We Can't Look Away from Uvalde

 

This past week, we were able to see a surveillance video of the multiple, highly armed law enforcement officials in the hallway of Robb Elementary School doing not hardly enough while words about redacted screams were seen, encouraging a fearsome sound in the mind.  It's horrific and the release of it is fraught because in some ways, it feels like it is a desecration for people to ogle a tragedy, and in another way, it is necessary for people to understand what went wrong and to view this clinically. 

All in all, nearly 400 law enforcement officers arrived at the scene of this particular mass shooting. And somehow, one extremely damaged teenager who somehow despite a troubled history easily acquired weapons was not stopped before committing a deadly atrocity. It was because no one wanted to take leadership. 

I'm not trying to say this is a metaphor for anything, but just not wanting to take leadership, or being confused about what is absolutely necessary to do, feels like an instructive point. There has to be one, after all. Tragedies should be able to be stopped by people who understand what needs to be done. What matters is if and how they act. 

And right here, there was so much crucial inaction. I am so angry on behalf of these families, that they were not better served. We have to learn from this. We have to dispel the myth of the good guys with guns. 

I just can't see a better way for all this destruction of life and hope to be prevented than for this shooter to have never been armed. It isn't enough for him to be stopped eventually. It is ideal he never have the opportunity to start. There needed to be a strong red flag law here, I think. This was a kid whose acquaintances thought he had the attributes of a potential school shooter.

And I curse with utmost sincerity people who think an active shooter alert system is somehow a bridge too far. Just as with weather alerts or AMBER alerts, shouldn't communities be informed so that they can take action to potentially save lives? It really feels important, and like some people don't even understand that saving lives is something that people actually should want to do. It even seems like some people want to minimize active shooter reports because they feel like it defames, somehow, the gun culture. 

This is depressing, and only too likely. People who privilege the reputation of inanimate objects over the lives of human beings are sketchy. We need to have people who do hold firearms to be responsible people--that is a minimum request. I'm not for gun-grabbing, but accountability, and I think folks who want to misrepresent facts are causing actual harm by making inaction a default. And inaction gets people killed, see all the above. 

UPDATE: Sen. Cruz believes more cops will help with mass shootings, because knowing that 376 cops inside and outside of one elementary school isn't apparently failure of proof of concept enough for him. 

UPDATE: Just this:

In that report, Arredondo said that his approach was "responding as a police officer." 

"I didn't title myself. But once I got in there and we took that fire, back then, I realized we need some things. We've got to get in that door. We need an extraction tool. We need those keys ... As far as I'm talking about the command part...the people that went in, there was a big group of them outside the door. I have no idea who they were and how they walked in or anything kind of -- I wasn't given that direction," the chief said in the report.

Uvalde doesn't want to admit their guy made a crucial mistake for whatever reason. He didn't even have anyone try the unlocked door. He didn't know who was supposed to take point. He wasn't given direction, but understanding what was happening, he also never took initiative. It is an astonishing view of how things fail--when no one is in charge or takes charge, when no one can even take responsibility.

People die because no one wants to be responsible for people dying. How fucked up is that?