It’s October 6, 2021, the 279th day of the year, and as of this morning there have been 537 mass shootings in America, nearly two per day. The latest was today in Arlington, Texas, where four people, including a pregnant woman, have been wounded at a high school. The suspected shooter is now in custody, after a manhunt lasting several hours.
Two of Texas’ most notable politicians, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, and Governor Greg Abbott, both Republicans, are under fire for their responses to this latest episode of gun violence.
Governor Abbott, running for re-election on a record of out-of-control COVID infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, on Wednesday told reporters the school shooting was just “something that happened,” as The Recount noted, while delivering a speech at the southern border decrying the in flux of migrants – which he called “one of, if not the most, urgent matters that we’re facing,” while he attacked the Biden administration.
Senator Cruz, who is not up for re-election until 2024, stood among several of his Republican U.S. Senate colleagues, bowing his declaring, “I know all of us are lifting up in prayer the students and the teachers and the first responders and the parents,” after which he bowed his head.
“There have been far too many of these, at far too many schools,” he added, while refusing to do anything to stop them from happening.
Cruz then launched into his main reason for speaking to the press, which had nothing to do with the nation’s 537th mass shooting.
“We’re here today because of the Biden border crisis,” Cruz declared, his lowered head and tone now both upright and outraged.
Neither Republicans’ words solve the epidemic of gun violence propagated by their policies, especially Abbott’s. The Texas governor recently made permitless concealed carry the law of the land. No permit, no training, no insurance, no anything – except 21 candles on a birthday cake – required.
Many are outraged.