Interesting!

I heard on TV that one officer (a school officer, I think) saw the Uvalde shooter walking outside after he had sent some shots at people in an adjacent parking lot. For some reason (?), that officer did NOT shoot at him. I believe that I heard that the shot was too long. There were a lot of changes to the story as time went on, so this may or may not be true.

There are professional statisticians that are perfectly capable of comparing apples to apples and coming up with worldwide comparisons for different countries. Many people in the US are so ethnocentric that they believe the unlikely statement that the US is # 1 at everything and in ALL categories. It was true that after WW2 the US was in the top 10 in all worldwide categories. Today the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland are in the top ten. The US is around 30th or below in most categories. I think that it may be 21 in higher education. I have not looked in a while, but those lists should not be hard to find. I believe that jingoism is defined as believing that your country can do no wrong.

It is not just Australians that have close to ZERO problems with mass murder events, there are dozens of other countries without the problem that the US has.

If mass murders keep increasing and become a much BIGGER problem than today, then the US will begin buy-backs and destruction of the weapons causing the most problems like Australia did after their mass murders. At some point in the future the US may HAVE to ask .......do they preserve American society or do they preserve the right for every citizen to own a military man-killing weapon? Everything in life is a trade off or balance..

Yes. but, I don't want to go too far out into the weeds for SOLUTIONS.

He was scared about collateral damage if he took the shot.

The asylums were emptied out into the slums.... which is almost poetic. I believe that the asylums were emptied out to save taxpayer money for the highest bracket citizens. Mental health care is expensive if done correctly. I would like to compare how mental health treatments are handled in Sweden or Japan and the US. And also what % of GDP is dedicated to it in various countries. Mental health care costs starting at a young age could pay dividends later with an adult that is less inclined to commit crimes of gun violence and mass-murders. The cost could offset each other leaving society more stable.

In the unlikely dream world that I talked about where everyone (good guy or bad) had access to only single-shot firearms - then in an armed home invasion both the good and bad person would be equally armed. So, that would be neither a positive for society nor a negative. The REAL POSITIVE benefit to society would be that schools and churches and large gatherings would be MUCH safer because the mass murderer would reload S-L-O-W-L-Y. which would allow bystanders to physically assault and STOP him. So single-shot firearms would be a net big positive for society. I offer this up as just a thought experiment. It is VERY much the same for the decision to prevent most citizens from owning automatic firearms. In this case the LOWER tech the better. This is the same idea that the world leaders use when they want no more nuclear-armed countries. Another case where low-tech is preferable!

Thank you. And also, a good example of why Police should carry rubber bullets and short shotguns to deal with various possible situations. I wonder if a small stun grenade or an exploding spray of teat gas would have been useful in that situation. Or even a bean bag shot from a shotgun or a shotgun shell loaded with sand???? Just brainstorming stuff.

Point being, if there are mental health issues, simply removing a gun won’t work. If they are ill and determined, there are far worse tactics they will use. A gun may be less lethal than other methods that may be employed… the Oklahoma bombing tragedy comes to mind among other schemes.

My mistake on the medical errors it appears I put in an extra zero. It should have said 300,000 people die every year from medical errors. Your Health Care May Kill You: Medical Errors - PubMed

This bothered me a great deal when I read the ALERRT report on Uvalde. That is the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training center. This is the training center law enforcement sends officers to for rapid response such as mass shootings. Their assessment of the Police response to the Uvalde shooting will anger any adult who cares for innocent victims especially children. You are correct. Ramos crashed the pickup into a ditch. Two employees from a funeral home walked toward him to see if they could help. He took shots at them and they ran back. An officer witnessed this. There is video cam from the officer of Ramos leaving the truck and walking across a field toward the school carrying his rifle.

The distance from the officer to Ramos was 146 yards. He had Ramos in his sights and called his supervisor for permission to take the shot. His supervisor did not respond. The officer called again and by the time he got a response, Ramos had entered the school. This is the point where lack of training failed those children and teachers. The officer knows Ramos took shots at two people, is walking toward a school and is armed and dangerous. He should NOT have called for permission. The officer had an AR and 146 yards is a very easy shot to make. It sickens me that he did not take the shot and avoid the mass shooting all together.

Of the approximately 400 officers who responded to the call that day, they all failed. One of the first officers who arrived tried to engage Ramos but did NOT have support from his fellow officers and when it took concrete shrapnel to his head, he retreated. What followed his actions was nothing short of cowardice.

I don't see that happening. Forced buy back is the same thing as gun confiscation. The term is comical actually since the government didn't sell the guns in the first place they can't "buy back". I do not see this ever happening in our country. I can't fathom the loss of life from the people who would refuse to surrender their guns added to the loss of life from those trying to confiscate them.

Let's use some critical thinking here. As we know most mass shootings are done with handguns. If you think Americans would ever surrender handguns, well, I have no uncertainty the answer is no. Therefore, all of this effort is over AR styled rifles. Millions of dollars spent to try to ban them. I did the math in an earlier post but the reality is AR style rifles are responsible for 30-40 murders per year. So, the 77% of mass shootings would still occur and the 23% of killers who preferred to use an AR wouldn't have one and therefore would opt for handguns instead to do their mass shooting. What would we gain?

Let's start by hardening the schools, which is much more cost effective, and we begin by saving children.

In the words of Col. Jeff Cooper, if you find yourself in a fair fight your tactics suck.