Robbed

     It's been a year since Uvalde. What have we learned?

     Not a hell of a lot, if you take a quick look at the statistics.

     As you can probably guess, American mass shootings have their own Wikipedia page. It's not an exhaustive list by any means. It tracks just the most noteworthy mass shootings since 1920. But if you were to look at the beginning of the archives, you'll note in the 1920s, there was an average of one mass shooting a year, with some years registering none.

     Then, when you work your way up until you get to our generation, you'll note a rapid acceleration in mass shootings, with many of them going undocumented. Also, factor in the fact that back in the old days, many of those mass shootings were carried out by police during worker strikes or attacks by terrorist organizations like the KKK. Shootings that don't fit the profile of the latter-day mass shooter.

     So, how many mass shootings have we had since Uvalde? Well, it was 365 days ago and, since we average, at bare minimum, one and a half mass shootings a day, a plausible guess would be well over 500. That should be a horrifying statistic yet, to many, it isn't.

     If we're not inured to all but the deadliest and bloodiest mass shootings, then we're damned close to it. If you place a person or an entire populace into a constant state, with relentlessly recurring themes, it eventually becomes the new normal. Then it becomes the old normal. For all, that is, except the surviving victims.

     A few days ago, CNN somewhat redeemed itself after that clusterfuck of a "town hall" with Donald Trump just the day after he was found liable for defamation and sexual assault in Manhattan by posting videos never before seen, ones shot on May 24, 2022, the day of the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde.

     The closest they came to showing the carnage was when they aired footage of the little girl of the woman you see above. That little girl was Khloie Torres, the 10 year-old who'd called 911 while the gunman was killing her classmates and teachers. 

     So, again, what have we learned since Uvalde?

     Well, we learned that little Khloie Torres had more guts than literally every single cop who was cowering in that hallway. She called 911 and gave them valuable real-time intelligence on what was going on in rooms 111 and 112. She offered to open the door for police and they still refused to breach. She saw to her own and her classmates' survival by telling them to be quiet and to smear the blood of the dead on themselves to fool the gunman into thinking they, too, were dead.

     The transcript of the 911 call is heart-breaking. She tells the dispatcher she knows exactly what to do because her Marine father told her what to do "ever since I was a little girl". That and, "I don't want to die."

     That day at Robb Elementary, little Khloie Torres was the best teacher in that building.

     For 77 minutes, Khloie Torres kept her poise in what was a war zone and saved countless lives. A ten year-old child. A fourth grader.

     She also showed she had more guts than the nearly 500 cops from about 20 different law enforcement agencies that were clustered in and outside the building. She showed she had more guts than just about every Republican in Texas, starting with Greg Abbott. Like a battle-hardened veteran, she counts exits to this day and always sits next to the nearest door.

     Just in case.

     Khloie Torres is still a lovable little girl. She loves her parents, her sibling, her pets. But she's more prepared to live in a war zone than any child that age should have to be. How many of us can say that we've survived a mass shooting in which an AR15 was involved?

     But since that first documented mass shooting 103 years ago, we've turned into a country in which the mass slaughter of innocent children and young adults is a preferable alternative to even the most tepid gun control and gun safety measures. That's because many of those feckless Republicans have been bribed off with campaign contributions and A+ report cards by the NRA. Many of them are wealthy enough so that they can afford to send their kids to private schools. But, if the recent Covenant Christian school shooting is any indication, you'd think these Republicans would get a clue that charter schools and private academies are far from immune to gun violence.

     The good guy with a gun theory was shot to hell with an AR15 a year ago today. When the gunman opened up on them through a door, they actually retreated while little Khloie Torres was asking the dispatcher where the police were. Because they didn't want to get shot. She could've opened the door and run out and let the police in, leaving her classmates to the mercy of the gunman. But she didn't.

     She stuck it out and survived a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 21 people she knew while Republicans ran from reporters in the days after the shooting.

     So, what have we learned? 

     We learned that a little girl has more guts than 500 cops and thousands of members of a major political party. While Republicans offer mealy-mouthed thoughts and prayers and platitudes about mental health, Greg Abbott freed up over $100,000,000 to address mental health issues that would've been better put toward actual gun control and a gun buy back program like the kind Australia offered after the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting.

 

     Lastly, Republicans cower in fear of not only reporters but those of us who have the guts to call them out on their cowardice. After every mass shooting, they start hollering about how the gun-grabbing liberals are coming for your guns and politicize every shooting because they're terrified you'll remember that gun control works. The 1994 assault weapons ban proved that. Australia proved that after Port Arthur.

     The lives and safety of our children should never be an acceptable risk when the price is some common sense gun control laws designed to benefit the public and law enforcement. But we live in a feckless age. We keep electing feckless Republicans, stock up on guns and ammo after every mass shooting then scratch our heads when we wonder why there's so much gun violence and why it's more responsible for child deaths than anything else.