As the details emerge about the Uvalde massacre of children, a puzzling situation appears.
According to CNN, nearly 100 law officers converged on the Robb Elementary School.
More than 100 federal officers responded to Tuesday’s deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, according to Customs and Border Patrol.
“When it was all said and done, we had over 80 officers immediately on the scene, and then right after that, 150 or so officers converged on this area,” Customs and Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz told CNN on Wednesday.
Ortiz said those officers came from several divisions, including the Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations and Homeland Security Investigations.
But then, says CNN:
The Robb Elementary School shooter was on the premises for up to an hour before law enforcement forcibly entered a classroom and killed him, officials said Wednesday.
“It’s going to be within, like 40 minutes or something, [within] an hour,” Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw told CNN’s Ed Lavandera at a news conference.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district includes Uvalde, told CNN’s Jake Tapper he was briefed that shooter Salvador Ramos was in a standoff with law enforcement for about a half-hour after firing on students and teachers.
“And then it stops, and he barricades himself in. That’s where there’s kind of a lull in the action,” Gonzales said. “All of it, I understand, lasted about an hour, but this is where there’s kind of a 30-minute lull. They feel as if they’ve got him barricaded in. The rest of the students in the school are now leaving.”
Department of Public Safety spokesperson Sgt. Erick Estrada declined to be more specific about the timeline in a CNN interview Wednesday night.
Why did this large contingent of law officers wait for 30-60 minutes before breaking into the classroom?
There were scores of “good men with guns” and one “bad man with an AR15 and a handgun.” They didn’t stop him. Why?
We will learn more in the days to come. I hope we learn why armed officers stood back and waited while 19 children and two teachers were murdered.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“They didn’t stop him. Why?”
Maybe because this happened in Texas.
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Ariana Reyes, what did you do to your son to make him into such a monster? What abuse, neglect or worse did you turn a blind eye to? The blood of those many young children is just as much on your hands as your monster child.
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The blood is on people who insist that 18 year olds should have the right to purchase assault weapons capable of mass murder of our children. Shocking that the Texas Republican Governor was tweeting to Texans to buy more guns – do you think that teenager heard him and tried to please the Texas Republicans who wanted them to be able to easily murder children.
How many other 18 year olds heard the Texas Republican Governor tweeting to his people to go out and buy more guns? How many will use it to murder our children in the future. Republicans make it easy for them. Every country has people with mental illnesses. Only our country makes it easy for them to purchase assault weapons to annihilate children.
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Yes, this needs an explanation. Quick response was supposed to be one of the “Lessons from Columbine”, according to Dave Cullen’s 2009 book “Columbine”——–
“And the final practical lesson of Columbine is a revolution in police response tactics. Cops followed the old book at Columbine: surround the building, set up a perimeter, contain the damage. That approach has been replaced by the “active shooter protocol.” Optimally, it calls for a four-person team to advance in a diamond-shaped wedge. (If there isn’t time to gather four officers, a single officer should charge in alone.) They’re trained to move toward the sound of gunfire and neutralize the shooter. Their goal is to stop him at all costs. They will walk past a dying child if they have to, just to prevent the shooter from killing more. The active protocol has proved successful at numerous shootings during the past decade. At Virginia Tech alone, it probably saved dozens of lives.”
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Against an AR15? At that point I don’t think they had any way of knowing whether anybody was alive in that classroom. They did know that he had gotten past a security guard and 2 (?) police officers apparently without injury. I don’t know if they decided if he had body armor or not yet. I have a strong feeling that we are rushing to judgement in a situation in which we know far too little. Even if we did know more, I think I will wait for the critique of the experts. If there is anyone to blame, let’s start with the lawmakers who make this carnage possible, not the guys who have to try to stop it.
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Well said. But I still wonder why they waited so long.
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I do too, but I am guessing that they would have if they knew everyone was already dead. Although if they knew, then there was no reason to rush in and get themselves killed either. I could go all TV cop/FBI show and guess that once they had the ability to look for heat signatures and knew where he was and that no one else was alive, they could take him out. Unfortunately, I’m guessing that these things typically take longer than an hour long (-15 minutes of commercials) TV show. I hope they can tell us enough to calm the nerves but not enough to embolden the next shooter sooner rather than later.
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Read my post again–I am merely quoting what one expert says is now policy and training.
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Sorry, Mark. I didn’t mean it to sound like a criticism of you. I was responding to the quote, but did not make that clear.
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But no, policy and training does not necessarily become practice.
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The TX governor referred to Chicago. If guns are illegal in Chicago what open carry states exported the guns into the city?
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Don’t blame the open-carry states! Clearly this is the work of the liberals and their illegal, gay, trans, Muslim, and abortionist friends!!
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https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm
Those darn libs!
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From the NYT:
“The gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers in a rural Texas elementary school on Tuesday entered the building despite being confronted by an ARMED school security officer, then wounded two responding police officers and engaged in a standoff inside the school for over an hour, state police officials said.”
So ARMING someone at school didn’t help. Having two police officers there didn’t help. The teen with the assault weapon went into the school and killed 19 children and 2 teachers.
And we are supposed to believe the Republican lie that this is about having more people armed? Because having 3 armed law enforcement officials against a single shooter at a school just isn’t enough to prevent the shooter from walking right in?
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I expect that the armed security guards were outgunned by the AR15
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Sounds about right. So next the Republicans will be saying that elementary schools need at least a few security officials armed with AR15s. Or maybe every elementary school teacher needs an AR15 in their class?
It is a sign of the complete capitulation of our so-called liberal media that the Republicans get away with this and folks like Kristof still make it a “both sides” equally to blame problem.
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According to ABC, the shooter was able to enter the school BEFORE being confronted—-
“11:32 a.m. Ramos enters the school through a west entrance and is approached by one Uvalde ISD school resource officer. No gunfire is exchanged. Ramos continues into the school.”
If true, why was the entrance not locked? At my school (2001), the NY Safe Schools Act required all entrances to be locked at all times, with visitors only admitted through the front door after identifying themselves on camera and audio.
Oh…..but this is Texas, where it’s probably forbidden to traumatize students with such precautions.
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Mark…our public schools in MD have the locked doors, cameras and buzzers, too. I found that it was just window dressing. The problem is that many overcrowded schools have portables on the lots outside and children need to use the bathrooms that are located inside. As much as they try to keep these doors locked, they are often times left propped open so that teachers at the end of the hallways aren’t constantly disrupted with banging to let a kid in. No one ever thinks that this could happen at their community school.
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Lisa, you make an important point. These policies require effective monitoring and implementation. If no one thinks it can happen at their school, why do anything?
For the common problem you describe, a next step would be spending money to hire a full time monitor to walk the halls and portables, check the doors, and let the kids in. Or spending money to connect the portables, or build an addition to the school.
All of this brings up the persistent problem of inadequate school funding. Yes, one problem after another…..BUT, do we care about this or not? Are we going to DO something that will help, or not?
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In outdoor education, safety training is based on the interaction of two concepts–environmental conditions and human behavior–which can interact to create life-threatening hazards. We can safely look over the edge of the Grand Canyon from behind a fence, and we can safely try to walk along a playground balance beam, but if we try to walk the railings along the edge of the Grand Canyon, we risk our lives.
This is a helpful concept in thinking about school shootings. The environmental conditions are gun availability and deranged people; the human behaviors are leaving doors ajar and thinking that “it can’t happen here.” Which of these factors can we reduce or eliminate and how? And will we??
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I just realized that legislation to mandate more armed guards at schools would mean more lowly paid, questionably trained, ill-equipped guards in the future. Think TSA with minimal training and state-of-the-art weapons. Some of them, if they hit the armed intruder lottery, will die or be wounded and become “heroes” as people forget they didn’t do as advertised–through no fault of their own.
This will be a natural growth opportunity for the private police forces wealthy communities, many of which will surely be eligible for surplus military equipment that will one day be parked in front of our schools. And you thought the right just loved Israel because all those Jews would finally go to hell when the Rapture finally comes. Their Palestinian policy will soon be a model for domestic policy.
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The shooter should have been shot right then and there…The same mercy he showed for all the victims.
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Here is why we can’t get any decent gun control laws. Too many politicians are corrupt and receive huge amounts of money from the NRA. My Senator Todd Young [R-IN] received $2,897,582.
In 2019, Brady United put together a list of the top senators to receive money from the NRA over the years in campaign contributions. It’s a list of senators like:
Mitt Romney (UT), $13,647,676
Richard Burr (NC), $6,987,380
Roy Blunt (MO), $4,555,722
Thom Tillis (NC), $4,421,333
Marco Rubio (FL), $3,303,355
Joni Ernst (IA), $3,124,773
Rob Portman (OH), $3,063,327
Todd C. Young (IN), $2,897,582
Bill Cassidy (LA), $2,867,074
Tom Cotton (AR), $1,968,714
Pat Toomey (PA), $1,475,448
Josh Hawley (MO), $1,391,548
Marsha Blackburn (TN), $1,306,130
Ron Johnson (WI), $1,269,486
Mitch McConnell (KY), $1,267,139
John Thune (SD), $638,942
Chuck Grassley (IA), $226,007
John Neely Kennedy (LA), $215,788
Ted Cruz (TX), $176,274
Lisa Murkowski (AK), $146,262
Pulling in hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in “donations.” What’s important to note here is that Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas haven’t pulled in the big, flashy numbers of donations over their careers from the NRA, compared to other senators.
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Thanks, Carol. A hall of shame
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Beto crashed Abbott’s press conference. He called out his administration for “doing nothing.” Guards arrived to show him the door. Texas should wake up and vote for Beto.
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Beto has courageously advocated for gun control in a gun-crazy state.
Maybe when your own children and grandchildren are at risk, you might rethink your gun-love
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Mitt Romney leaves everyone else in the dust.
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But I can understand why it’s so important to have a strong gun representation in Utah with so many religious folks.
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need protection if someone comes trying to steal one of your wives
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What this tells me is that Ted Cruz really needs to up his game.
He’s only gotten a little over 1% of Romney’s gun lobby winnings.
And Mitt Romney is such a square. He probably doesn’t even have cowboy boots or a hat.
And sure as hell doesn’t have any cattle.
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LOL. Mitt Romney is probably the squarest person of this century. If he were any more square, he would be a cube or a tesseract.
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I was surprised at the Mitt Romney numbers, and this chart is a bit misleading because Romney received no NRA money at all in 2018.
Basically all of the NRA donations seem to be related to the money the NRA spent to defeat Obama in 2012 when Romney was the Republican nominee against him.
This chart has some important information, but the NRA didn’t continue to give money to Romney. And unlike some of these others, I haven’t found any evidence of Romney being a regular at the NRA. It seems mainly he appeared in 2012 when he was pandering for their votes. Rabid gun supporters didn’t like Romney because he signed an assault weapons ban when he was Governor of Mass.
So I don’t think the NRA influences Romney like the do many other Republicans. Seems they supported him to defeat Obama in 2012 and then they parted ways.
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Good catch, NYCPSP. I wondered why Romney was so high. He just didn’t strike me as a poster child for the NRA. I guess we have to be careful of how we interpret data. Points out how easy numbers can obscure info and not just in education!
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Peter Thiel’s man, JD Vance (likely replacement for Portman in Ohio) backed red flag gun laws in 2018. To win the primary, he reinvented himself. He now opposes all gun safety legislation.
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I don’t for a moment believe that children were being shot while officers waited.
More likely, they were trying to save children and move everyone to safety, knowing that the shooter was barricaded and not an immediate danger to anyone.
As you said we will learn the details.
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It’s convenient to excuse a person’s waiting to act with any number of reasons.
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The massacres will increase until the NRA whores
known as the Republican Party are history.
It really is that simple.
There is no other way.
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Did this classroom not have windows? Could those not have been broken to fire at the shooter? How could this have gone on so long? And how many men does it take to freaking knock open a locked door?
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All exits in schools should be locked during school hours. It is easy to do with an electronic system. People can still exit from the inside in case of fire.There should be a locked front door with a camera so the secretary can buzz in parents and deliveries. This should be in all schools despite the cost.
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This was the procedure at my last school. This was the end of the school year. There were probably a lot of parents coming and going. I don’t know. What I don’t understand is why, after the shooter barricaded himself into that classroom, police waited for a tactical unit to arrive before responding. They should have broken the windows, broken down the door, and shot this guy. That was job 1. But we know almost nothing yet.
We need locks on all school doors, surveillance cameras on entrances, and, importantly, METAL DETECTORS AND AUTOMATICALLY LOCKING DOORS AT ALL ENTRANCES. When The Idiot goes to speak to the NRA Child Murder Promotion Convention in Huston in a few days, people will be screened for guns and other weapons on entering the hall.
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The company that sold Ramos his guns has deleted from its website a picture of a small child holding an AR, accompanied by a Bible verse on training children up right.
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Meanwhile, the Extreme Court is all set to expand “gun rights under the 2nd Amendment” in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Insane
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This is a challenge to New York’s requirements for a concealed carry permit.
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Surely, every NY Governor should be able to conceal their sexual harassment and carry it to their grave.
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And by God, they could back in the day when girls were girls and men were men! Oh, wait a minute–Alito/Thomas court–we’re still in those days! What gives?
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Believe it. Children were being shot while officers waited for ONE hour. In fact, outside parents were being held back from taking action. Parents finally did break windows and rescued.
Inaction happened at Parkland and we did not awaken from our Maya distortion.
Oxford MI school shooting yet another example. These well-financed, heavily-armed, incompetently-trained systems are not working. Assault weapons belong in war and not on the internet. Guns & Driver License requiring proper authorization.
Uvalde is a community of hard-working family people. No expensive/high security systems at the school. No sharp shooters on the janitorial staff. The BIG LIE being told was bravely challenged by Beto. He was nearly arrested for his effort.
That lie will be repeated this Memorial Day Weekend at Houston’s NRA Annual Convention. 5/27-5/29. Anti-NRA Narrative protestors are now making their way to the city. Any decent organization would call off the confab but not this mob of madness.
Talk is cheap. Beto showed everyone that it is time to call them out and pull the plug on the plutocratic pathology.
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