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“Mass shootings, where four or more people — not including the shooter — are injured or killed, have averaged more than one per day so far this year. Not a single week in 2022 has passed without at least four mass shootings”
The Washington Post
Recent Mass Shootings
On May 24, 2022, a mass shooting took place in Uvalde, Texas that took nineteen children from their families and two teachers from their repsective classrooms. An additional 17 people were injured during the mass shooting, including the gunman’s grandmother. The small community of Uvalde, considered to be an interconnected community, mourns with the victims’ families over the loss of their children. The gunman was shot by a border patrol officer, not by the cops that were active on the elemetary school’s campus. To those who identify as BIPOC or nonwhite, hearing that the gunman was killed told us everything that we needed to know. What makes the tragedy even worse and sickening, was that another mass shooting happened 10 days prior to the Uvalde shooting.
In Buffalo, New York an 18-year-old gunman targeted a supermarked located in a predominantly black neighborhood, shot and killed 10 people. The victim ages ranged from 20-86 and eleven of the thirteen people were black. The gunman went out of his way to target and terriorize black people who were simply running errands. The gunman was apprehened peacfully (alive) and will be charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder and 3 counts of attemped murder under a hate crime, The gunman is also dealing with a charge for domestic terror and handling weapons.
What were the cops doing?
During the Buffalo shooting, Aaron Salter Jr, was a retired police officer and was the security guard that layed down his life trying to stop the gunman. Where exactly were the cops when it came to the Uvalde shooting?
The Texas Police department is under heavy scrutiny for their delayed response to the shooting, where children were dying and needed medical attention. Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, is under heavy scrutiny because he intentionally left his police and campus radios when going to confront the mass shooter. Arredondo has to call via his cell phone in order to order tactical gear and keys to enter the building. Even knowing that people were dying and bleeding out, Arredondo proceeded to wait until the tactical team and gear arrived before going to confront the gunman. Digging further into the incident, Arredondo didn’t even realize that was supposed to be in charge of the police reponse. Once, members of the Department of Public Safey, began to call to question Arredondo’s role, he became dismissive and no longer wanted to be involved in the investigation. This unorganized, hesitant behavior kept officers from going in to do their jobs, “to protect and serve”.
The NRA and Gun Reform
After mass shootings the conversation of gun reform and the second amendment begin both on a social and federal level. With the Sandy Hook shooting, Columbine shooting, the Santa Fe High school shooting, all of these mass shootings called for changes in gun reform. Stricter gun policies, mental health checks, background checks and even keep people as young as 18 from being able to buy military-grade weapons and gear. Yet, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and many conservatives in Congress say otherwise, because by implementing gun control, the NRA would have to find another way to make money and hold political influence. As of June 9th the House managed to pass 223-204 a gun reform package called “Protecting Our Kids Act”. One of the measures included in the bill would increase the age to buy certain automatic rifles from 18-21 and establish federal offenses for gun trafficking, While the bill gives us hope that gun reform would finally become reality, we’ve been through this song and dance before and we’ll probably forget about until the next mass shooting happens
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/08/politics/house-gun-reform-package-vote/index.html‘
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-friday/index.html
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