California Governor Newsom has COVID: https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-new-zealand-california-san-francisco-6986a317aa677ed81f9320a8ff46225c .
Shanghai continues to move toward end of lockdown: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-05-28/shanghai-takes-further-steps-towards-reopening-beijing-eases-covid-curbs .
Feds at Uvalde went in after state restrained them: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-agents-entered-uvalde-school-kill-gunman-local-police-initiall-rcna30941 . Each day, the news is more painful. My view is that both the state and the feds made wrong decisions here. As to the state, as is well known, police are trained to neutralize an active shooter as the first priority. The state not only failed in that decision, they prevented both the feds and law enforcement parents on scene from following their own training.
The feds made the wrong decision for 30 minutes. Again, that is against their training. What exactly was the risk if they acted immediately? Based on the available information, one or two more children could have died before the shooter was neutralized. That is a terrible risk. But the result was that 19 children and 2 teachers died. The training of the state and local police, and the feds, did not help them make the choice that would have saved lives. The 911 calls from multiple children failed to change the wrong action of the police.
Some may say this is armchair quarterbacking. But this is the nature of analysis. We must do post-event analysis in order to change the future. That is what actuaries do, and what lawyers do. That is our training. And here, the police failed their training.
Abbott continues his slimy behavior in order to slink away from his failures in this case. Texans have the ability to hold him responsible at the ballot box in November. Do they have the sense and the will to do so? Analysis can make clear the failures of police. Obviously, these incidents are occurring at an increasing pace. We absolutely must do better. There are a wide range of solutions. But the primary solution has to be to reduce the number of guns in the hands of irresponsible or deranged people.
Another institutional issue is why the feds followed the state’s lead. It is my understanding that feds often follow local officials in these situations. But the feds should have broken the chain of command more quickly. And the failure of the children’s 911 calls to create immediate action was an inexcusable error.
I close today with a question and a solution. The question is, was gunfire heard after any police reached the site? Apparently the answer is yes, because the shooter allegedly shot at people outside from inside the school. In my view, if shots were heard when police were present, the decision had to be to neutralize the shooter immediately, because the risk was ongoing.
The solution is to follow the science. We know that the cerebral cortex does not fully form until a person is in their late 20’s. The federal government should raise the age for purchase of automatic or semiautomatic weapons from 18 to 25. Thank you for reading; I hope this contributes to your thinking about how to address this tragedy. The government must act; to not act is an unacceptable failure.
NRA speakers lie about US gun statistics and laws: https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-texas-violence-ap-fact-check-shootings-5d61ed151fa26cf35d26452f01b610b9 . The article focuses on “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz and Orange Julius. The article is just more documentation of the fundamental sliminess of these two losers.
January 6 insurrectionist convicted on all 5 counts after “I’m an idiot” defense fails: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jan-6-defendant-posed-hitler-tells-jurors-idiot-didnt-know-congress-me-rcna30743 . Truth is stranger than fiction, and this guy is just strange.