from 57or87 other Texas jurisdictions coming in ‘to help’ Uvalde.
This has been pure CYA grandstanding. Out of jurisdiction and probably incompatible comms, etc.
The influx of foreign LEO’s corresponded with the increasing coverage of just how bad the local LEO response had been during the attack [remember, they very likely got clued in to the massive clusterfuck 12-24 hours before the news media and the public].
And how the entire Rethuglikan ‘gunz’ strategy has finally come to be seriously questioned. And there were more than local school, city, county LEOs; DPS and Feds got there too.
5. The whole Rethuglikan enchilada of ‘hardening the schools’, arming teachers, ‘good guys w/gunz take down bad guys w/gunz’, has gone down the shitter.
5A. Nineteen plus armed to the max LEOs stood around for more than an hour with their thumbs up their asses, and a couple of forty-something schoolmarms should’ve stopped that crazy 18y/o sonuvabitch in his tracks? JFC on a tortilla!
6. Thoughts on Abbott, Cruz, Paxton, Patrick, and every other stinking Rethug must remain self-censored… too effing old to get dragged off to gaol.
7. Damn, I need a nap after lonche..
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvalde_County,_Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvalde,_Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robb_Elementary_School_shooting
This guy ‘gets it’:
11https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/5/28/2100930/-Police-militarization-My-well-duh-moment
Obviously the “godless heathens” would be from his perspective. I could honestly care less.
12“It’s not the gun.” Agreed — that’s why we don’t want to regulate the inanimate gun but instead regulate the producers, distributors, retailers, renters, owners, and users.
As an aside, it’s funny how “thoughts & prayers” are thought of as good enough deterrents for mass gun murderers, but not good enough to stop abortions.
Oh, and how many noticed Gov. Greg “Bloody Hands” Abbott talking out of both sides of his mouth?
13https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-abbott-two-different-speeches-gun-control-at-same-time-2022-5
treehugger @1.
you say “The only change to the status quo was back in the 90s when this country had the good sense to outlaw semi-automatic weapons.”
You are overlooking
* 2008 Supreme Court Heller decision, in my mind probably the most extreme reversal of precedent on record.
* a HUGE variety of state and local efforts to do SOMETHING about weapons. Many of them voided because of the Heller decision. Others actually loosening the minimal controls that were in place.
* vast changes in non-governmental organizations and their positions on guns. Police unions, for one, used to be for gun control. 30 years ago, something cracked and a growing number decided to oppose government interference with people getting guns.
* vast changes in the gun organizations — NRA became an organization focused on gun rights, nearly eliminating the “use responsibility” positions they once had. And “Gun Owners” grew as an organization showing the NRA as a bunch of sell-outs.
* The overall number of guns is up. “According to the Congressional Research Service, there are roughly twice as many guns per capita in the United States as there were in 1968: more than 300 million guns in all.” And proportions of households owning weapons are drifting down, so fewer and fewer people own more and more weapons. One estimate I’ve seen in several places is 3% of the owners now have 50% of the guns.
That’s a BUNCH of changes.
14Teh Gerg rightly corrects some common false assumptions.
Steve from Beaverton , the deranged killer craftily bought his weaponry at different times and presumably from different salespeople. And also his ammo.
Somebody was stating that the murderous bastard had bought ~350 rounds of ammo, I saw reference to 1500+ rounds, most of which was left with his crashed vehicle.
.
Something I forgot to add to my comment above:
8. The week before last Tuesday’s Uvalde school shooting, I watched a news segment of an interview or presser with Gov. Abbott, on San Antonio’s KSAT-ABC, channel 12.
I have tried several times to find video or transcript of it, but it seems to have vanished.
If anyone else saw this extended news clip, could you try finding reference to it [it may have run on other stations and media] and sharing?
On camera, Abbott very carefully and in detail explicated how his and the Texass Rethugs ‘schools defense’ programs were now fully set up to work [through many law and policy changes with their efforts]:
‘Hardening’ was in place. Many LEOs were trained and at the ready to handle anything.
And most importantly, teachers now had a fully developed state and local program available that very specially –rigorously trained [in tactics and weapons skills], licensed, and armed– [those willing] to defend their schools against nearly all threats. I think that they could also receive their arms and ammo from the state free.
Schools getting attacked, kids and teachers massacred, –!problem solved!–.
Abbott appeared extremely pleased to be making this comprehensive policy announcement.
A few days later, Uvalde…
The whole insane scheme has surely now gone down in flames… right??
15Git yer awesome ‘Thoughts and Prayers” right here…
16Only $19.19 a bag:
https://images.dailykos.com/images/939417/story_image/thoughts_prayers.png
Sandridge, needs to be a data base that flags multiple purchases in a short time- especially assault rifles plus ammo for said weapon of war, and by an 18 YO no less. Should be part of the background check system. Better yet, ban both federally. Of course, we know that won’t happen.
17Thanks, the goddess heathen
Just to follow up on Steve’s comments on woke teachers and the resentment the Rethugs like to promulgate, I heartily agree that teachers MUST be informed and knowledgeable of the truth, the facts in order to provide a genuine education to their students. This argument is nothing more than a not so subtle attempt to make truth conform to the ignorance and disinformation of the conservative agenda. As a retired teacher
18with white, not blue, hair, I deeply grieve what has become of
our ill-educated, guns above childrens’ lives society.
*Religion* was invented as a legal way to steal your money .
19