Quote:
Originally Posted by MG1  At first, I was a little concerned for our friend, el bastardo, but then saw the word "church" in the title............... gulolol.
El Bastardo has survived floods, storms, lightning, shootings, wildfires, even the wrath of jesus. He is the Chuck Norris of RS. Amen! |
Hahaha. Deep thanks to you, MG. I mean that!
The shooting took place in a small town. I don't mean like Hope small, or Merritt small. It was a tiny tiny town. I can guarantee in a town like that you were either related to or were friends of one of the victims.
This place has nothing and is close enough to San Antonio to be considered a "suburb" but I'd expect that most folks in the community work and stay and have lived in the community for most of their lives. This is probably how it has been for generations because thats the nature of most towns like that.
The impact this will have on the psyche of the town will last for a long time. You'll see people move to get away from the bitter memory of it all, and for years that will be the only thing people know about the place. When you think of a place like Columbine or Newtown or even Waco, you don't think of the colleges or history or scenery. You think of the violence.
It is unfortunate that a place like this will have to live with the stain of this asshole's actions for a long time and, to be honest, it is also unfortunate that the systems put in place that would have REGULATED THIS GUY OUT OF BUYING THE WEAPONS HE ACQUIRED FAILED.
Its really fucked up. And it should have been avoided.
There is a larger discussion about gun control here, but the fact was that Devin Kelley should not have been legally able to own a gun as others have the right to do. The exact same situation occurred years ago when Seung-Hui Cho acquired the weapons he would use to go on to use in the Virginia Tech Massacre.
Keep in mind, these guys bought guns legally. And even if they couldn't have, they could find a way to buy them retail. Even if they were flagged by the background check (which they should have been) they could still get their fingers on a trigger.
When you think of people buying these guns for those mass shootings, your mind might go to visions of someone opening the trunk of their four door sedan while in some back alley and showing you an armory from which you choose your piece. Nah. Much simpler than that.
A guy convicted of a felony who would be barred from buying firearms can walk into a sporting goods store in Texas (also, Louisiana and many others) and press his nose against the case, point to a gun, and say "I want that one". When it comes to run the background check, he has his girl (standing next to him the whole time) say "Its for me... because... of reasons" and she'll cleanly pass the background check.
Its obvious hes buying the gun and shes going to hand it to them before they've even reached their car in the parking lot, and the guy behind the counter knows it too, but try having a guy making minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) stop a dude from getting that gun. He doesn't care about that shit.
Even if he stops him from buying this gun at
Academy, he can go to
Cabela's, or
Bass Pro Shop, or
Field and Stream or wherever.
Its a complicated, messed up system. And I haven't even covered
private sales which can legally take place in a Subway while both of you shake hands over meatball marinaras with only a little paperwork.
Oh, and threezero had mentioned in this thread about churches being "No Go" zones for firearms. You'd expect that, wouldn't you? They aren't always.
In Texas you have to post what is
30.06 notice or a 30.07 notice to legally people keep FROM conceal carrying or open carrying their weapons. You have the ASSUMPTION that people in a place WITHOUT the appropriate signage IS carrying. The only exception to that are businesses where
51% of their business is the business of selling alcohol for immediate consumption like in a bar or club, and they still have to legally post the sign in order for that to be enforceable.
Just take a moment with that and think on that.
The system is fucked up and fragmented in many terrible ways. And I'm offering criticisms without offering solutions. It'll take many different people with a huge diversity of thought and opinion to expertly unfuck this.
The positive we can gleam from this is as follows -
When I go to the mall to buy bikini bottoms, or when I go to the grocery store to buy cucumbers, or when I go to the beach, I know I'm probably surrounded by people who are packing. People who wake up every day without that blank, dead stare that we see in the photos that GS8 posted. These people hold the power to end everyone else's life in their pocket, their ankle, the small of their back, or their purse. But they don't.
There are far more people ready to defend themselves or others, as did Stephen Willeford who brought Devin Kelley's spree to an end. Not that he wanted to have to live with that on his conscience.
It is heartening to know that many people WANT to do good and carry with them weapons with them as a last resort when someone's mental health and when the system fails us all.
I wanted to include a picture of Willeford so that Kelley's dumbass stare isn't the only pic included in this thread.
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