Brace yourselves, because some of the biggest news stories over the holiday weekend include the Texas school shooter, the Uvalde police chief, as well as the National Rifle Association.
Top News Today :
According to multiple reports, the Uvalde police and their police chief completely botched the active shooter drill at Robb Elementary School in Texas. Or, in other words, if the police had correctly conducted their jobs as trained, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos would have never been able to kill 19 children and 2 teachers last week.
The moment Ramos entered the school and commenced his shooting spree, 911 emergency operators were flooded with calls for police to take down the heavily-armed active shooter. Almost immediately, 19 police officers arrived outside the school and awaited orders from District Police Chief Pete Arredondo on how to proceed.
Soon thereafter, Arrendondo gave the awaited order: DO NOTHING!
Yes, despite receiving training as recently as December on how to handle an active shooter, Arrendondo ordered his officers to stand down. Somehow, he convinced himself that the Texas school shooter had ended his killing spree and that police storming the building would only make matters worse. To him, the event had miraculously turned from a “murder” situation to a “barricade/hostage” situation.
The only problem with his logic is that little children and their teachers inside the school were still repeatedly flooding 911 with calls begging for help. Their pleas were all the same: the killer was still killing. In fact, one particular student in Room 112 frantically dialed 911 again and again and again. “Please send police now,” she said in one of the final 911 recordings investigators disclosed Friday — which was over 40 minutes after her initial call.
Still, Arrendondo refused to send his officers into the building. In fact, the shooter was in the school for 77 minutes before police finally entered and shot him.
Perhaps their inaction was fear. Perhaps it was total incompetence. Nevertheless, 19 children are now dead and officials are admitting that it was a horrific lapse in judgment.
“With the benefit of hindsight, from where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period,” said Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“Clearly there were kids in the room. Clearly, they were at risk,” he added.
When asked why Arrendondo failed to recognize that this was an active-shooter situation and that it demanded immediate action, McCraw acknowledged he didn’t have a legitimate answer.
“When there is an active shooter, the rules change. … You don’t have time,” he stammered. “You keep shooting until the subject is dead.”
The failed actions by the Uvalde police and their chief were so catastrophic that the Justice Department announced Sunday it will conduct a review of the law enforcement response.
“At the request of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, the US Department of Justice will conduct a Critical Incident Review of the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24th,” DOJ Spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement.
Without a doubt, firings, lawsuits, and charges are coming. Heads are about to roll.
THE NRA
On Friday, Donald Trump attended the National Rifle Association (NRA) conference only days after the Uvalde school shooting. During his speech, Trump read aloud the names of all 21 shooting victims (while predictably mispronouncing almost all of the names). However, at the end of his remarks, Trump broke out into a strange and spontaneous dance that proved to be in extremely poor taste.
Immediately thereafter, social media exploded with responses denouncing Trump and his deranged dance following the death of little kids.
The kids died. Trump danced. https://t.co/hdqOK9NLjn
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) May 28, 2022
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Trump danced at the NRA convention. Their little bodies aren’t even in the ground.
And he’s fucking dancing.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) May 28, 2022
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Only a sick sadistic evil son of a bitch would smile and dance after reading the names of children murdered by gun violence. Trump is pure evil.
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) May 28, 2022
Although Trump was clearly comfortable in proceeding with business as usual, not every NRA supporter was on board with acting as if 19 children hadn’t just been murdered in their classrooms with a military-grade assault weapon.
Singer, musician, and fervent Trump supporter Lee Greenwood joined a mass exodus of musicians attempting to distance themselves from the NRA, the Texas school shooter, and his melee.
Greenwood was set to headline the NRA’s “Grand Ole Night of Freedom” concert celebrating the 2nd amendment and the right to bear arms. However, the singer instead appeared on Fox & Friends to explain that he had a change of heart and believed performing at the concert would be an endorsement of the AR-15 (the weapon that was used to murder the children and teachers).
“For me to go and play at the NRA just days after the shooting would be an endorsement, and people would then deem that as [me saying] ‘I like this weapon.’ Obviously, that weapon killed kids. I just couldn’t go.”
Previously, Don McClean of “American Pie” fame also withdrew from the NRA concert, saying, “I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week.”
In addition to the 2 aforementioned entertainers, country artists T. Graham Brown, Larry Stewart, and Larry Gatlin, as well as SiriusXM Y2Kountry host Danielle Peck also pulled out of the NRA event, saying their participation after the death of children would have been in poor taste.
However, the most surprising critic of the gun rights event turned out to be conservative actor Jon Voight — a longtime NRA member and outspoken proponent of gun ownership.
In a surprise video originally posted to his Facebook page, Voight called for much stricter qualifications for owning and operating firearms in the wake of the Texas school shooting. He also used his remarks at the NRA conference to urge “proper testing” for gun owners.
“It’s not about Left, Right, guns, no guns. This is about brains that are dysfunctioning. This is mental,” Voight said. “This is not about healthy human beings serving the country with arms to bear or even the right of this Constitution for bearing arms.
“We must identify every individual for their credentials, for their mental capacity to bear arms,” the actor continued. “There should be proper qualifications for gun ownership and proper testing. One should only own a gun if they’re qualified and schooled.
“I stand with all. I stand for the freedom of each soul’s truths. I stand for God’s truths. I stand for one to be condemned for evil doings, and that they must pay a price. May God watch over all and bring comfort for this loss which may never heal, for each child was so precious,” Voight concluded.
Is it possible that this particular mass murder by the Texas school shooter may become the catalyst that finally changes gun laws in America for good? Or, are the words of Jon Voight and the NRA canceled concert entertainers merely a publicity stunt to protect their image so that they appear to land on the correct side of history?
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
Texas school shooter and the NRA.
ABC News:
The parents of one of the victims killed in the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this week told ABC News they turned down an invitation to meet with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Felix and Kimberly Rubio, the parents of Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, said they have no interest in meeting Abbott, her mother saying, “my Lexi doesn’t even like him.”
“It’s not what Lexi would have wanted,” Kimberly Rubio said.
Kimberly Rubio said their daughter shared her parents’ stance on gun control.
“There’s no reason for just an average citizen to have these types of weapons,” she said. Adding, “What for? What do you need them for? Is it worth my kid? These kids?”
The parents are now calling on legislators to ban AR-15 style weapons, even though Felix Rubio, an off-duty deputy sheriff, thinks his department will go against him for supporting gun restrictions.