by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Salvador Ramos was born on May 16, 2004, in the state of North Dakota, but he essentially spent his entire life in the west Texas community of Uvalde. As a young child Salvador attended the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a school largely comprised of Hispanic children. He was reported to have been socially awkward and a loner, possibly as a result of a serious speech impediment that included a stutter and a strong lisp, and he was the subject of bullying throughout much of his middle school and high school years.
Salvador had dropped out of high school and until recently was working at the local Wendy's where he told a co-worker that he was saving his money to buy guns. A couple of weeks ago he had apparently achieved his financial goal because he quit going to work.
Salvador turned eighteen on Monday, May 16th, and the following day he turned up at a local gun store and purchased an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. The next day he went back to the same store and purchased 375 rounds of ammunition for his new gun, and the day after that he returned again to the same store and bought a second AR-15. Sometime, presumably during the same period, he also purchased a tactical vest and at least seven high-capacity (30-round) magazines.
The young man's gun-related purchases totaled somewhere near four thousand dollars. There were apparently no reports made to any law enforcement entity regarding these highly suspect purchases by such a young individual.
Federal law requires a person to be twenty-one-years-old before they can legally purchase a pistol, the law allows the purchase of "long guns" (rifles and shotguns which were thought to be more likely used for hunting) at the age of eighteen. AR-15's, while weapons of war used to kill people en masse, are considered by law to be long guns.
But the long and the short of it is this: Salvador Ramos, a troubled youth who had been bullied in school, had been identified as a "loner," and had even been taunted in school with the nickname "shooter," quit high school and got a job for the specific purpose of saving enough money to buy guns. By the time of his 18th birthday he had saved all of the money he needed to purchase two semi-automatic weapons and other items that he deemed essential for carrying out the plan that had apparently been percolating in his brain for a very long time.
Then on Tuesday, May 24th, just eight days after his birthday, Salvador shot his grandmother with whom he had been living (she has so far survived), posted on social media that he had shot her and that he was heading to an elementary school, and then took his grandmother's pick-up truck to the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a school which he had once attended.
The young shooter wrecked his grandmother's truck in a ditch near the school, and grabbed one of his guns and a backpack full of ammunition and headed for the school building. Governor Abbott of Texas reported that the shooter then "engaged" with a police officer outside of the building, but Abbott later clarified that no shots were fired during that engagement. (At this point it remains unclear as to what happened outside of the building as Ramos entered.) Salvador Ramos then charged into the building and entered a room that was occupied by two teachers and their fourth graders, most of whom were ten-years-old.
As Ramos rushed into the building, he apparently dropped the backpack outside. It was found to have contained seven 30-round magazines full of ammunition.
Salvador Ramos shot and killed both teachers who were in the "combined" classroom, and he killed nineteen students, reportedly shooting some in the face. Police began assembling at the scene almost immediately, but some news reports indicate that it may have taken forty minutes or more before they entered the building. There were reports of parents talking about entering the building themselves if police did not act. The timeline of events remains unclear at this point.
Police reportedly did break out windows of several classrooms in the hope of freeing students trapped in those rooms.
When the tactical unit did enter, they found the classroom door to be locked and sent for a school employee to unlock it. When the team gained entry to the bloody classroom, one of the members shot and killed Ramos.
Yesterday, after NRA talking points had been shared with their political supporters, Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, and Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and more than a dozen others gathered in Uvalde for a press conference related to the shooting. All of the people on the stage were males, and, with one exception, all appeared to be white. After the governor had finished his initial remarks, and as the lieutenant governor was preparing to speak, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beto O'Rourke, marched into the meeting and walked up to the stage, commenting as he approached that Governor Abbott was continuing to "do nothing" to stop school shootings.
Members of the governor's entourage began trying to shout down O'Rourke with Ted Cruz yelling that he should stop this "stunt" and Mayor McLaughin referring to O'Rourke as a "sick son of a bitch." Governor Abbott ordered O'Rourke removed from the hall, and he was escorted out by police. Once outside the outraged O'Rourke spoke to the press unimpeded by the governor's team of "yes" men.
O'Rourke continued his attack on Abbott for doing nothing after several recent mass shootings in Texas. He noted that Governor Abbott, who is quick to blame shootings on "mental health" issues, has refused to expand Medicaid which would increase access to mental health services for people who need it, and he noted also that Abbott "has refused to champion Red Flag laws, and refused to support safe-storage laws so that young people cannot get their hands on guns."
Just like the majority of Americans, Beto was mad as hell and he wasn't going to take it anymore!
Later in the day Beto was invited into the homes of some of the families of the victims, while the town's mayor and the state's governor and other dignitaries were busy clapping each other on their Anglo-backsides and congratulating themselves on the heartfelt response that they had given to the devastated community.
It had been a battle of ideologies. One side had once again sought to calm the rage of the people with thoughts and prayers and finger-pointing at various straw men, and the other side began spitting fire and seriously challenging the status quo. Guns and mass shootings were going to be a very big political issue in Texas in 2022, whether the NRA was ready for the fight or not.
Beto O'Rourke and America won the day, but the war rages on.
No comments:
Post a Comment