Uvalde : An Avoidable Tragedy

On May 24th, 2022, 18 year old Salvador Ramos unleashed his evil upon innocent people, including children. That day began with him shooting his grandma in the face, who miraculously survived & is in "good condition", then running off heading towards a local school. This is where things get a little bit iffy. 

Upon making it to the school, Ramos quickly entered (without a School Resource Officer to stop him), went into a random classroom & began his killing spree. In all, 19 students & 2 teachers were inexplicably murdered. The police didn't make entry into the school when they got to the scene, because of "the gunfire they were receiving". It took the Border Patrol tactical unit an hour to arrive, get into the school, then get into the locked classroom & kill Ramos, ending the terror. During the entirety of the crisis, 911 was called several times by students. (It serves to mention that the ISD police chief is a former 911 dispatcher). Prior to his violent outbursts, Salvador Ramos went to social media several times : once on a French app, threatening rape & mass shooting. Users reported him & it was to no avail. He also went on Facebook 3 TIMES ranting about shooting his grandma & a school, just before it all began. I'll also inform you that he asked his sister to buy him a gun when he was 17, she said no. Undeterred, Ramos waited until his 18th birthday to buy two rifles worth almost $5,000, a few hundred rounds of ammo (enough to fill a backpack with 7  30 round magazines), as well as a vest without the ballistic armor, paid for by a credit card with a $5,000 limit. It also should be said that Ramos took off from the scene of the shooting of his grandma in a $70,000 pickup truck. All of this on the salary of a part time worker - making me wonder if he had help from someone. 

Not to let a crisis go without politicizing it, the "President" said in a statement the following : "The idea that an 18 year old could walk into a store & buy weapons of war designed & marketed to kill, is, I think, just wrong. It violates common sense. Where's the backbone? Where's the courage to stand up to a very powerful lobby?" I'm not going to get into semantics, but I will say that Hunter Biden did lie on FORM 4473 when he bought a gun, which is a felony offense, punishable up to 10 years in prison & a $250,000 fine. Hunter had his girlfriend at the time dump the gun in the trash, next to a school & he wasn't arrested. (You're free to use the internet to read up on this in depth). 

Not to be out done, Salvador's mom spoke to the media & said "He had his reasons for doing what he did & please, don't judge him." Salvador wasn't living with his mother at the time, due to her struggle with drug addiction. Whatever his reasoning for the murders of innocent children & teachers, it wasn't bullying. A student that knew Ramos said that "He (Ramos) wasn't being bullied, he would pick on people & fail. It would aggravate him. He hurt animals."

As of May 31st, the city of Uvalde police department & the Uvalde ISD police department are no longer cooperating with the investigation into the school shooting. Not long before the heinous criminal actions, the Uvalde ISD police chief was elected to the city council. Draw your own conclusions as you will. 

The truth the way I see it is this - Salvador Ramos raised a lot of red flags prior to his actions & nobody took it seriously. This terrible tragedy could have & should have been avoided. The police didn't do their jobs, forcing several Border Patrol agents to act on their own, after being told to wait. Salvador's sister could have said something to the police, but didn't. Social media outlets did not contact the appropriate authorities when it should have, electing instead to be bystanders & negligent. The current administration had the unmitigated gall to use the deaths of Salvador Ramos' victims as a talking point & a photo op. Lives were lost & innocence has been shattered - a terrible tragedy that has more questions than answers.