We discussed this on Triggered yesterday. As the nation grieves for Uvalde, Texas, where Salvador Ramos, 18, shot and killed 19 kids and two teachers at Robb Elementary School—the calls for gun control have been restarted. Joe Biden is going to deliver an address tonight at 7:30, which is the worst time because more people will be watching game one of the NBA Finals or the second game of the Western Conference Finals between the Avalanche and Oilers. Sorry—say what you want about the sports world, but people would rather tune in and watch that than President Applesauce. We already know what he’s going to say. I’ll bet heavily that background checks and bans on common sporting rifles will be at the top of the list.
Ramos was known to be trouble. He got into fights, slashed his own face, told friends he hoped to join the military so he could kill people and posted multiple rape and death threats on the app Yubo. One girl reported him, but online harassment reports are probably common which led to these complaints not receiving a second glance. Where the line to inform authorities becomes clearer was when he posted pictures of bags of dead cats. He also drove around town shooting people with a BB gun. Jim Geraghty noted that Texas courts have upheld the notion that a BB gun are deadly weapons. Assault charges could have been possible, preventing Ramos from buying his weapons. There were plenty of laws that could have stopped this kid, granted some need updating—but let’s talk about the background check.
What happened with this process? If Ramos put his grandparents’ address on the 4473 form with the ATF, he would have been denied. He should have been denied. His grandfather has a criminal record. He admitted that he cannot be around firearms because of this, adding that if he had known Ramos had guns, he would have to inform the police (via NY Daily News):
The grandfather of the Texas teen who killed 21 people in an elementary school Tuesday said he can’t be around guns and would have reported that his grandson had two of them had he known.
Rolando Reyes, whose wife was shot in the face by accused mass murder Salvador Ramos before the 18-year-old began his shooting spree at Robb Elementary School but is still alive, told ABC News he wants nothing to do with the kind of firearms his grandson purchased a couple weeks ago for his birthday.
So, what happened here? Was this a background check failure? It’s not the first time. Dylann Roof, Devin Patrick Kelley, and Nikolas Cruz were all able to legally buy their weapons either due to severe clerical errors or authorities simply dropping the ball. If that’s the case, then this whole narrative about expanding background checks has been delivered a massive blow. The system is only as good as the people tasked with its maintenance. Scott Hounsell over at RedState also made this point regarding Ramos listing his grandparents’ residence on the background check form. That needs investigating, but we’ll probably never get one since that distracts from the Democrats’ gun-grabbing antics. It’s a key detail. And for those on the Left who are all about doing this, that, and the other to enhance public safety in the wake of this tragic shooting—this is the litmus test. Are you going to take this seriously or not.
Many, many indicators of an unstable mind. I made a list of 25 in just a few minutes. Taken alone most wouldn’t alarm but taken together this monster should have been identifiable. Not necessarily as a school shooter but a time bomb waiting to explode. We just need a system to track these crazies.
Russ:
See something SAY SOMETHING.
My husband worked in gun sales from the time I met him in 1986, to 1997. During that time, he was also a confidential informant for the FBI (something he’d never do today.) He was calling in 4473’s for background checks every day. He turned in illegal gun sales all the time. His co-workers and employers didn’t. A sale was a sale to most of them and that crap has to stop. THE LAWS ARE ALREADY ON THE BOOKS. Simple due diligence is all it takes. When a TX man bought guns and shot up a church – after he had domestic violence convictions – he should not have been able to purchase firearms…the Air Force was too lazy to file the paperwork with the ATF. The laws are THERE. Damn it – we don’t need any more laws…we need the laws we have followed. A GOOD START: file charges against HUNTER BIDEN for falsifying his background check on the 4473 – that’s a FELONY.
You are 100% correct! If you think about it, every damn problem we have in America these days is caused by not enforcing our current laws! Every single problem! The biggest laws not enforced that has caused the most death & misery is our immigration laws! We have not enforced our immigration laws for 50yrs! That has caused every problem you can think of. Job loss, lower wages (entire industries lost to illegal aliens like gardening, house cleaning, teen jobs in fast food, manufacturing etc!) Their kids who are anchor babies and citizens now because of it have taken good jobs from citizens in all fields & have taken over political roles which has destroyed America. The illegal aliens helped the democrats steal many elections! Then there is the crimes that include drug trafficking, drug dealing, sex trafficking, child molesting, theft, murder, rape! All caused by not enforcing our immigration laws!
Then we can look at the punishment for crimes not being applied correctly because of Democrat judges. They let the child molesters, rapists, murderers, gang bangers, illegal aliens out of jail to do it again and again and again! Why are gang bangers even allowed in any city? WTF? I could go on and on.
The Biden Cabal is a dead man walking, and they know it. They have until November to do as much harm to the USA and the Constitution as they can before we run them out of office. They will work fast and throw as much crap at the walls as possible hoping some of it will stick.
The real beauty of the USA is that we are only loosely conjoined as a country, but are in reality 50 individual states and thousands of counties, cities, and towns. Most of those jurisdictions are conservative and comprised of hard working, moral, God fearing Americans. We look at Biden as a disease grown in a swamp. The vaccine is the Constitution, the the syringe is the Second Amendment, and whatever is left of Biden’s brain understands that fact well enough to scare the heck out of him.
Doesnt seem too upset does he?
Hahaha…Maybe it’s cuz he takes too many drugs and can’t remember.