Texas is distributing DNA kits to students, which will be used to identify them in case of a mass shooting in their school.
At the same time, Governor Greg Abbot is determined to remove all gun controls so that anyone can buy and carry an assault weapon or handgun.
Rex Huppke writes in USA Today:
Hey, Texas! Instead of scary school DNA kits for ‘safety,’ how about some gun safety laws?
Since the horrific Uvalde school shooting in May, Texas officials have done everything they can to protect the state’s guns and comfort the people who own them while doing little to help fearful parents.
In that vein, Texas schools are handing out “safety” kits that encourage parents to collect their children’s DNA and fingerprints in case of an “emergency.” These kits are labeled, without a hint of irony, “A gift of safety, from our family to yours,” right under a giant seal of the state of Texas….
Remind me: Loyal to families or guns?
It would be entirely reasonable for Texas parents – or anyone who sees a link between school shootings and easy access to high-powered firearms – to stand in the Chihuahuan Desert in West Texas and scream to the creosote bushes: “Could we please do something about guns instead of planning for how to identify our kid’s bodies, you sellouts?!?”
But we all know how that’ll go. You might scare a couple passing javelinas, but extracting Texas politicians’ heads from the tuchuses of BIG GUN is like trying to teach common sense to a dude who keeps 37 handguns and five AR-15s in his home for “protection…”
Heck, why don’t we just start issuing dog tags to school kids? If our response to school shootings is to treat children the way we treat soldiers, maybe the DNA kit should come with a weapon and a flak jacket.
Would it be easier to enact reasonable gun laws that require universal background checks, ban the sale of assault weapons, limit magazine capacities and raise the minimum age for gun ownership to 21? Sure, but that might ruffle the feathers of those who think everyone needs to live in a house made of guns and then own more guns to protect themselves from everyone else’s gun-houses and all the other guns. Or something like that. I can’t quite follow the logic, if I’m being honest, but I’m sure if I buy a couple dozen guns it’ll make sense.
America’s love of guns is “absolutely nuts.”
The next time you hear a Republican claim he or she is “pro-life,” ask them why they oppose gun control?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Next up: self-applied toe tags.
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yup
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Your Well-Regulated Militia At Work
Every GOP-Damned Day
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Dark. LOL.
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This is sickening.
The GOP admits the inevitable: We want to control your body and your life.
Their version of “prevention” is mind control; ignoring facts and science; censorship; and premeditated, manufactured lies.
Their version of “intervention” is find someone to blame, self-declaration as a victim, filing lawsuits and never-ending appeals to diminish the real problem.
Their version of “response” is more blame, blame and then ignore the actual underserved and victims, head-in-the-sand, an annual urban photo op, and gerrymander the future
Texas and Florida are like watching endless reruns of The Twilight Zone, Hitchcock, and Dr. Strangelove.
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Very like
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We want to control your body and your life, even though we really couldn’t give a damn about either.
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Perhaps the state should issue dog tags to the students as well.
I saw a cartoon showing a certain Texas official walking out of a school with a sheriff, stepping over the bodies. The sheriff was saying, “Well, good news. No evidence that they were teaching CRT in there.”
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DNA records?
Unreal. Let the virus and the guns and the misinformation and bullying and the life-risk back alley proceedings in – as long as they can identify the bodies.
When North Carolina refused LGBTQ rights, particular transgender rights with their 2016 “Bathroom Bill” – New York prohibited use of state funds for travel to North Carolina on State Business. No meetings, no sports, no convention attendance.
Businesses chose to move corporate headquarters or plans for expansion to other cities. Millions in revenue were lost.
Are CEOs so deeply in the pockets of politicians that they ignore such heinous actions and restrictions where their employees and families live?
All the shiny commercials, ribbons on uniforms, PSAs and slogans are worthless. Money talks.
Where’s your full page ads threatening to move out of Texas and Florida?
Why are other states sinking money into their revenue?
Are college counselors telling the truth about these states to their students – particularly women?
Is the AFT planning a day of concern across Florida where teachers can’t even teach the Constitution for fear they may “take a position” on the definition of “We” the people?
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Remember when records meant vinyl?
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I have thought, TN is the state with the weirdest politics lately, but this trumps it all. Kids in TX are considered soldiers, who can fall in the education battleground. Are they going to be called eduvets once they graduated (hence survived)?
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Kids will need to wear dog tags.
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Massacre after massacre but let’s do nothing about guns in the states controlled by the GOP. NJ has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation and:
Quote from Politico, 10-13-22 – TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey’s top lawmakers unveiled sweeping gun legislation Thursday that would significantly restrict when and where guns can be carried outside of the home, a bill they touted as “the nation’s strongest measure concerning concealed carry.”
The bill would, among other things, require people wanting to carry guns in public to purchase liability insurance — the first statewide mandate of its kind in the nation should the bill become law — and banning guns from being carried in 25 broad categories, including but not limited to government buildings, health care facilities, airports, casinos and private properties where the owners have not given express permission to have guns. Violations would be deemed a third-degree crime. End quote
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The ARs of Texas Are Upon You —
Don’t Worry, We Have Your DNA …
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I do not exactly know the law but i would think that the State of Texass would have to have the permission of the student’s parents, particularly the students who are under the age of 18. Would this not be a violation of HIPPA or some other law? Would this not be in violation of the rights of parents to determine if they want their child to have a DNA test? What if parents and/or students do not want these DNA tests?
The next thing you know all these student’s will have their information in the data base for the FBI, NSA, CIA or any other agency with an alphabet title.
I would tell the State of Texass to take a hike off a short pier. As far as I am concerned this is an invasion of the civil rights of the students and parents.
I can see this going to the courts at the highest level.
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I agree there are also privacy issues with this. When information flows into a data base, there is very little privacy in this country, no matter how many HIPPA forms people sign. Law enforcement will likely gain immediate access to any collected data. That is something parents should carefully consider.
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I thought the same thing but if you read the article, the kits are to be done by the parents and kept at home.
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Even if the kits are kept at home, it’s disgusting to prepare for school massacres while making guns freely available. No limits on open carry or concealed carry
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You are right.
The purpose of collecting this DNA has nothing to do with identifying students after shootings, which only has a miniscule probability of occurring, at any rate.
The latter is simply an excuse for collecting the data, which will undoubtedly be used for all manner of purposes, including by health insurance companies.
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There is actually no need for DNA for identification in this case.
Dental records are perfectly adequate and have been used for a very long time for that purpose.
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Texas —
Libertarian State for the Yahoo, er, Yeehaw Militia.
Surveillance State for their Prospective Victims.
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Just as “Hate Cannot Be Cured By Hate.”
(MLK)
Crazy cannot be cured by crazy.
Doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results,
doesn’t work.
Laws don’t “cure” or control law
breakers.
Where there is a will, there is
a way, laws or gun “control”
be damned.
WHAT IF placing culpability
where it belongs, required
recognizing the impact of
institutional “thinking”?
The alienated institutionalization
of life, resting on embedded patterns
of perception and interpretation,
the social constructions of
reality, the class filters of
identity and naming- superior
and inferior, sheep and goats,
godly and ungodly, worshipers
and infidels, saved and unsaved,
redeemed and rejected, resurrected
and damned…
KILLING seems to be the ultimate
expression of desperation.
United we live.
Divided we kill…
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self-destruction the ultimate human statement about itself
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The US military has used DNA and other methods to identify KIAs for decades and has an established facility in Hawaii with a primary job to identify KIAs recovered at any time from any war, with an emphasis on “any”.
So, I think that means Texas is now a certified war zone and every child shot dead by a lunatic is just another KIA to identify. How long before Texas starts distributing DNA kits to everyone that lives in Texas regardless of age?
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Excellent point, LLOYD! DNA and dogtags for everyone in Texas!
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Electric collars too so Abbott can shock any woman who goes near an abortion clinic.
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And whips for Abbott, Cruz and the other slave masters
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Also… It will sure be nice for the law enforcement to have ever expanding bank of DNA profiles.
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The kits are to be done by the parents at home and kept at home. No expanding of the bank of DNA profiles from this creepy, wasteful and unnecessary agenda. They are just throwing a bone to parents so that they don’t have to take accountability for gun laws.
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You don’t think they would find their way into the hands of law enforcement? This is just the opening salvo disguised as care… Eventually schools would “offer” to place your child’s DNA profile alongside all the other students in the school. Then just about the time little Timmy turns 18 Texas or some other state would pass a law that allowed these DNA profiles to be “included” in the state data base- Probably in the interest of safety, or maybe tied to a student loan. Then just like those farmed fish that made their merry way into the great lakes little Timmy’s DNA profile is part of the national data bank. But why should he care? What is Timmy got to hide?
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jeclark67…..I can see your point, but I think (or hope) most parents would see this data grab and fight tooth and nail to end it. They did it with In-Bloom (no DNA but still much PPI). I would hope that parents realize that dental records, a hairbrush/toothbrush provide enough DNA to make a match in the event of another massacre. The whole DNA industry feels creepy and intrusive to me so I don’t/won’t submit my DNA or that of my children. When SEL data was to be taken from my male child and stored on our state’s Longitudinal Database (given a C- in security!), I pulled him from public school and put him into private….that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.
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The Biggest Brother here is not Precrime Prognosis but the Insurance Industry, which already uses any genetic plus genealogy data it can get its hands on to avoid covering too many people who might actually need insurance.
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Schools have gun control. That’s why they are often the target of mass shootings. How can people not see that gun control doesn’t work. What we need is to get rid of the gun control.
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