Tag Archives: Uvalde massacre

local news, State news

Abbott displays petulant side

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is showing Texans a ruthless streak that some folks might claim they never witnessed.

It comes in the form of the veto pen. Abbott is vetoing legislation left and right … because he wants the Legislature to settle its differences on property tax reform.

So, you see, here is what happens. Legislation that Abbott otherwise would be glad to sign is being vetoed because they aren’t as important as property tax reductions that Abbott says must be priority No. 1.

Ridiculous, if you want my opinion on the matter.

One of the bills that Abbott vetoed came from state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford. Senate Bill 267 would have helped more Texas police departments receive accreditation, which was a proposal that came as a result of the botched police response to the 2022 Uvalde school massacre that resulted in the deaths of 19 second-graders and two educators who sought to protect them from the lunatic shooter.

Gov. Greg Abbott continues his veto campaign, axing 21 more bills | The Texas Tribune

Abbott is trying to cover his backside by adding a statement to many of the vetoes he has delivered: “This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

This isn’t how you govern, for crying out loud!

Why does the governor want to punish recipients who would reap the benefits of legislation approved by their elected lawmakers? Don’t answer that! I know why. He is doing it to score a political point or two. He also is deepening an apparent feud that is developing between himself and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Meanwhile, the governor is inflicting plenty of collateral damage by vetoing legislation enacted by men and women who travel to Austin to do the bidding of Texans in their home districts.

And … why? Because he wants to get his way.

Childish.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, national news, State news

Age limits on guns: ‘unconstitutional’?

Greg Abbott cannot be serious … but he surely is being serious when he declares that attempts to increase the minimum age for individuals to buy high-powered rifles are “unconstitutional.”

I will have to disagree with the Texas governor, a Republican who continues to hide behind a canard that declares the Second Amendment doesn’t specify age limits for keeping and bearing arms.

The debate has arisen in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre when an 18-year-old shooter purchased two AR-15 rifles, then walked into Robb Elementary School where he killed 19 children and two educators before the cops killed him.

The Texas Tribune reported: Abbott at his Wednesday campaign event brought up court rulings against gun restrictions from the past three months, including a federal court in Fort Worth on Thursday that struck down a Texas law limiting adults under 21 from carrying handguns. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman wrote that the Second Amendment does not specify limits on age.

Greg Abbott says raising the age to buy assault rifle is unconstitutional | The Texas Tribune

Pittman is correct. The Second Amendment makes no mention of age limits. I guess the judge presumes, therefore, that a six-year-old is able to carry a pistol in his pocket. Hey, the Constitution is silent on age limits, right?

That, of course, is nonsense. It is in my mind just as nonsensical to suggest that state legislatures or Congress, for that matter, cannot enact laws that restrict the age of those who can purchase weapons such as those the moron used in Uvalde.

Therein sits one more reason to vote Greg Abbott out of office when Election Day rolls around.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, education news, State news

Police chief had to go!

Pete Arredondo had become a household name in communities throughout the nation for reasons he likely never imagined when he first strapped on a firearm and pinned a badge on his chest.

Well, now the embattled top cop for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District no longer works for the school district. Its board of trustees today voted unanimously to fire Arredondo because of the former chief’s shameful response to the massacre that erupted at Robb Elementary School in the South Texas community.

Nineteen precious children were slain that day, along with two heroic teachers who fought to save their lives. Arredondo led the UCISD police force that responded to the shooter who had walked into the school.

Then he did nothing! Arredondo said eventually in the aftermath that he didn’t know he would be in charge of the police response.

Imagine the full-on rage the community would have expressed had the school board decided to keep Arredondo on its payroll.

Yep, he had become far more than a “distraction.”

For my money, the man should find work far away from law enforcement.

I doubt that Arredondo’s discomfort will end just because the school board canned him. He will face countless lawsuits from the loved ones of those who died in the massacre. And he should!

Uvalde now can move on. It won’t ever forget what happened on that terrible day. At least, though, the community no longer will carry the burden of paying the salary of a law enforcement officer who failed to do his job.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

‘Fog of war’

They call it the “fog of war” when the whole truth sometimes gets lost in people’s recollections of what happened during the intense heat of battle.

So it might be playing out as a grieving nation seeks the truth behind the police response to the Uvalde, Texas, massacre on Tuesday that killed 19 precious children and two teachers seeking to protect them from the lunatic who opened fire.

Did the police respond correctly? Why did it take an hour for the cops to put down the shooter? Why was the shooter able to walk directly through an unlocked door at Robb Elementary School carrying an AR-15 rifle? Was there an armed police officer on duty at the school … or not?

To their discredit, the Texas Department of Public Safety flacks answering media questions in Uvalde have told conflicting stories of what happened and when it occurred?

Meanwhile, the loved ones of the victims are suffering unbearable pain while awaiting answers to the key question: Could the police have stopped this lunatic before he inflicted such misery?

The “fog of war” defense isn’t enough.

We need answers. We need them right now.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Arm teachers? Seriously?

There he stood, yapping and yammering about how stricter gun laws don’t do a thing to keep us safer. Instead, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre, we need to arm teachers and let them settle the issue of a shooter marching down the halls.

What an absolute crock!

The notion of allowing teachers to pack heat in the classroom is preposterous. I realize that in Texas, some school districts allow such nonsense. Cruz, the Republican junior senator, wants to expand it. He says, in effect, more guns make us safer. Really … Ted?

They do not!

Indeed, Texas is one of those states that no longer requires anyone to demonstrate a level of proficiency with a firearm. We have that law enacted in 2021 called “constitutional carry” of firearms. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill that made it legal for anyone who doesn’t have a criminal conviction on his or her record to own a gun.

How, then, does allowing teachers to carry guns into the classroom any safer? In my view, it doesn’t.

Let’s understand something about law enforcement officers who are licensed as well to carry firearms. They must pass continual tests during their careers to prove their proficiency. How can we expect a teacher to always know what to do in case of an emergency to react properly? We cannot!

I am going to continue to stand on the notion that there must be a legislative remedy that lawmakers of good will and those a conscience can find that doesn’t run counter to the Second Amendment to our Constitution.

Politicians such as Ted Cruz continue to lambaste those on the other side for “politicizing” tragedies such as Uvalde, or Sandy Hook, or Columbine or Aurora while at the same time leaning on their own political benefactors as they refuse to discuss or debate possible solutions within Congress or in state legislatures.

Who, then, is playing politics while our children continue to die?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Uvalde to be theme of 2022 Texas midterm campaign

Hey, this is just a hunch, but I’ll toss it out there to see if sticks to any walls, but I believe that the Uvalde massacre this week might become the central campaign issue in the Texas midterm election campaign.

It’ll dominate the races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, perhaps for the Legislature. Heck it might even play in some county commissioners court campaigns somewhere in Texas.

You know the story about the lunatic who entered Robb Elementary School and massacred 19 children and two teachers. About how Border Patrol tactical squad officers shot him to death. Now come the questions about how the gunman entered the building with relative ease — while packing an AR-15 rifle, the kind used to kill soldiers on the battlefield!

Beto O’Rourke crashed a press conference held by Gov Greg Abbott on Wednesday and said Abbott deserves blame for the deaths in Uvalde. O’Rourke is running against Abbott this year. Hold on with both hands, folks. Because this ride is going to get mighty rough.

Many millions of Americans are enraged at what happened in Uvalde. They damn sure should be. The question now becomes whether there can be a solution found to stem the violence. O’Rourke is correct to suggest that those in power should be held accountable for their inaction.

Thus, we have the campaign theme taking shape as we grieve the deaths in Uvalde.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Thank you, Beto

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Beto O’Rourke stood up and spoke for millions of Americans who are heartbroken, shattered and grief-stricken over the latest eruption of violence in one of our public schools.

The Democratic Party nominee for Texas governor stood before the man he hopes to defeat. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and accused his foe of “doing nothing” to stop the violence. He was shouted down by others on the dais with Abbott and escorted out of the room.

But was it uncalled for? Did O”Rourke say anything inappropriate? No. He spoke from the heart and spoke for many Texans and other Americans.

Twenty-one people died Tuesday morning in Uvalde’s Ross Elementary School; 19 of the victims were third- and fourth-grade students. Children! The two adults were teachers who fought to protect them against the madman who opened fire.

Uvalde police officers and Border Patrol officers were able to kill the shooter.

This debate has exploded yet again. Beto O’Rourke correctly called Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and other legislative leaders for their abject failure to confront the issue of gun violence. Indeed, Abbott has actually boasted about legislation he signed this past year that allows people to carry firearms openly without so much as a certificate attesting their proficiency in handling a deadly weapon.

Abbott spoke about the need for greater “mental health” care for Texans, as if suggesting that residents of this state are somehow nuttier than anyone else.

We need tougher restrictions on gun ownership. We need common-sense legislation that honors the Constitution but seeks to prevent nut cases like the loon who stormed into Robb Elementary School to do the dastardly deed he carried out.

We need to find common ground among legislators of both political parties.

Why in the name of all that is sacred is that so hard to find?

Thank you, Beto O’Rourke, for standing up to the do-nothings whose inaction allows this carnage to continue.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Uvalde = tragedy

Make no mistake about this bit of tragic reality: a beautiful South Texas community is going to be tagged with an identifier that links it to tragedy.

It burst onto our national consciousness Tuesday with the shooting deaths at Robb Elementary School of 19 children and two educators who sought to shield the kids from the lunatic who burst into the school brandishing an AR-15 rifle.

Police killed the shooter. But not before the gunman killed all those children and the teachers who fought to protect them.

My question now is whether Uvalde will be associated forever with tragedy. Or will the town of about 15,000 people be known as the place that stirred legislators, governors, members of Congress to act — finally! — in the interests of protecting other children in other communities?

My heart and my head are conflicting with each other on this one. My heart requires me to hope that Uvalde becomes synonymous with actual reform to stop gun violence, particularly the kind of hideous violence that has thrown the nation into this spasm of grief. My head, though, yanks me back into reality, in that we have traveled down this path too many times already only to be saddened at the lack of reform.

I won’t give up on my hope for the former.

Still, we have a lot of grieving and mourning to complete as we seek to grasp the ghastly reality of what has just unfolded.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com