PBS Asked Every Senator What Should Be Done After Uvalde

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1. rwieck says:

   June 1, 2022 at 10:21 am

   Nothing changes until Congress begins to lose its own children. Afterall, isn’t this why the military is voluntary now? “Not MY kids.”

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   • ciedie aech says:

     June 1, 2022 at 2:18 pm

     a very important observation

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   • retiredbutmissthekids says:

     June 1, 2022 at 5:56 pm

     So very true, Randy. Lots of mealy-mouthed drivel. No comment at this time from Mark Kelly?! I would think that he’d be the biggest voice here advocating for strict gun laws–his own WIFE was shot! (I wish that SHE was reinstated in her husband’s place–she could probably do a much better job {he continues to take $$$ from the fossil fuel industry.} I’m always receiving emails from him asking for $$$$, but see very little evidence of his being a good legislator.
     & the ONE answer I was looking for (&, of course, did not find, although Amy Klobuchar came close): reinstitution of the 1994 Federal Ban on Assault Weapons. Although–in it’s 10-year life–we know that it didn’t stop the Columbine massacre.

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2. Bob Shepherd says:

   June 1, 2022 at 10:29 am

   Yikes. So much, oh, this is so terrible. Thoughts and prayers. And suddenly Republicans have discovered mental health (ironic, that). These shootings couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that any kid can lay his hands on military-grade weapons, ammunition, and armor.

   There was a discussion on this blog recently of Greg B’s contention that the right hides extremist views behind overt reasonableness. I can think of no better example than those provided, over and over and over again, by the responses from the Republican Senators. I would say what I think of those, but Diane doesn’t allow that kind of language on her blog.

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3. retired teacher says:

   June 1, 2022 at 10:38 am

   The comments are interesting and generally reflect party lines. We need more than lip service from our elected representatives. We need decisive action that will keep our children safe. We should not have to send our children to school in a fortress because of our lax gun laws. Even if we change our buildings to make them safer, we cannot afford bullet proof glass in all schools with a cost of over $1 million dollars per building. The key to change is a system that will restrict open access and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands to dangerous people.

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4. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

   June 1, 2022 at 11:07 am

   How do we explain the meaning behind “No Response at Publishing Time”?

   McConnel was on that list that was made up of mostly Republicans.

   My explanation for “no response at publishing time” is that most if not all of those Senators are as bad as Putin and Traitor Trump. They have no conscience. They have no souls. They have no hearts. They shouldn’t even be considered human.

   That lack of a response also is more evidence to me that most if not all Republicans are fascists and/or support fascists. At least we know Margorie Taylor Green is a fascist. She reveals that with every tweet and word that comes out of her sewer mouth.

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5. SomeDAM Poet says:

   June 1, 2022 at 11:09 am

   There’s actually no such thing as “bulletproof glass”.

   And at close range , assault rifles can make short work of most commercial grade bullet resistant glass. one does not even need armor piercing bullets. One may have to shoot multiple times to undermine/break the glass depending on the grade, but squeezing off 15 or 30 rounds can easily be accomplished in short order even with a semi automatic rifle.

   It simply does not present much of a difficulty to someone with a high powered semi auto rifle.

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   • SomeDAM Poet says:

     June 1, 2022 at 11:38 am

     Reply was supposed to be under retired teacher comment referring to bulletproof glass above

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   • Threatened Out West says:

     June 1, 2022 at 1:49 pm

     Sandy Hook Elementary had state of the art security. Took no time at all for that to be breached by someone with an AR 15. No one should have access to that kind of weapon. Period.

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     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       June 1, 2022 at 10:02 pm

       Investigators are now saying that video shows that the teacher who was accused of leaving the door propped in Uvalde actually closed it, but that it did not lock.

       But it’s actually irrelevant whether it was locked or not.

       Look at the photo of the door in the image

       https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-texas-a55b3ccc5a32dce916e7d0a10d7c546e

       The door has a window in the center and windows on the rhs which the shooter could — and certainly would – have shot out had the door actually properly locked.

       And if no such windows had been present in and around the door he would simply have shot out a ground floor classroom window and climbed in.

       If someone with an AR15 wants to get inside a school, a locked door is not going to stop them.

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     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       June 1, 2022 at 10:08 pm

       Of course, after shooting out the window in the door, he would have reached in and turned the handle to open the door.

       But apparently this has not occurred to the investigators because they are still focussed on (obsessing over?) why the door did not lock.

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     • Máté Wierdl says:

       June 2, 2022 at 5:17 am

       It’s not a gun problem, it’s a door lock problem. It’s not guns that kill people, it’s door locks. Doors are also suspicious. I think they should put together a special door accessories investigative committee headed by Marsha Blackburn or Mitch.

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     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       June 2, 2022 at 8:19 am

       Astute observation:

       “Guns don’t kill people, door locks do”

       But only in Texas (and Florida , Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and a lot of other states)

       It is a little known fact that more people have been killed by door locks in these states than all other things combined.

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6. Roy Turrentine says:

   June 1, 2022 at 11:42 am

   My senator, for whom I did not vote, wants to use money already approved to beef up security. Oh and what about mental health? Not a word about access to just about everything short of a get made launcher.

   I have a different suggestion: arm particularly volatile teachers with missiles and let them blaze away at particularly recalcitrant students. Spare the rod, I always say.

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     June 1, 2022 at 11:56 am

     The voice of experience!

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   • Máté Wierdl says:

     June 2, 2022 at 5:31 am

     Yeah, missiles are the 21st century version of spanking. Since corporal punishment is recommended by the Constitution and is legal in most red states, it should be no problem for the current supreme court to find it in the Constitution that our funding fathers in fact would have welcomed missile system development in schools to protect innocent children from rogue door lock makers.

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     • Bob Shepherd says:

       June 2, 2022 at 8:11 am

       ROFLMSAO!!! (The S stands for “sweet”)

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     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       June 2, 2022 at 8:36 am

       I think the oscillating machine gun used by Walter White in the final episode of Breaking Bad to get the (other) bad guys might be the way to go.

       Myth Busters actually showed that it would work.

       They could train the teachers and students to immediately hit the floor when they heard a certain alarm so the only people killed would be the shooter(s)

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     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       June 2, 2022 at 8:53 am

       Or maybe a classroom Star Wars bullet defense system.

       Laser or particle beams that shoot down bullets in mid flight.

       The possibilities (for weapons contractors to make money) are endless.

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     • jcgrim says:

       June 2, 2022 at 10:22 am

       Miss Marsha B, my esteemed Senator: “School officials with prior military or law enforcement experience should be allowed to carry firearms.”

       Why not give every policeman & teacher a rocket launcher?

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7. Daedalus says:

   June 1, 2022 at 12:47 pm

   Yeah, my Senators want to ‘harden schools’ (more cops).

   I remember when there were zero cops in schools, and no kids got shot by disgruntled teenagers with assault weapons. Times have changed.

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8. Duane E Swacker says:

   June 1, 2022 at 2:14 pm

   Do I even want to look at what the Show Me State Senators have to say?

   Two bits says I won’t be surprised.

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   • Duane E Swacker says:

     June 1, 2022 at 2:30 pm

     No, not surprised. Same ol shit.

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     • retiredbutmissthekids says:

       June 1, 2022 at 5:58 pm

       You said it, man. They’d send thoughts & prayers.

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     • SomeDAM Poet says:

       June 1, 2022 at 9:10 pm

       Their thought: ” I could not care less”
       Their prayer: “That mind reading is not a real thing”

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9. SpewingTruth says:

   June 1, 2022 at 8:21 pm

   Delete this if you must!

   Another Shooting in Tulsa
   But thoughts and Prayers
   Fuck you!

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     June 1, 2022 at 10:59 pm

     You say what we are all thinking.

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10. NYC public school parent says:

    June 1, 2022 at 9:03 pm

    https://boingboing.net/2022/05/30/richard-scarrys-21st-century-classroom.html

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    • NYC public school parent says:

      June 1, 2022 at 9:04 pm

      ^^^I don’t know if this link will post here. But if you google “Richard Scarry’s 21st century classroom” you will see a drawing that unfortunately does not even seem to be satire anymore. Really horrific what our country now finds acceptable.

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      • Bob Shepherd says:

        June 2, 2022 at 8:12 am

        Tragic and hilarious at the same time

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      • bethree5 says:

        June 2, 2022 at 12:09 pm

        Perfect, nycpsp

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      • NYC public school parent says:

        June 2, 2022 at 1:37 pm

        Like Richard Scarry books, one has to spend a while reading the small print to appreciate the brilliance of that drawing.

        “school supplies purchased by probable groomer” in the bottom left corner is a salute to teachers everywhere who spend their own money to make their students’ experience better, and have to suffer the attacks by folks with absolutely no moral cores who simply want to politicize hate.

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      • dianeravitch says:

        June 2, 2022 at 3:23 pm

        On Twitter, there is a Richard Scarry -style drawing that shows a room full of children hiding under their desks, with a shadowy gunman in the hall.

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      • NYC public school parent says:

        June 2, 2022 at 6:56 pm

        Diane,

        Yes, that’s the link I posted above.

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      • NYC public school parent says:

        June 2, 2022 at 6:58 pm

        ^^^But it’s not just the drawing, but the little written descriptions of what is going on that is so accurate (it should be satire but it isn’t)

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11. democracy says:

    June 2, 2022 at 5:00 am

    The LA Times says that we need a new ‘Memorial’ Day:

    “More than 45,000 Americans died of gun violence and suicide by firearm in 2020, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s just 2,000 short of the number of Americans who died in battle during the entire Vietnam War…Along with our many memorials to our war dead and the victims of the foreign-based terrorism of 9/11, we need a national memorial to our victims of domestic, civilian gun violence…Guns became the leading cause of death for children 1 and older for the first time in 2020, according to the CDC. Nearly 80% of the intentional killings in this country are by firearm. And a 2014 study by UC San Francisco found that people with ready access to firearms were three times more likely to die by suicide…Make no mistake, this is a war — a war on people in this country and on our sense of safety. That’s what terrorism does; it makes people afraid to go about their daily lives…We need another Memorial Day in this country, one to remember the victims of gun violence.”

    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-05-30/editorial-america-needs-two-memorial-days

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    • Bob Shepherd says:

      June 2, 2022 at 8:14 am

      Many years ago, a group called something like Men against Domestic Violence unveiled a banner before the Vietnam War Memorial. On it were listed the names of women killed in domestic violence incidents during the time of our involvement in Vietnam. There were more names on the banner than on the memorial. Same with this.

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12. Máté Wierdl says:

    June 2, 2022 at 5:05 am

    Our TN senator, Marsha Blackburn never disappoints. She wants staff armed, schools to be locked like prisons, and wants to increase armed guards. She thinks federal money should be used to cover these expenses while TN just spent $500 million on a much needed new stadium in Nashville out of the $2 billion budget surplus while giving quarter of the inflation rate raises to profs and less than half to teachers.

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    • Máté Wierdl says:

      June 2, 2022 at 5:07 am

      I think Marsha would be fine with barbed wires drawn around schools while kids in Finland roam the forest during recess.

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      • Roy Turrentine says:

        June 2, 2022 at 7:54 am

        Marsha would be fine with boiling the children if it got her elected

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      • SomeDAM Poet says:

        June 2, 2022 at 9:20 am

        Finland is Finished

        Finland is finished
        Cuz children can play
        Future’s diminished
        The country will pay

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      • SomeDAM Poet says:

        June 2, 2022 at 9:48 am

        Finland is Finished (2)

        They play with flames
        The Finland folk
        The playing games
        Will leave them broke

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      • SomeDAM Poet says:

        June 2, 2022 at 9:49 am

        “The Finished folk” would prolly be better

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      • Bob Shepherd says:

        June 2, 2022 at 10:22 am

        Wow. Well said, well argued, Mate.

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      • jcgrim says:

        June 2, 2022 at 10:34 am

        Here’s Miss Marsha opposing legislation against violence against women, but backs child predator Roy Moore & one of her wealthiest donors, Nashville Porn King, Lee Beaman

        It pretty much sums up Marsha’s base.

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13. Bob Shepherd says:

    June 2, 2022 at 8:09 am

    GREAT essay by my fellow Floridian! Here:

    When Gun Owners Go Bad

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    • Bob Shepherd says:

      June 2, 2022 at 8:19 am

      Oh, and another by this wonderful human:

      The Dishonorable Mr. Scott

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      • dianeravitch says:

        June 2, 2022 at 10:14 am

        Wonderful..and scary

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      • jcgrim says:

        June 2, 2022 at 10:46 am

        If the justice system functioned as it should, Rick Scott should be in federal prison for Medicare/Medicaid fraud.
        https://marketrealist.com/p/rick-scott-medicare-fraud-explained/

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      • Bob Shepherd says:

        June 2, 2022 at 10:48 am

        Exactly. How, exactly, does one perpetrate the biggest insurance fraud in history, and perpetrate this against the government and the taxpayers, and walk away with no punishment AND a multimillion-dollar severance package? One law here for you and me, another for the likes of Scott and Gaetz and Trump.

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      • Bob Shepherd says:

        June 2, 2022 at 10:53 am

        Gives a whole new meaning to walking away Scott free, doesn’t it?

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      • Duane E Swacker says:

        June 2, 2022 at 11:11 am

        jcgrim,

        There is no justice system. There is a legal system that has very little to do with justice. . . except for those with enough money to buy their “justice”.

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      • Bob Shepherd says:

        June 2, 2022 at 1:06 pm

        Yup. We have banana republic justice.

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      • SomeDAM Poet says:

        June 2, 2022 at 12:09 pm

        Just(4)us

        It’s Just for us
        And not for you
        So curse and cus
        Until you’re blue
        But plain Just-us
        Is just for few

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      • Bob Shepherd says:

        June 2, 2022 at 1:06 pm

        Well said, SomeDAM!!!

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14. Bob Shepherd says:

    June 2, 2022 at 10:28 am

    Imagining, here, news outlets running a story entitled, “No Mass Shooting in the United States Today,” assuming that we ever have such a day again.

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15. bethree5 says:

    June 2, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    GAG, gag, ga-ack-ag. If you really want to throw up, tune into CSPAN and hear Judiciary Committee debate gun control proposals. I only had it on “captions” [muted], and had to immediately switch to old-timey TMC movie after reading about 20 secs of Louie Gohmert. He was saying, ‘now if you go back to before all these mass shootings started… maybe there was something going on in the ’60s– some SCOTUS decisions– that spread the message that you could do anything you wanted…’

    OMG

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16. Linda says:

    June 2, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    The answer of Sen. Bill Cassidy- R- La. , was “…God be with those affected.” In 2014, the Koch brothers gave Cassidy their largest single PAC donation in the mid-term elections. Cassidy was challenging a Democratic incumbent.
    Libertarians may enjoy invoking slogans about God. On the other hand, their approval of people dying like feral dogs in the gutter has long been a criticism of them..

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