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When a horrific event like the El Paso massacre occurs, you know it will bring out the worst in some people. Twenty people are dead, and as of this writing, they still lay in the Wal Mart where the shooting occurred. But that doesn’t stop the politicians from pandering, the gun-grabbers from calling for your weapons, and nuts from posting stupid memes and comments. That’s positively shameful. As my husband says, “The bodies aren’t even cold yet.”
Democrat presidential candidates wasted no time in pandering to the fears of Americans. Cory Booker said he was “praying” (careful, there!) for the “moral courage to take action to end this carnage.” Julián Castro, Andrew Yang, and Jay Inslee called for gun control — Inslee even linked #MomsDemand to his Twitter post. Beto O’Rourke, who’s from El Paso, delivered a tearful statement at a forum in Las Vegas. Later he called President Trump a racist and responsible for the shooting.
Finally, Marianne Williamson promised that she’d not only ban “assault weapons,” but the manufacture and sale of their bullets, too.
Gun-grabbers of various stripes appeared on social media, of course. Alyssa Milano demanded that Wal Mart stop selling guns, even though the store stopped selling the dreaded AR-15 in 2015. They also have stopped selling modern rifles as well, limiting stock to shotguns, BB and pellet guns. Moreover, Wal Mart no longer sells any guns in one-third of its stores. Apparently Milano doesn’t bother to let facts get in her way.
Nor does Igor Volsky of the group “Guns Down,” who claimed that one can fire an “assault weapon” — like the AR-15 — from 300-500 rounds per minute. Of course this is utter nonsense, but he doesn’t let facts get in the way of his outrage about El Paso, either.
Let’s not forget Shannon Watts, Founder of #MomsDemand and #Everytown, who boasts that she’s the “NRA’s Worst Nightmare.” She accused President Trump of having “blood on his hands.” A large group of her minions protested outside the White House Saturday night.
And then there are the social media nuts.
Like whoever decided to make something racial out of the shooting:
Screenshot: Twitter.
There were also those who said that if you support the NRA, the shooting was “literally” your fault.
Finally, the execrable Dan Savage tweeted his hatred for the 2nd Amendment, along with about everything else:
Repeal the 2nd Amendment. Ban guns. Fuck the NRA and every single politician—Republican (mostly), Dem (some), and Independent (I can think of one)—that hasn't acted to make our cities, homes, and workplaces safe from gun violence.
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) August 3, 2019
But enough of them. Let’s look at the real heroes of El Paso, who turn out to be everyday Texans.
Like Salvador Perches, who owns Perches Funeral Homes in El Paso. He’s offering funeral services gratis for families of the shooting victims.
There were citizens who lined up in 100° heat so they could donate blood. One guy even showed up with a pizza for blood donors. That long line contained blacks, whites, Hispanics, and even Orthodox Jews. It didn’t matter. They were there to help save the wounded.
LOOK: This is the line of *HUNDREDS of people outside of Vitalant in West El Paso waiting to donate blood following today’s shooting @KTSMtv pic.twitter.com/xjtONeWX05
— Sandra Ramirez (@sandraKTSM) August 3, 2019
Lastly, what can one say about Army Pfc. hero, Glen Oakley? He was at a nearby sporting goods store when a child burst in, telling everyone about the Wal Mart shooting. Not believing the child at first, Oakley left to go to another store when he heard the gunshots. He then pulled out his 9mm Glock, which he legally carries under Texas law.
“That’s what you do. You pull your gun, you find cover, and you figure out what to do next.”
People began fleeing the mall, including Oakley. However, he heard about a dozen children in a play area, crying for their parents. Oakley decided to act.
“I didn’t even think. I just grabbed as many kids as I could and ran five stores down to the exit. We got there and ran into a whole batch of police pointing their guns at us. I wasn’t focused on myself, and I wasn’t focused on my surroundings … I was just focused on those kids.”
Here’s an interview with Glen Oakley. You can see that he remained quite shaken by the whole incident.
Later, a CNN reporter reached out to Oakley. He regretted not doing more.
I reached out to Glen This is all he had to say.#ElPasoShooting #ElPasoStrong #GlenOakleyHero pic.twitter.com/jVocGXth1y
— Muhammad Lila (@MuhammadLila) August 3, 2019
Humble Glen Oakley is a hero. So are all the folks who donated blood, the police who came to save lives, and the businesses donating products and services to survivors. The shameless politicians and internet nuts might grab our attention and anger, but let’s focus on the heroes of El Paso. They are worth far more than politicians and keyboard warriors because rather than score political points, they want to serve their neighbors.
Welcome, Instapundit readers!
Featured image: Texas border at El Paso/Frank Bodden@flickr/cropped and altered/CC BY 2.0.
Lloyd says: Many laws were broken in this Walmart shooting; No new laws could have prevented it. Blame for the shooting falls squarely on the shoulders of the shooter…not the President or anyone else. And, yet….the democratic presidential hopefuls, celebrities and members of those feel good “Moms” groups simply cannot grasp this. They blame Trump and call for new laws (without describing such…or how they would prevent such shootings without infringing on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens); all typical of knee jerk reactions of late. We need, as a country, to attack VIOLENCE…not GUNS!
Lloyd says: You obviously have chosen not to print my earlier comment, so I will try again: I just read that Mayor Buttgigger blames Trump and the NRA for the El Paso shooting. Absurd !!! Blame the shooter. Don’t try to gain political points by shifting the blame elsewhere.
Kate says: Hi Lloyd
A first time commenter goes into a moderation queue to be manually approved. I did that this morning when I checked the blog. You shouldn’t have that problem again unless you try to post too many links.
Glad you are here,
Kate
kevin says: Buttgigger? Victory Girls condones this language? Nice one.
Kevin says: Thoughts and prayers! There, feel better now? Thoughts and prayers for Dayton too. Thoughts and prayers to the community that will face a lunatic mass shooter tomorrow as well. Nope, can’t do a thing about mass shootings. Nothing to see here people … just move it along.
Marta Hernandez says: I just wrote a bit about mass shootings.
Let me ask you an honest question, Kevin: do you believe a law will stop a criminal? A simple yes or no will do.
GWB says: Though Kevin is just here to troll, I will answer that your question does not have a simple yes/no answer.
– There are many people who will not commit a crime whether it’s legally a crime or not.
– There are others who will commit the action regardless of its legality.
– There are also those who are deterred from action by the criminality of the action.
– There are those who will feel compelled by some other issue to break the law in one area.
It’s that second group of which you are speaking. (At least, where there’s a simple “no”.) The fourth group is part of the third, until such time as pushed to it – so they will be deterred by laws for the most part… until they aren’t.
Many of the mass shooters fall into that 4th group. As we often speak of it, they “snap”. So, people feel like there’s something they ought to be able to do about it. Some believe (erroneously) that taking away the tool will stop it. Some believe you can stop it by treating the person properly. Some believe you can’t ever stop it, but you can only manage your response to it when the time comes. Fewer and fewer of us believe that you can deter it to some extent by applying proper punishment to the perpetrator. Most (if not all) of us reading Victory Girls believe that you are unlikely to be able to stop it using gov’t power.
If Kevin has an actual idea that will stop this, I’d be curious to hear it.* But, until then, all the ideas the progs and their followers have come up with fails. And, their ideas also make it that much harder for the average citizen to protect himself.
(*Nah. He’s just a troll, here to sow hate and discontent.)
Scott says: Actually, much can be done, if not to prevent them, to limit the damage, the first is that when someone proves themselves too crazy to live in polite society INSTITUTIONALIZE them! (yeah, I know, lefties got all the asylums shut down in the 70’s… we see how well that has worked out.
The next two are related, and critical.
1) expand concealed carry, preferably Constitutional carry.. as GWB points out below, armed citizens minimize casualties far more than the police do.
2) IMMEDIATELY do away with “gun free ” zones, since all they actually mean is “good guy gun free” zones, as almost every mass shooting shows, criminals not only ignore the “gun free” aspect, but they actually choose these areas as targets due to being soft targets with minimal chance of return fire..
I know as a lefty, you’ll reject all of these options out of hand, without any regard to the facts, because they don’t advance the cause of total disarmament of the public, which would allow domination of socialists, but at least this way, you show your true stripes.
GWB says: Nor does Igor Volsky of the group “Guns Down,” who claimed that one can fire an “assault weapon” — like the AR-15 — from 300-500 rounds per minute.
Actually, he said that an assault rifle can do that, and he’s right. Because an actual assault rifle is capable of fully automatic fire, they certainly can fire 300-500 rpm. The problem is that a semi-automatic weapon canNOT.
(Also, for those pro-gun ignorami on Twitter, you do not count things like magazine changes or barrels melting down after 100 rounds [yeah, I rolled my eyes HARD at that one] when you calculate rpm. It is not necessary to fire for a full minute to establish a RATE OF FIRE on a “per minute” basis. Just like you don’t have to run an engine for a full minute to establish its instantaneous RPM.)
Like whoever decided to make something racial out of the shooting:
Ironically, that graphic is simply a flip of one that I’ve seen from our side. And, if you’re viewing things in that light (some on ‘our’ side are) then you’re wrong.
However, he heard about a dozen children in a play area, crying for their parents.
That hurts my heart. I want our kids to be able to play by themselves. And that place should be safe. But I also want to scream at the parents who left their child to fend for himself. I won’t yell at them, though, because I don’t want to perpetuate the over-protectiveness.
Not just BZ to PFC Oakley for mission accomplished, but thank you for stepping in when the parents could not.
they want to serve their neighbors.
Amen, Kim. Amen.
Someone on another blog mentioned that this guy didn’t even shoot up the “right” WalMart, if he was aiming to “kill Mexicans”. That one is overwhelmingly Mexican/Central American in its customer base (this commenter mentioned the staff speaks Spanish to you when you walk in). And it’s only a few miles down the freeway.
Slickwilly says: “… you do not count things like magazine changes or barrels melting down after 100 rounds…”
Yes, but the intent of the statement is to imply that that many rounds can fire in a minute… which is not true.
This dude had no idea for the statistic you are describing. He really believes one can spray and pray out 500 rounds in a minute. This is a lie by omission, and while you are technically correct about that stat, practically speaking your distinction does not play into the discussion being had here.
“Someone on another blog mentioned that this guy didn’t even shoot up the “right” WalMart…”
Dallas terrorist who did not do his research?
GWB says: Yes, but the intent of the statement is to imply that that many rounds can fire in a minute… which is not true.
HUH?!? You can fire approximately 3 rounds a second with a semi-automatic like the AR-15. Even with magazine changes, you can fire over a hundred rounds in a minute (which, again, is not the same as the rounds-per-minute rate). I don’t know about you, but I consider that a LOT of kinetic energy sent downrange. People don’t generally sustain that rate of fire, but it’s entirely possible.
The human perception is pretty much anything with 3 digits is “lots”. So, the difference between perception of the real number and the perception of the bogus number is really not that large.
(FYI, the full-auto rate of fire for the M16A1 is 700-950rpm, per Colt. Full rock-n-roll with any variant of the M-16 is a TON of fun.)
technically correct
Yes, I think you should be factual when you refute the anti-gun idiocy. I do not agree with Chiquita Krushchev’s “morally right is more important than factually correct.” As I ranted over on the other thread, it’s mostly the smug superiority of the pro-gunners that irks me – because they’re wrong.
BTW, the fact you can pump out 100 rounds a minute with a semi-automatic is one of the reasons regular citizens should be armed – if the cops are 1 minute away, that’s potentially 100 rounds towards the targets. If Citizen Jones is 5 seconds away and armed, that’s more like 15 rounds towards the targets.
From Larry Correia’s An Opinion on Gun Control, repost:
The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by law enforcement: 14. The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by civilians: 2.5. The reason is simple. The armed civilians are there when it started.
Dallas terrorist who did not do his research?
Likely.
GWB says: the smug superiority of the pro-gunners
Let me specify I mean those particular pro-gunners. Very many pro-gunners are at least as knowledgeable as I, and generally more so. But some portion of the loud ones are not.
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