Uvalde, Texas is a small town of just over 15,000 people. Almost all its elected officials, from the governor on down, are Republicans. That includes its Republican mayor who used a slew of curse words this week to attack Beto O’Rourke, the former U.S. Congressman who is now the Democratic gubernatorial candidate challenging incumbent GOP Governor Greg Abbott.
There are still many facts to be uncovered about the 18-year-old who legally bought two AR-15 style assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the three days after his 18th birthday, then went on to commit the third-worst school shooting in the United States this week.
While one lawmaker claims Salvador Ramos was born in North Dakota, various reports make it seem clear he grew up in Uvalde, where he has a mother and father, the grandmother he lived with for the past few months who he shot in the face before slaughtering 21 people at Robb Elementary School, and at least one cousin, an uncle, and a sister in the Navy.
The Texas Tribune describes Uvalde as a “tight-knit community” that “prays.”
Reports say he was a loner, bullied for a stutter and lisp, and had a difficult relationship with family members.
Although he was 18 he had not graduated high school, apparently ineligible after missing too many days of class.
But according to U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), the real problem, why 21 people including 19 elementary school children, are dead, is critical race theory, “wokeness,” “liberal indoctrination,” and a lack of religion.
Rejecting Fox Business host Neil Cavuto’s suggestion that “maybe stiffer background checks” would help reduce gun violence Senator Johnson, who is running for a third term in office this year despite pledging to serve only two, rejected any legislative solution to the explosion of mass shootings in America.
“No matter what you do, people fall through the cracks,” Johnson, appearing exasperated and shaking his head, told Fox Business. “You can’t identify all these problems. You can’t arrest somebody for a crime they haven’t committed yet,” he argued, something no one has suggested.
“These are difficult issues, but again, the solution lies in stronger families, more supportive communities. I would argue renewed faith. We’ve lost that. We’ve stopped teaching values in so many of our schools,” he added, despite most conservatives demanding schools stick to the basics.
“Now we’re now teaching ‘wokeness,’ we’re indoctrinating our children in things like CRT, telling, you know, some children they’re not equal to others and they’re the cause of other people’s problems,” he continued, falsely explaining what critical race theory is.
“There’s a sickness,” Johnson tried to get in as Cavuto jumped in to correct his CRT claim. Republicans have been once again pushing mental health as a cause for gun violence to distract from the fact that there are now more guns than human beings in America.
“These shootings were going on long before CRT,” Cavuto said.
“Well, I think I think CRT’s been going on under the radar for quite some time as well,” he claimed, which is false. Johnson has been one of the greatest spreaders of falsehoods and conspiracy theories in the U.S. Senate. CNN labeled him the “Senate’s leading conspiracy theorist.”
“Wokeness has been” going on, Johnson claimed. “Liberal indoctrination has been,” he added, baselssly opining that liberalism leads to more gun violence when liberals are more likely to oppose guns.
“This is a much larger issue than what a simple new gun law’s gonna – it’s not going to solve it. It’s not gonna solve it,” Johnson insisted.
No one has ever suggested a single gun control law would solve all gun violence, but the facts are clear. After Republicans allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004 a 2019 study found: “Mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur during the federal ban period.”