The Evening Brief: Texas Headlines for Dec. 14, 2012
Culled:
• Texas officials respond to Connecticut massacre: Thoughts, prayers, but no mention of guns (Houston Chronicle): "The school massacre in Connecticut — the deadliest mass murder at an elementary school in American history — shocked the nation. Here is a sampling of reaction from our elected officials."
• Texas Land Commissioner: Schools should have armed personnel (Houston Chronicle): "School districts may need to arm individuals on campuses to put down a gunman like the one who killed scores of teachers and students Friday at a Connecticut elementary school, a top Texas official said Friday. 'The common denominator for the school shootings in Aurora ...
Comments (123)
Carolyn Moon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
He is an idiot
Steven Harrell via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What a douchebag.
Steve Cook via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Or there could have been more. lives lost . Thats all we need is the old west where every idiot is shooting at will. Arming School personal would save lives until when one of them decide they want to start shooting?
Rick Scott McGuckin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Dream on- I can show you a million murders for every one 'saved' by a good guy with a gun- plus, how are police supposed to know who are the 'good' shooters and the 'bad' shooters?
Darrel Mulloy via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Idiot? He is one of the only public servants making any sense. I'm starting to like this guy.
Laura Watts Kinnison via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What a moron!
Kim Novak via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We need to strive for "no lives lost" rather than "fewer lives lost."
Allen Corbin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
These shootings happen in states with heavy gun laws. No wonder these tragedies don't happen states with Concealed Hand gun permits
Kevin Dilley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What about all the armed people at Ft. Hood?
Kevin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun... or even the mere possibility they'll encounter a good guy with a gun.
"Gun-free zones" are shooting galleries for innocents.
Christopher Rivas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I call bullshit, there would have been more people shot in the confusion of who is initiating the attack and who is "stopping" it, more people would have been shot by stray bullets, it would have looked like a bad western. The second amendment is shit and so are those who support it.
Ryan Granata via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Until all the small government people start complaining about the cost of outfitting every school with a security guard... is this guy serious?!
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I think he's an idiot, but I agree with him on this point. Banks have security guards, ball games have security guards...maybe one day we can have security officers at school? We actually had them when I was a kid in Florida, mostly for gangs though. Couldn't hurt to have more security in schools. Not sure how anyone could argue different, but it's the internet so have at it!
Allen Corbin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The victims at Ft. Hood were in a zone where they could not carry firearms.
Luisa Inez Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
wrong, wrong, wrong. this tiny frog of a man dreams he's superman. pro-guns=pro-death, it's that simple, pendejo!
Laura Lozano via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What about gabby giffords in AZ and all those innocents? You can carry a weapon in AZ, no permit needed. Where were all the ' armed heroes then,?..
Ryan M. Cain via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yeah, if all those 5-10 year olds had been armed, we wouldn't have tragedies like this. Right?
Mike Openshaw via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This from a friend of mine today:
"I played out an example of this to the people at the laundry today. 99% of the conversation was ban all guns! I got a conversation going with all them I pretended that I was the perp walking into the laundry and shooting it up..."killed" them all (20) ....then had them pick two people to have carry permits so I would not know who they were... started again, I got 2 "shots" off and was killed. Likened that to having an armed licensed teacher and how fast that could have potentially ended and the potential of saved lives. "
Mourn first though; coulda, woulda, shoulda comes later.
Jordan Stewart via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Who's gonna pay for this Jerry? You and your people keep slashing funding for education in general and "We don't have the money" right?
Kevin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Police arrived AFTER all the shooting was over.
AFTER.
Toby Marie Walker via Texas Tribune on Facebook
A gun free zone is a target rich environment for nuts and criminals.
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Should a bank have guards? If you said yes, but said no to schools having guards, you're an idiot. Create some jobs, America!
Diane Holloway via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Mr. Patterson, this is obscene, disrespectful and just plain wrong. More guns will not bring back 20 innocent children.
Tim Jones via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jerry Patterson is an idiot. Until background checks and better control over who can have a gun, this will continue.
Kirk Garner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
A crazy man in China attacked schoolchildren with a knife, severely injuring 22 of them--BUT ALL THE CHILDREN SURVIVED.
James LeGrand via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Steve; @Rick- you guys just don't get it. And you're not that well informed.
Dean Bonney via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Such a silly man. We have a lot of silly men who are elected officials. Yo, Patterson! Friend or Foe? Decide now. Oh, my bad. You just killed an innocent. Guess he looked like the killer, right? He had a gun just like you and was thinking you were the foe, too.
Toby Marie Walker via Texas Tribune on Facebook
22 Children were slashed by a man carrying a knife today, in China. banning an inanimate object from schools (guns, drugs, knives, etc...) does not make them go away or protect children.
Casey Magnuson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Why don't we just arm the kids too while we're at it.
Cindy Chafian via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ever wonder why these people target gun free zones? Because they know the people there can't fight back. You NEVER see crazed gunmen unleashing on a gun range or in states that have heavy concealed carry. Know why? Because the criminals know they'll most likely be killed before they get off 4 shots. I'd much rather have a teacher who is trained and comfortable with a weapon, carry concealed than not. That way when the fu*&er comes into my kids classroom she can blow his head off...instead of the other way around. You idiots who think that banning guns is going to actually accomplish anything need to get your heads out of your ass. MURDER IS ILLEGAL...CLEARLY THEY DON'T GIVE A CRAP!!!!
John Cobarruvias via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Spoken like a red neck fucking moron. (Patterson)
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If you're huddled down on the ground, cowering and praying that you don't get shot, and a student pops up with a gun, I'm gonna take my chances with friendly fire. Friendly fire MIGHT happen, but if you're doing nothing but cowering in fear...well...you sir are dead. I'll take my chances with friendly fire ANY DAY in this scenario.
Kirk Garner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
But Toby, all of the stabbed Chinese children are still alive!
Crystal Overby Garrison via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Now is not the time to be making statements such as this. There will be a time very soon ~~ but hours after this tragedy. Our leaders should have better taste than that.
Julia Gregory Poirier via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It's not about the guns. It's about our country's attitude towards mental health.
James LeGrand via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Actually, I was wrong- it wasn't just Rick & Steve...I should have read more your some of your idiotic comments. For those of you on this post that need a reminder: Laws- Good people don't need them, and bad people don't obey them.
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
NOBODY IS ATTACKING POLICE STATIONS. Why? um...they have guns silly!
John S Boles via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So let's review. Someone begins to fire a gun. With no regard for his personal safety Mr. Patterson draws his gun. The adrenalin now running rampant through his body causes his fingers to grip his weapon so tightly his had will be sore after the incident. With his untrained eye he will fix on an individual with a gun drawn. He will fire and there is a better than average chance that he will miss. Hopefully he did not hit anyone attempting to flee to safety. Mr. Patterson is then shot and killed by the individual he shot at. That individual being another citizen hoping to help end the carnage. Twenty seconds have elapsed. Mr. Patterson's hand won't be sore after all. The other citizen helper attempts to follow the sound of continuing gun fire. He or she hears someone yell. He or she turns to the sound and the adrenalin grip on their gun is in full effect. As he or she turns toward the officer with gun in hand they are shot and are surely dead before they hit the ground. Now two more families have lost a loved one.
Dale Curry
Yea Jerry, too bad all those kindergarten children gunned down was not packing! And by the way, you are a freaking Douchebag for washing your pro gun rhetoric in the blood of children! That is real classy Jerry, real classy!
Kathi Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
For crying out loud. Who is going to pay for these, Mr. Patterson, in a time when the cop at our school was cut due to the budget cuts your Party passed.
Steven Felfe via Texas Tribune on Facebook
How many pro gun or anti gun folks have ever been shot at?. Just asking
Kirk Garner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We've had conceal carry in Texas and other states for what--twelve years? More? How many times have we seen an active shooter stopped by another citizen carrying a gun? Like, never?
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Kirk, that's because nobody is carrying in schools. It's a gun free zone. duh.
Brian Cholewinski via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Like the security guard wouldn't have been the first target? And "fewer lives lost"? What about looking for a solution where there would have zero lives lost. Fuck that guy.
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And there's videos on youtube of people with guns stopping criminals. lol u crazy.
Toby Marie Walker via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Actually Kirk, it happens quite a lot but you don't hear about it in the liberal leaning news.
Drew Tucker via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The more guns the more tragedies. What a uncivilized barbarian. Ask why this kind of tragedy is so rare in Europe or Canada or Japan or Australia.
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZbW2Q92MM
Anthony Maddaloni via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I have been shot at Steven And I was on UT campus the day of the shooter in fact I was 45feet from the shooter...I am pro gun but do see some need for sane gun laws.
Patsy Painter Hull via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Oh the solution to gun violence is to have more people with guns
Greg Pulte via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No it wouldn't.
James LeGrand via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@John S Boles- again, let's see how many uninformed, stupid-ass comments we can make: as for Mr. Patterson's "untrained eye"- he's a freakin' retired U.S. Marine, Lt. Colonel and Vietnam Vet who AUTHORED Texas' Concealed Handgun Law!! He's pretty well trained loudmouth...
Stirling Greenlee via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Well, isn't that perspicacious? If we had two armed guards in every home and apartment, there would be fewer stabbings in the dining room. What do you think, Mr. Patterson?
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
the solution is more guns AND more regulation. SURPRISE. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case-for-more-guns-and-more-gun-control/309161/
Abril Davila via Texas Tribune on Facebook
These guys are wearing bullet-proof vests
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
oh well in that case Abril, you're fucked. Take your death like a man. Don't fight back. Just die.
Danny Jones via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We need to be spending on mental health care than on prisons.
John Cobarruvias via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And anyone who supports him.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Nope, not true.
Kevin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The last massacre in Texas was in a gun-free zone (Ft. Hood - where the muslim jihadi shouted alahu ahkbar as he targeted unarmed people).
The mere possibility that they'll encounter armed citizens or armed security causes these evil murderers to go elsewhere - to find a safe "gun-free zone" to commit their crimes.
Monica Pinon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What a sad, sad day it will be when every grocery store, bakery, and movie theater I go to is surrounded by armed guards....
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This guy's mother was a teacher at the school.
Kirk Garner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
That's right, Monica. We're under siege from ourselves.
Barbry Allen via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I would go one step beyond the mental health idea (which is a need we inadequately respond to) and say its more about how our country responds to violence. We always say we never saw it coming, but then it comes out later that we saw it all along through reports of violent fantasies, buying a lot of weapons at once, or threats in other ways. I think we need to start taking violence seriously in general. I don't want to disarm anyone, but I'd prefer it if violent or mentally unstable people weren't able to get guns in the first place. Most of these shooters had legally bought weapons!
Elaine Dennis Adkison via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yes you jerk, let's not have stricter regulation!
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The solution is to fix the system that allows the mentally ill to obtain guns although it would not have helped in this instance since he used his mother's guns. These types of shooting happen everywhere and in all states. No one is immune.
Alana Carpenter via Texas Tribune on Facebook
There's the solution to the employment problem- hire thousands of people to patrol every school hallway, every mall, and every dorm in the country.
Dick Ryan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Please stop em bare-assing us Texans in front of the World, Mr Patterson.
John Anderson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Cindy Chafian, you have to be one of the stupidest individuals in the country. Your logic is too stupid to even respond to. Yes, let's send all teachers to shooting school while defunding their abilities to actually teach. No wonder idiots like Patterson get elected.
David Fowler via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Um, Virginia Tech has a police dice
John Anderson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And remember the Sikh temple massacre near Milwaukee? Wisconsin is concealed carry.
Spiffy Tumbleweed via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Colorado has concealed carry, Colorado is heavily armed, admittedly they don't have Jerry, but the basic argument has been proven wrong earlier this year.
Shannen King Shapiro via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Or they could secure the school by locking the door and those who are coming to the school to visit or have business there should pass through a metal detector.
Ranjana Bhandari via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yes, elementary schools need armed guards! Really, are we living in a war zone?
Cynthia Carpenter via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Let's just use the Nukes to end it all. Same kind of reasoning!
Shannen King Shapiro via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Arming your citizens is a good way to level the playing field, no doubt. But, I don't think having a shoot out in a school is really something we ought to be considering.
Sally Baulch via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Who is going to pay for armed guards at every single school in this state? And who wants to send their children to a lockdown? We have police who respond quickly. Guns are not the answer.
Terri Russo Daugherty via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Bull
Steven Felfe via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If they put metal detectors in schools I would be setting one off all the time with all the metal in my leg.
Bill Bush via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And the alleged grown ups fail the kids again.
Jimmie Randall via Texas Tribune on Facebook
How about less armed loonies negating the need for armed guards at every public space. ?
Abby Sandlin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
How could another gun man have stopped this? How much time elapsed between a lunatic doing something awful and the time to stop him? Jerry Patterson should shut up and listen to babies discussing the terror of hiding in gyms.
Christine Turpin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It's not a gun issue, it's a moral compass societal issue. Turn off the tv, stop the violent electronic games, get out the board games as a family, get out a real book and read. Go to your church of choice as a family, pray together as a family. We have a breakdown of morality, and that's harder to fix!!!!!
Carol J. Watson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Until we begin to talk about real economic justice in this country, gun laws will mean nothing.
Sandy Burton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This guy is one more idiot spouting this idiotic rhetoric.
Soupy Head via Texas Tribune on Facebook
the idea of armed guards at every public space is a damned and dark image for sure. depressing. So make them undercover! yay! WE ALL WIN FUCK U TERRORISM
Steve Cook via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We see all these idiots talking about we do not need regulations but yet im pretty sure not any of the have guns.. If they do its a small hand gun not any of the guns used in any of the recent mass murders. If you want to shoot a 50cal or a weapon that shoots 1000 rounds a sec take your punk asses to the military.. There you wont shoot deer there people shoot back and lets see how you react. As for the comment about why is noone attacking Police Depts.. Well here in Texas most of the police are on the Payroll why would they attack the ones who let them funnel drugs ,money etc through the state...
Shannen King Shapiro via Texas Tribune on Facebook
You don't want your children to be on lockdown? Don't you lock your doors at home?
Neil Moyer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Well, this "discussion" shows how irrational it has become...bang, you're dead!
Pamela Baggett-Wallis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It's NOT ABOUT GUNS. IT'S ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT. Texas legislators have allowed health insurers to write policies that do not cover "mental health" the way they cover "physical health." Where on the anatomy is the dotted line between the two? Mental illness is a brain disorder. So is MS, ALS and Parkinson's. Why should there be a difference in how insurance covers them?
Jennifer Dawn Henry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Gun should place in a safe and locked place. It is way out of control right now. It is very very sad!!
Mance Bowden via Texas Tribune on Facebook
There could have also been more dead....dead security guards and more innocents caught in the crossfire. Rent-a-cops are not the solution.
Tierney O'Dea Booker via Texas Tribune on Facebook
With assault rifles, even Chuck Norris armed to the teeth couldn't take down that gunman before he shot the whole classroom. This argument makes no sense with the type of "arms" available for purchase - easily converted to fully automatic with some tweaks.
Kurt Johnson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yep, let's politicize it RIGHT NOW and forget about respect for the victims, where our attention really should be.
Leo Tynan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Oh please, Patterson.
Rich Bailey via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Think about what Patterson is proposing and really think about what it means. He's saying as a country we've gotten to the point where we're talking about having armed guards at an elementary school to protect children from deranged gunmen. Regardless of one's position on gun control how on earth did we come to a place where we have to even think about such a thing?
Shawn Harrington via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Jerry, you have blood on your hands, you POS!
Jill Meredith Bergene via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yup...had Connecticut only allowed elementary kids to carry concealed weapons....
Kathleen Painter via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Bullllllshit.
Shannen King Shapiro via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Mental Illness is punishable by law in the State of Texas, didn't you know that? That's how Texas deals with the mentally ill... put them in the system... the CRIMINAL SYSTEM... and THEN we have the funding to help them!!