The nation remains polarized over calls for stricter gun legislation in the wake of yet another shooting, this time at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 19 students and two teachers in what turned out to be the third deadliest shooting in the United States.
And while those in the community closest to the families who've suffered tragic losses are still in mourning, others have castigated the officers who waited for 78-minutes on-site before breaching the classroom to de-escalate the situation.
Curious to hear from other law enforcers, Reddit stupsssss15 asked:
"To police officers, how are you feeling seeing how the situation was handled in Texas?"
A Desired Place For Them
"My city had a mass shooting where 10 people died 3 years ago, it took six responding officers 32 seconds to kill the active shooter."
"My coworker is a relative of one of the officers who responded that night. She told us that he thinks these cops 'deserve to burn in Hell for abandoning those children.'”
– TheOldOak
It's What We Do
"Not a cop but did do fire for a bit."
"I'm not a brave person at all, and I'm not going to pretend to be some hairy a**ed hero. But what we do is a service."
"We're here for them."
"When it's time to go then it's time to go."
"No sh*t you're scared. So is everyone else going interior. That doesn't mean you don't do it. Because as scared as you are, the person trapped inside is f'king terrified, and has none of the protection that you do."
"I honestly consider their response not just to be incompetence, since that assumes good intent and just being a f'k up. In my eyes this was dereliction of duty. Especially if the bit about cops going in to save their own kids and leaving the rest is true. Or the part about Border Patrol going inside in defiance of orders."
"I don't think it's unfair at all to say people should be going to prison over this."
– Guilty_Assignment_25
Cowards
"Military Police here: I am angry beyond words at the tragedy that has taken place. MP training is direct to threat and even without hearing gunshots we are required to breach the building and begin securing it so if people are shot inside we can create a clear corridor for casualties to be collected and treated."
"These cowardly pieces of sh*t should turn in their badges and be held accountable for their inaction."
– theknights-whosay-Ni
"It's Our Job"
"I literally never comment on anything but felt like I should here. I’ve only been on the job for a year and change in the largest department in America and while we’re definitely not perfect I’ve been to a few shootings personally and even with shots ringing out within visual range I’ve never seen any one of my coworkers run away or just wait for ESU cause they 'could get shot' and I know I’ve never run away."
"While I can understand being afraid I can’t understand not doing your job we’re first responders and as such it’s our job to go in there and get it done backup be damned. I hate Monday night quarterbacking but I’ve risked my life on this job for wayyyyy less so when other officers wait idle while kids get gunned down it makes me mad."
– Different_Handle1254
Demand For An Overhaul
"I work for a Sheriff's Department and have gone in to a few active shooter situations, if it's true that officers were standing outside, there needs to be some jobs on the chopping block. Also, it's obvious what departments do active shooter training and which ones don't. Sounds like that whole department needs an overhaul."
– AtwaterKent
Suggested Charges
"Retired LEO: the words 'disbelief' and 'disgusted' hardly scratch the surface. Charge all of them with negligent homicide/involuntary manslaughter."
"To add to the points the others are making: imagine the effect on the children's parents. They already have the horror of their child being killed - knowing that their last moments were filled with terror and pain - but that's now compounded by the thought that their child could have been saved, if it were not for the cowardice of the people they trusted to protect them. These poor souls are now broken."
– anon
"Something Has To Change"
"Was on one of the parents FB pages- whose children survived- and he has massive survivor’s guilt. Says he regrets standing outside, also said 'I was always one of those people that said if it happened at my kids’ school I’d go in… and I didn’t.'"
"Friends and neighbours kids died. He’s posted clips of him driving near the school at all hours of the night. I know he’s not alone, and I’m not sure they’ll ever get over it. Something has to change."
– DucDeBellune
An Awful Thought
"God awful thought - some parents will ask 'was it quick,' with a shake of the head indicating that perhaps their child could have been saved with an actual police response."
"It's hard to see how a community can pull through that without a lot of accountability for inaction being shown."
– TheMania
Like Accomplices
"What's really an extra level of sick on top of it all is that they went in there and got their own kids and they left the other kids. And then they stopped the parents from going to save their own kids. That makes no sense at all. It's almost as if they were on the same side as the killer. It's almost as if they're accomplices."
– Mypantsohno
Objectionable SCOTUS Ruling
"Ashamed of this agency and their so-called chief. If the shooter is isolated, you wait because time is on your side to negotiate. If they are actively shooting people, action must be taken. Just because the SCOTUS says there’s no duty to intervene, I think most LE agencies’ policy and (obviously) public opinion beg to differ."
– AffectionateWalk6101
Over In The UK
"In Britain, there was an attacker with a machete on London Bridge and our unarmed police officers ran towards him with only pepper spray and batons, literally ‘hitty sticks’. In fact, one was an off duty transport police officer with no gear at all."
"I can’t fathom the slowness of the response in Texas."
– lunarpx
Blood On Their Hands
"A doctor, Dr Cheng, literally tackled a gunman in a church recently sacrificing himself for everyone in that church when he died taking him down. I hope these cops look at his story and acknowledge their cowardness every day. The lives of those children are on their hands and it would've been better to have let the parents go in and do their job for them."
– IroningSandwiches
"No Excuse For Police Leadership In Uvalde"
"Federal law enforcement here."
"I took a 1-day active shooter training last year. The the theme they kept hammering into us was 'Stop the killing, so you can stop the dying.' Meaning, you need to find the shooter as fast as possible to kill or incapacitate him. Nothing else matters before then. They had role players with like fake blood/injury kits on screaming for help and we just stepped around/over them in our way towards the sound of gun fire. Once the shooter is dead, then you sprint back and start evacuating and treating people. Also, you go in alone or grab a couple other responders on your way in. You don’t methodically clear rooms, you don’t “secure” stuff, and you certainly don’t try to do crowd control."
"I see a lot of people on reddit say 'standard police procedure is (fill in the blank)' and they are usually wrong. However, almost everyone is exactly right on what I’ve seen about active shooter training. And it’s been that way since f'king columbine! There is no excuse for police leadership in Uvalde to not know this."
"Typically I try to not judge people in these scenarios because there so many different factors and challenges that affect your decision making. However in this case (and in Parkland), f''k these guys. They should be fired and never work in law enforcement again. A lot of people, some police included, sometimes think that valor is like an everyday thing. It’s definitely not (that’s why we hand out medals for it) but to see officers just stand outside that classroom as children were shot and bleeding to death is awful and unforgivable."
– fedman1776
Questioning Law Enforcement Funding
"My dad taught active shooter classes for years before he was retired and I helped out with the exact training scenarios you are talking about. In one, I even roleplayed the shooter when I was about 14 years old. We had kids crying out for help in the hallways as I was shooting blanks down the hallway of my high school."
"It was an insane experience to go through, but we knew what we were doing could potentially save lives if the unthinkable were to happen."
"Looking at this response by police who in theory had this training just a few months ago, I'm not so sure. It's one thing to play out a scenario and say all the right answers in the training and another thing entirely to put your life on the line to save children."
"The argument that the Blue Lives Matter folks have had the whole time in regards to defending the police is that the cops are heros who need resources to save us in the face of tragedy. When I see a video of nearly 20 cops standing outside a slaughter house detaining screaming parents armed with rifles, what exactly is it that we are paying for? This incident has me rethinking a lot of things in regards to how we as a country should be viewing and funding our law enforcement."
–nrain91
Mental Health As An Arguement
"The 40% part is what puts me over the top on this. If one side wants to argue it's all mental health and not a gun issue, then in this situation, half that budget should now be allocated to making mental health available and affordable for the county. Let's see them put their money where their mouth is."
– moriarty70
In addition to the condemnation of the police officers who failed to effectively take action, politicians–particularly Republicans–remain denounced for enabling mass shootings to continue in the U.S.
When will it ever be enough?
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Iowa Middle Schooler Breaks Down In Tears While Asking Beto O'Rourke How He'll Stop School Shootings In Powerful Video
An Iowa middle school student cried while asking Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke how he plans to address gun violence and stop school shootings.
Milan Underberg, a student at Berg Middle School in Newton, Iowa, mentioned to O'Rourke that Riley Howell, a student at UNC Charlotte in North Carolina, "died protecting his peers" in a school shooting last week.
She continued, touching upon such topics as PTSD, survivor's guilt, and the suicide of Sydney Aiello, who survived 2018's Parkland shooting:
"Unfortunately, the death of students and faculty aren't the only problems going on. Surviving a school shooting can give victims PTSD and survivor's guilt. These issues can lead to suicide. In one case, a Parkland survivor, Sydney Aiello, suffered from both of these conditions and committed suicide a year after the shooting."
"Shootings, in general, are bloodthirsty attacks perpetrated to instill fear and harm innocent people. Ever since Columbine and Sandy Hook, school shootings have become regular occurrences in the news. Society is becoming numb to children being slaughtered. Victims and survivors aren't just numbers. They are human beings."
Underberg cried as she noted that lawmakers in Washington have done little to curb such violence and have still not taken the appropriate steps for nationwide gun reform.
She asked O'Rourke what he plans to do:
"I'm afraid that one day I'll go to school and I'll never come out. What actions will you take to protect people like me and my classmates from this happening?"
O'Rourke thanked Underberg, then assured her that if elected he would expand background checks on gun buyers, ban "weapons of war"––a reference to automatic weaponry––and would support the passage of laws that would permit law enforcement to temporarily seize firearms from individuals who pose a threat to themselves and others.
He went on to say:
"You're forcing people in power to do the right thing right now. There's no reason ... that we lose more than 30,000 of our fellow Americans to gun violence every year."
"There is a way for us to change this. Those states that have adopted universal background checks without exceptions have seen a near 50% reduction in gun violence. As president, I want to make sure that we do this for every state, every single person, within America."
You can watch the exchange in the video below, which O'Rourke shared to his Twitter followers:
Milan asked what we are going to do to combat gun violence so no student has to fear a school shooting happening in… https://t.co/AFGWqGWEmI— Beto O'Rourke (@Beto O'Rourke) 1557157615.0
Many chimed in, expressing their support for Underberg, and pledged to see that the United States passes gun reform.
@BetoORourke I wish I could tell this girl how sorry I am for what we are doing to our kids. Please keep fighting a… https://t.co/OGL5FCn5gM— Kelly Belly (@Kelly Belly) 1557158196.0
@BetoORourke Great response, Beto! As a retired middle school teacher and principal, I'm very happy to see you addr… https://t.co/C4gIuWL5iX— AKRoca (@AKRoca) 1557170138.0
@BetoORourke Wonderful response on such an important issue. Nice to see you take time out of your busy schedule to talk to kids in school.— Anne Brooks (@Anne Brooks) 1557170141.0
@BetoORourke We need to ensure that our classrooms and our children are safe from gun violence. No child should hav… https://t.co/3YkaURwwLL— New Jersey for Beto (@New Jersey for Beto) 1557167982.0
Underberg herself responded soon afterward, thanking O'Rourke for giving her "the chance to voice my concerns."
@BetoORourke It was an honor to have this ginormous platform given to me. I’m glad that I got the chance to voice m… https://t.co/WJw7nTakNG— Milan Underberg (@Milan Underberg) 1557172493.0
O'Rourke's stances have raised the ire of conservatives and made him a lightning rod for criticism on Fox News. In March, Fox News host Pete Hegseth urged viewers to purchase more AR-15s in response to O'Rourke's calls for comprehensive gun reform.
According to a study conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) that analyzed around 200 active shooting incidents in America, active shooters who use semi-automatic rifles will double their chances of wounding and killing victims, in comparison to another type of gun.
NRA Leader Says They've Been Attacked By An Unprecedented Onslaught Of 'Powerful Forces'—And We All Know What That Really Means
The National Rifle Association deflected rumors of infighting on social media by insisting that the real enemies are outside of the organization.
Chaos within the gun lobby group swelled with allegations of financial wrongdoing and long-rumored reports of NRA president Oliver North and NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre butting heads.
On Saturday, North, a retired U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel, announced he would be stepping down.
NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch claimed on Friday that "NRA members are not divided." In fact, she went further:
"We've never been more united behind the purpose of defending the Second Amendment — and we vote in droves."
The group's Twitter page backed her assertion and implied they were victims with "so many powerful forces" attacking them.
"Never in the history of the NRA have so many powerful forces attacked us on so many different fronts."
“Never in the history of the NRA have so many powerful forces attacked us on so many different fronts.” — @ChrisCoxNRA #NRAAM— NRA (@NRA) 1556293076.0
But Twitter is calling their B.S.
@NRA @ChrisCoxNRA The NRA is an organization that thrives on chaos and run by some truly miserable people, now has… https://t.co/r5y3W0EAKW— Fred Guttenberg (@Fred Guttenberg) 1556367971.0
But there is something to the NRA's tweet. Those "powerful forces" are our benevolent heroes.
@soledadobrien In fairness, given that, he’s not exactly wrong.— Franklin Leonard (@Franklin Leonard) 1556375350.0
@WendyMalloyTN @soledadobrien @MomsDemand @ChrisCoxNRA Powerful forces, indeed. https://t.co/mgDk4aI7Xv— MarCNuf (@MarCNuf) 1556381426.0
Moms everywhere are rejoicing.
@soledadobrien @geesemom We take it as a compliment! https://t.co/Om5yAOB0QQ— mish (@mish) 1556377709.0
@soledadobrien I can’t think of any force more powerful than a bunch of pissed off moms.— Jody Wahl with an A (@Jody Wahl with an A) 1556372014.0
@soledadobrien And high school kids!— Alex Leo (@Alex Leo) 1556388900.0
@soledadobrien Oh and HS kids and doctors and nurses and teachers. Oh my!!— Mary Lyn (@Mary Lyn) 1556372085.0
@soledadobrien And kids who took cover while under fire at school.— Vic Daring (@Vic Daring) 1556372817.0
@soledadobrien @joanwalsh And Survivors— Rich Ortiz (@Rich Ortiz) 1556377159.0
Meanwhile, the NRA is imploding, and people are breaking out the popcorn.
@davidhogg111 @NRA @ChrisCoxNRA They are even attacking themselves! That LaPierre/Ollie North cat fight: https://t.co/fyzwpOsqdd— 💁🏻♀️ (@💁🏻♀️) 1556374140.0
@tdayspringneely @fred_guttenberg @NRA @ChrisCoxNRA Me too. I am enjoying witnessing their cannibalism and eventual… https://t.co/54rwdxF1Jd— NH Mountain Gal (@NH Mountain Gal) 1556380515.0
@fred_guttenberg @NRA @ChrisCoxNRA @NRA I hope that you die and that your death comes soon. I will follow your cas… https://t.co/iW4wriH06A— Lars Hallin, AB & sceptical scientist (@Lars Hallin, AB & sceptical scientist) 1556399255.0
Who pulled the trigger that led to North's ouster?
According to a letter LaPierre wrote to board members and was published by the Wall Street Journal, North tried to oust him by releasing "damaging information" on him.
The letter North threatened to release supposedly contained:
"a devastating account of our financial status, sexual harassment charges against a staff member, accusations of wardrobe expenses and excessive staff travel expenses."
Wow. Wayne Lapierre sent a letter, first obtained by @WSJ, to the NRA board accusing Oliver North and Ackerman McQu… https://t.co/Uz8e9k1J5w— Stephen Gutowski (@Stephen Gutowski) 1556317762.0
Richard Childress, the NRA's first vice president, acted as master of ceremonies at the group's annual meeting on Saturday where Oliver was notably absent.
Here is Richard Childress reading a letter from Oliver North where he says he has been forced out of the NRA and th… https://t.co/af294RqBqZ— Timothy Johnson (@Timothy Johnson) 1556374744.0
At the convention, Childress read a letter North wrote about the threat imposed on the NRA's tax-exempt status, which referred to New York Attorney General Letitia James opening an investigation into the association's financial improprieties and issuing subpoenas.
"There is a clear crisis and it needs to be dealt with immediately and responsibly so the NRA can continue to focus on protecting our Second Amendment," wrote North, read by Childress.
The father of Jaime Guttenberg, who was killed in the Parkland shooting, has no sympathy for the crumbling organization.
@NRA @ChrisCoxNRA When you are failing, what do you do? Whine and act like a victim. Sorry NRA, the 40,000 who di… https://t.co/qeeYXCbVNY— Fred Guttenberg (@Fred Guttenberg) 1556328576.0
@screaminggina @NRA @ChrisCoxNRA NRA plays victim now, yet engaged in an attack of their own when the most extreme… https://t.co/BAtrGPGri6— Ropebelt (@Ropebelt) 1556340041.0
The NRA is finally getting what it deserves: pandemonium.
@NRA @ChrisCoxNRA You are a propaganda front for gun manufacturers who make profits through the sale of murder, sui… https://t.co/EEbhqtj3nj— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel Jollett) 1556373009.0
Former NRA advocates are turning their backs.
@NRA @ChrisCoxNRA You could've been a good organization for fellow hunters and responsible gun owners to connect bu… https://t.co/cttBFUtqaQ— Nana Cantú (@Nana Cantú) 1556329822.0
@Hezigrimm @K2thebizA @nanacantu @NRA @ChrisCoxNRA @MomsDemand I know so many gun owners who have given up their me… https://t.co/HKKDx4Wos1— ill behaved woman (@ill behaved woman) 1556404552.0
@nanacantu @NRA @ChrisCoxNRA @MomsDemand Hunters, responsible gun owners interested in promoting skills & safety r… https://t.co/IITYtuqWt1— Jean T (@Jean T) 1556399530.0
The Daily Beast met a former NRA member, Cody Becker, who canceled his membership five years ago but renewed for the day at the convention's exhibit hall on Saturday to "fondle some guns."
Becker is disappointed in the organization. "I lost on any faith that any dollars they receive go to anything that matters," he said.
When asked about his feelings towards the NRA now, Becker replied:
"They lost their way—period. They're fucked."
It seems the NRA's membership is depleting rapidly, and it's only a matter of time before they're just shooting blanks.