Gun manufacturers are protected from liability lawsuits by a law pushed by Republicans and signed by GWB in 2005; up until Sandy Hook, PLCAA (Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act) was a bulwark against claims against manufacturers, distributors, and dealers.   Sandy Hook changed that when the parents of slaughtered children went after Remington, not for the gun, but for their advertising that was aimed…wait for it…at kids.  Advertising was a gap in the law that the counsel for the parents exploited, because Remington pushed assault weapons at young boys.  The principle ad was if you had a Bushmaster AR-15, you earned your Platinum Man Card.  That’s right, no shit.  Here’s one of the ads:

On top of that, Remington licensed the Bushmaster to make the video game, Call of Duty, that showed kids how to tape two 30 round magazines together to quickly reload so they could kill more people.  The lawsuit  worked, the  SCOTUS allowed the case to go forward, and Remington ended up coughing up $73 million to the families who lost children in the Sandy Hook massacre.

Fast forward to this week at Uvalde, Texas.  The AR-15 that the shooter used was manufactured by Daniel Defense, a company based in Georgia.  Here’s a tweet the company posted on May 16th.  Bad timing, to say the least:

In case you can’t read the caption, it says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  That’s not the only tweet, but it seems that’s enough.

I think there is a really good lawyer who would love to take this case against Daniel Defense.  Tick, tick, tick…

OK, so here where the Republicans stand:

1. All books about diversity should be banned from school libraries to protect kids from being exposed to anything not bible thumping, white, and straight.
2. Teachers don’t have the judgement to set their own curriculum.
3. In more and more states teachers aren’t allowed to say the word “gay” or even address the fact that millions of children live in “non-traditional” families.
4. Teachers are not allowed to teach actual history including slavery, subjugation of women, immigrants, or those who are not white.
5. Textbooks that discuss actually history are banned because they might upset kids.

Now these same Republicans are calling to arm teachers with firearms to protect children against shooters who are, BY STATUTE, allowed to buy and own weapons of war and unlimited amounts of high powered ammo online.

So, to be clear – Teachers cannot be trusted to teach their students on subjects of history, social studies, and civics, but those same teachers must be depended on to carry firearms that can repel attacks by crazed gunmen carrying high powered weapons of war and wearing body armor.

Is it me, or have Republicans and their base lost their fucking minds?

I turns out that the police response to the Uvalde shooting was a shitshow, and then local authorities lied to the media about it.  Local and state authorities reported that the shooter was engaged by officers on the way in to the school.  FALSE.  Reports were then issued that SWAT took out the shooter.  Looks like that is false, too.  Then it was reported that an off duty border patrol officer shot the shooter.  We don’t know yet. Video has now emerged and witness accounts confirm that police hung back for AN HOUR before going in.

Could lives have been saved if they moved faster? We don’t know yet, but the likely answer is yes.  What we do know is that Abbott and his crew spent the better part of two days grandstanding, giving false information, and spouting bullshit about how gun laws don’t work.  We also know that this catastrophe clearly demonstrates that the “good guy with a gun” myth is bullshit.  This is the logical result of allowing weapons of war into the general populace and there is no ifs ands or buts about that conclusion.

Ted Cruz continues to show his ass to the media spouting nonsense about arming teachers and closing off all but one door to schools.  He’s like a broken record spouting his bullshit and lies, complaining about Democrats proposing legislation he hates, but offering no alternatives of his own.  He’s a useless bag of shit and  I wish he’d go back to Canada and leave Texas to Texans.  We don’t need his “help”.

Dan Crenshaw has announced that he’s not able to attend the NRA convention in Houston this weekend because of his…wait for it…trip to Ukraine.  His office has confirmed that he will conveniently not be back in time to make his appearance at the convention.  His spokesperson also asserted that his extended trip in Ukraine has nothing to do with the slaughter of 10 people in Buffalo and 21 people (including 19 small children) in Uvalde.  It’s simply pure coincidence.

Sure.  He’s not as stupid as he acts.

Yesterday, during a political stunt being held by Greg Abbott, Beto O’Rourke showed up, interrupted the scripted event and said what the rest of us are thinking, that these recently murdered children’s blood is on his hands.   Before he was politely escorted out, Beto got in a few shots including, “The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing.”

John Lewis would have been proud.  In a lifetime of activism Lewis always spoke of getting into “good trouble” protesting injustice and inequality.  He was arrested and beaten several times during his protests for civil rights in the ’60s, and always coached those coming behind to continue getting into “good trouble” using non-violent presence and words.  Beto did that yesterday, and I have to say it was remarkably effective.  The stage was packed with rightwing blowhards including radio talk show host Dan Patrick, felony indicted for 7 years Ken Paxton, Cancun Ted Cruz and others and they were caught completely flatfooted as O’Rourke gave Abbott a piece of his mind.  The mayor of Uvalde, who was participating in this political stunt, called Beto a “sick son of a bitch” for “politicizing” this political event.  Observers of Abbott have noted that when caught lying, bullshitting, and politicizing, Abbott starts talking really fast and stuttering.  Let’s just say he did both after being called out for his lying, bullshitting, and politicizing.

I’ve never been a big fan of O’Rourke, especially when he blundered by running for president at the precisely wrong time in 2016.  He squandered his political strength with that mistep; however, you can watch him maturing live on television, and he is becoming a forminable figure in Texas politics. If nothing else you can say one thing about him…he’s a hell of a lot better and stronger than the clown sitting in the governor’s mansion today.

One thing Abbott said right after the shooting yesterday caught my attention and I’ve looked into it since.  In his first update, Abbott said the shooter, who shall remain unnamed, entered Robb Elementary School with a handgun and “may have had a rifle”.  It later came out that he didn’t use a handgun, but an AR-15 that shoots a 5.56 MM round, a standard caliber for an assault rifle, of which he had just bought 375 rounds.  He carried a bag with 7-30 round magazines which totaled 210 rounds, not counting what was already loaded.  He had another AR-15 in his truck.  There is no report that I’ve seen that he had a handgun.

I doubt seriously that Abbott doesn’t know the difference between a handgun and an assault rifle, so I can only assume that Abbott was trying to misinform/play down the fact that the weapon of choice for mass shooters was also used in this shooting.  You certainly call AR-15s rifles, but there is little resemblance between this rifle and the .22 bolt action rifle I pinged tin cans with when I was a kid being taught to shoot by my uncle.

Abbott leads Texas in gun nut insanity where it’s beyond comprehension that at age 18 you can buy an AR-15 and whatever amount of ammo you want, but you can’t buy a handgun.  This is the stupidity causing the deaths we endure in Texas today.