Wednesday, May 25, 2022

The Uvalde shooting: a tragedy with some strange elements

 

Thoughts, prayers and support go out to the bereaved of Uvalde.  For parents and siblings to lose sons and daughters, brothers and sisters like that, particularly at so early an age, is tragic beyond description.  May God give the survivors what comfort they are able to receive, and accept the souls of the dead into His mercy.

Nevertheless, there are (yet again) elements of this shooting that are disturbingly strange.  I'll let The Intrepid Reporter outline them in more detail:  he has a stronger stomach than I for this sort of thing.  Suffice it to say that there are signs that this may not be just a random incident, but something "generated" - as there have been in disturbingly many recent shooting incidents.  Go read his initial analysis for yourself.  (Profanity warning:  he doesn't mince his words!)  In particular, he notes:

  • The shooter was in possession of a very expensive rifle and holographic sight, far more costly than most of us (including yours truly) can afford.  How does a teenager come by a weapon like that?  He was only 18, the youngest age at which he could legally buy it.  Did he buy it himself, or did someone buy it for him at a younger age?  How did he afford it?  Was it legally bought?
  • The shooter exhibited signs of psychological instability before this, including a photograph of him dressed in drag.  What sort of "treatment" or "counseling" was involved?  Were any medications in the mix, particularly SSRI's (which have been implicated in a number of previous incidents of this nature)?

I have no answers to those questions.  Hopefully some will be forthcoming during the next few days and weeks.  Meanwhile, let us never mention the shooter's name.  Let him be forgotten.  Rather, let's remember his victims, and use this tragedy as a spur to find better ways to protect our young in future.

Peter


21 comments:

Dave said...

A better way to protect young students is to home school.

Peter said...

@Dave: I wholeheartedly agree with you. Not only will they usually receive a much better, more rounded education than they will in the public school system, but they'll be kept away from the dangers of cramming all our kids (despite any problems they may have) into close proximity with each other, where the pressure-cooker may boil over, so to speak.

Nylon12 said...

An $1800.00 AR? A $700.00 to $800.00 sight? An 18-year-old bullied because his family was poor? Doesn't add up to me.

Divemedic said...

What with reports saying his grandmother was the first killed, it sounds like Sandy Hook. The "kill your older relative and take their guns" loophole.

Uncle Lar said...

I forced myself to watch Joe Biden's statement on the shooting, at least until I had to switch channels to keep from destroying my TV.
Maybe two minutes of seemingly genuine sympathy and compassion before he devolved into the same old progressive left talking points blaming the whole thing on the NRA and oh so powerful "gun lobby."
So another blatant and disgusting display of dancing in the still wet blood of innocent children to take advantage of a horrific tragedy to advance their liberal agenda.
I've been feeling almost sorry for the old confused ward heeler, but last night's performance leaves me with little but contempt remaining.

Paul M said...

I don't believe in coincidences. These tragic incidents, 3 in the past - what - week and a half, with young people storming in and shooting up the place with all manner of weaponry "somehow" purchased by a kid, all of whom were known to be "off"...smells to the rafters. Are the Dem's setting these things up to steal 2A while acting magnanimous and [barely] empathetic? Or is it the past 2 years of life destroying lockdowns on top of constant self-centered social media? Maybe both.

What the _Resident did last night was despicable...but he has no clue what he's saying, only what they tell him through the earpiece. I was witing for the Heavenly smiting with his smug angry words while using Scripture as the foundation. This is where we are in America, becoming a 3rd World country at the hands of those who despise the very freedom they profess to uphold while oppressing those who actually do love this country and want to strive to "do better".

Ferric said...

My theory is that with all of the social media and fundraising sites out there he could have gotten the money from the internet. All he had to lie about what it was for. Post a picture of himself in a dress and say that it's because he needs $1300+ for surgery to make boobs bigger, or $10,000 to move out of his oppressively unwoke parents' home and start a new life for himself and he'd have the money in a month or so.

I mean the one shooter tried to do a Twitch stream of his deeds - that tells you that there's an audience, there are people out there that support or drive people in these actions.

The internet is a scary place and I have a feeling that the sides of it I see are totally different that a lot of the people here. Cesspit that it is, 4chan is tame compared to what's out there now. That place at least had the decency to be quiet and anon until it acted, rather than the screaming, in-your-face, horror that is social media. On 4chan people felt safe because no one knew anything about them, now people want to reveal everything about themselves and know everything about each other to feel safe when all it does is create a false sense of trust. Lonely, stupid people will think the screaming madness is their friend because they 'know' each other and then follow what all that noise tells them to do.

Actually poke around on tick-tock,the most woke areas of Twitch and twitter and the stuff you see is terrifying.

lee n. field said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lee n. field said...

"Did Junior leave a manifesto?", one wonders. I'm guessing his various bits of social media have all been scrubbed by this time.

MKUltra was in the fifties. What's the state of that technology now?

Fredrick said...

"$2700" says The Intrepid Reporter, which he can't afford. I bought a used car for almost that much in the early '80s when I was in High School. Having three or four grand is not inconceivable for an 18 year old in 2022. What did mom, dad, and the public school teach him about morals and impulse control over the last dozen years?

MNW said...

I m pretty sure is was far from the only "poor" kid in that school

Greg said...

Let's not forget to ask the Alex Jones question: What psychotropic meds was the kid on, AND WHEN DID HE STOP TAKING THEM? The autopsy drug screen will likely be clean, and it's the withdrawal that triggers these MKUltra windup toys. Just because it's a "conspiracy theory" doesn't make it implausible.

riverrider said...

and now we learn he engaged a local cop, wounding him enough to take him out of the fight then went on to do the same w/ a resource officer and continued into the school(how) and barricaded in a classroom. it took a hero, border patrol tac team member to make entry and dust him after he himself was wounded. 18 y/o drop out loser= tactical expert? i don't f-ing think so. buffalo shooter was pretty good tactically as well. did he learn that off the net? doubt it. i trained and trained others. until bullets fly its easy but then you forget everything taught until you do it over n over and it becomes instinct. you replace the duck instinct w/ the attack instinct. untrained kids don't. just bought his guns less than a week ago, and 375 rounds? and somehow he became a tactical operator? le skunk de pew.

Fredrick said...

riverrider,

We'll learn soon enough when the school camera footage shows up; or doesn't.

John in Indy said...

From my look at the pictures, those rifles (the Daniel Defense and the other one) were not his guns, but rather a photo taken from another persons' posting, which was @epnupues. This address has been blacked out on the XNN report, without an explanation that it was not Ramos' address.

Rick said...

You should kill your TV anyway. Or at the most, keep it for watching old Westerns and the like. Watch your BP go lower and your intelligence go higher.

nick flandrey said...

Gramps was a felon. Mom a drug addict and petty crim. Dad a maybe not so petty crim. Claims are he worked at wendy's until he had the money. $4000, 400 hours plus 100 hours for taxes, not impossible.

Even if he did buy the guns, why THOSE guns? Why not a cheap DelTon, and get some plates for the carrier? It's like the Buffalo guy in $300-400 worth of tactical clothing. Even if he did buy it, WHY?

There are plenty of people talking about his self harm, aggression issues (sits in room punching a bag, goes to park asking people to fight...), and endless online gaming with first person shooters. But no mention of a game console in the family home, or gramma's house.

And now the timeline that says 90 minutes between the 911 call and a border patrol agent had enough and "ended the threat". Schrodinger's agent, who both 'charged in without backup' and 'entered with a SWAT style unit at his back...'

And what about the school's armed security? Armed security at an elementary school? Why couldn't that guy do more than "engage with" the shooter?

I know early reports are usually wrong, but this reporting makes less sense than Kammella at a press conference.
n

Antibubba said...

The Intrepid Reporter needs grammar lessons. Or was that supposed to be patois/code?
---

I am really not looking closely at the details of this shooting, because it's impossible. A day in, and the essence of what happened is there, but the details are so muddled by reports, misinformation, and outright propaganda (from anyone with an agenda--IOW, EVERYONE) that the only people who really know what happened are on the scene gathering forensic evidence. Everything else is journalizing.

As for "not letting the blood dry" before politicizing it, it's what politicians do--yours and theirs. Hell, it's what EVERYBODY does. Everyone has an angle: race, class, medication status--pick 3 of your favorites.

Rib said...

One thing I’d like explained is why there were enough Federal Marshall’s available to provide a cordon around the school within minutes. Uvalde is an hour or more from San Antonio, the nearest metropolitan city. State Troopers, Local Police department’s - sure. Fed’s - Hmmm.

BBrown said...

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John T. Block said...

As was pointed out, not one but two, $2,000. rifles,plus mags, several hundred rounds, chest rig, etc. On a part-time Wendy's paycheck? I've been thinking SOMETHING isn't right, just from the seeming increase in incidents across the country, coming up on the mid-terms... but I'm paranoid like that. We are well past three times, putting us in "enemy action" territory.