[fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”true” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_sizes_top=”” border_sizes_bottom=”” border_sizes_left=”” border_sizes_right=”” first=”true”][fusion_text]
By Joe Turner.
It took the Uvalde cops and the Border Patrol, paid protectors of the public, 47 minutes before they entered the classroom to confront an active shooter they knew was killing children. Instead, they chose to wait and do nothing.
Forty-seven minutes.
They already knew that they had a gunman who needed to be stopped before he entered the school. But they let him pass. Some say it was incompetence, and some say cowardice. But these were fully armed and armored cops, trained for scenarios just like this. So why didn’t they do their job?
Republicans expect underpaid teachers to take a bullet for the kids. Well, in Uvalde, two of them did. But the cops? Sorry, that’s apparently not their job. To actually protect the public from rifle-bearing maniacs, I guess, is a bridge too far.
Forty-seven minutes.
They decided to wait it out while little children were being slaughtered on the other side of the wall. What an unspeakable 47 minutes that must have been. The survivors will be offered the standard “grief counseling” afterward. But they will never grow up to have a “normal” life. After what they witnessed and experienced, how can they?
The Uvalde, Texas survivors have joined the ranks of those other survivors of Sandy Hook, Parkland and too many other school shootings. According to Sandy Hook Promise, a national nonprofit founded by family members who lost loved ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School, there have been 948 school shootings since the Sandy Hook massacre in December 2012. That’s more than eight shootings in a school somewhere in the U.S. every month.
Forty-seven minutes.
Will we spend more than 47 minutes thinking about how we can effectively respond to this continued assault? Or will we just move on to the next crisis that the media presents us?
But this time is different, right? Nineteen elementary school children and two teachers fell as innocent victims to a gun-loving maniac. Surely this changes the calculus. Doesn’t it?
But not so fast. Already, internal memos are circulating among the Republican advisors to ignore Uvalde and change the subject. Rolling Stone reported, “My honest advice to the candidates I’m advising is to, for the most part, just wait this out,” one longtime well-connected Republican consultant said. “The media will start chasing something else soon, and [Republicans] should stick to talking about the issues that affect voters’ lives most … and I’m sorry to say, guns aren’t topping the list.”
Forty-seven minutes.
Will we continue to spend our days in fear when we send our kids off to school, wondering if they will make it home in one piece?
Or will we actually do something effective this time?
[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]