Nothing New Under the Florida Sun

 

Ryan Christopher Palmeter, the white gunman who shot and killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida was a 21-year-old who bought his guns legally and had no criminal history, local law enforcement said https://t.co/iXp0cIgwMo

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 28, 2023

The oft-repeated social media line is that Ron Desantis is coming back to Florida to address a tragedy that he doesn't want students to learn about the origins of in class. It's true, though. The slaying of 3 Dollar General patrons due to a racially-motivated murder spree, happened near to the anniversary of a race riot where white people went crazy in response to a lunch counter civil rights protest.* Like the Parkland shooter of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas HS, this young man painted swastikas on his rifle. It was meant to send a domestic terrorist message. 

But here is the governor of this state:

Jacksonville does not welcome Ron DeSantis pic.twitter.com/nxzkGedZx9

— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) August 27, 2023

He doesn't represent Black voters in Florida at all.  He despises the teaching of Black History. He did all he could to put guns in more hands. He isn't even trying to be part of any solution to the mass shooting or racist violence problem.  

He wants to be president. He can't handle the history of his own state, and would rather it not be addressed, even when there is a crying need for it to be. 

He's not worse than Vivek Ramaswamy.  He's not more useless than Mike Pence, who suggested the death penalty for the sort of crime where the perpetrators, including here, kill themselves, or expect law enforcement to end them. How useless and dumb.

Here's what I propose: all history in public schools needs race studies, to diffuse the timebomb dipshits raised by racists have programmed in their heads. They need to learn race is superficial genotypes, and nothing to do with character or basic humanity, which we all have. We need a full reckoning of history, even the shitty parts, not to lay blame but to understand why they aren't to be repeated. We need conflict resolution education, so people understand they have far more and better tools than violence to solve issues. 

We need red flag laws that address mental health, and other red flags like juvenile criminal complaint records, even if expunged. We need to see the right to be armed as conditional as the right to have a car. 

I don't have a full-fledged answer myself to how to totally stop such violence, I just think we need to address guns and the ignorance that leads to virulent racism as problems that can be addressed far better. 

*UPDATE: Line deleted--way opposite of point I was trying to make.