NBC
On Wednesday, Late Night time host Seth Meyers addressed the mass capturing in Uvalde, Texas, the place an 18-year-old wielding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle with high-capacity magazines entered Robb Elementary Faculty and opened hearth, killing 19 schoolchildren and two adults. Meyers was vital of congressional Republicans (and honorary Republican Joe Manchin) for spouting the identical standard excuses within the wake of the tragedy, the twenty seventh faculty capturing this yr, as an alternative of addressing the obvious lack of gun management in America.
“This is identical Senate that moved with the pace of a Saturn V rocket to offer Supreme Court docket justices extra safety when some individuals had been picketing exterior their houses, so that ought to offer you a way of their priorities,” Meyers mentioned. “After they do wish to defend somebody, they’re able to doing it rapidly.”’
He continued: “And whereas the Manchins and Mitch McConnells of the world are providing their empty phrases and refusing to take motion, probably the most wicked individuals in our politics are suggesting that as an alternative of doing the apparent factor that many different nations have executed efficiently, which is to easily cross legal guidelines regulating the variety of weapons within the nation and the power to simply get them, we must always as an alternative arm lecturers and basically flip faculties into fortified army bases.”
Within the wake of the Uvalde mass capturing, Ted Cruz urged that faculties wanted extra armed legislation enforcement officers on campus—a viewpoint echoed by Fox Information’ Sean Hannity, who went a step additional and mentioned we must always give retired members of the army tax breaks in alternate for arming themselves and manning the perimeter of faculties. (Uvalde had an armed UCISD officer who engaged with the shooter previous to his getting into the college however was shot and neutralized; responding police additionally exchanged hearth with the shooter earlier than he entered the college however had been ineffective, after which reportedly refused to enter the college to cease him.)
Cruz and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick additional argued that faculties want only a single entrance, which might be nice if there occurred to be, say, a fireplace (I’m kidding, in fact). Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton claimed that we must always arm and prepare lecturers. And Fox Information visitor Pat Brosnan, a retired NYPD detective, even floated the thought of boobytrapping faculties with “man traps” and “journey wires.”
“Are you out of your fucking thoughts? You guys wish to flip faculties into maximum-security prisons with man traps and journey wires and lecturers carrying weapons?” exclaimed Meyers. “If these individuals had their manner, every thing could be a scene out of fucking RoboCop. There are really no phrases for the way grotesque that is. They wish to arm lecturers, and but they’re not even keen to throw sufficient cash at faculties to get them historical past books that don’t finish with the autumn of the Berlin Wall.”
“It doesn’t at all times need to be like this,” he later added. “We are able to change issues. And if you happen to’re an individual ready of energy you should act.”