One of the worst mass murder tragedies in the state of Texas happened [again]. This one is quite disturbing, all these innocent children and teachers. Then of course the ones that did get out alive are going to be traumatized forever by the memories they share of that day. It’s beyond tragic. This incident reminds me of a couple thoughts worth sharing. One is the fact that I haven’t been this troubled for the people of Texas since that guy in Killeen, Texas entered a Luby’s Cafeteria full of people eating lunch together. It was 35 years ago when the gunman proceeded to enter the restaurant and murder about two dozen people and wounded several others before turning the gun on himself.

The second thing I want to share is this nugget of information I have found useful in reflecting on all kinds of mass tragedies – the trademark signature for these always reveals at least three separate incidents taking place within a short period of time, where had even one of them been performed correctly tragedy would have been avoided. Example, when commercial planes fall out of the sky killing hundreds of people. What happened? Almost always it turns out that at least three people failed to make the right decision in succession. In some cases the plane may have had a maintenance issue even before it left the tarmac, but it was undetected. That was the first mistake. Once in the sky the pilot detected an issue but misdiagnosed it, or adjusted for it incorrectly, which marked the second mistake, and then possibly the wind created some type of another issue out of the ordinary, or the instruments failed which would explain the final trigger ending in tragedy. Almost always there were at least three successive failures that in isolation would probably have not been dangerous individually, but due to the fact that they occurred simultaneously, nothing but a tragic accident can result.

Let’s look at the Uvalde incident, why are these 4 questions not being explored? They could be looking into these three failures –
1) How can an unemployed 18-year old kid buy two weapons and a ton of ammunition? Do you know how much guns cost? The last gun I bought I paid around $700 for a pistol, that was a decade ago! The purchase this kid made for all this must have run in the neighborhood of $2,500, and he didn’t even have a drivers license I understand. Who assisted in this expensive purchase?
2) The gun shop that sold these weapons and ammunition to this kid shortly before his murderous plot, did they ask him what he would be using these guns for, or were they just elated to get the sale? I fear the latter. So he didn’t have a criminal background which would have stopped them, so I get that. But how much vetting is going on in these gun counters at stores? Not much. One new law I am in favor of is that no one under age 21 should purchase a weapon legally. If you’re in the military at age 18, that doesn’t matter, they train you on weapons, so the argument against this doesn’t hold water. I also get that most guns used in criminal gangs were not purchased legally, I get that.
3) I’m interested in this teacher that opened a side exit door to the school just as the intruder approached the school – has this teacher or school official had any contact whatsoever with the shooter prior to this incident? Any conversations via in-person or on the phone? I’m having a problem with the timing of these events occurring simultaneously. Teacher opens a door for exit only and leaves it open! Just after the shooter crashes truck into a ditch next to the school grounds. Intruder obtains free entry into the school facility via exit door left open just minutes earlier.
4) Police are called and respond but do not force entry into the facility to prevent further shootings and protect the school staff, instead they [politely] wait outside for 45 minutes? What kind of sense does this make?

Are you still following me? What I have described above is four, count them four different groups of people that failed in their response and decision-making:
1) We have the person that funded the purchase of expensive weapons.
2) We have the gun shop which could be implicated in this tragedy deciding that this kid will be [responsible] with all this fire power?
3) We have the teacher/school staff person who opened a door at the exactly wrong time and left it open inviting anyone to come on in, even if they were sporting weapons.
4) We have an inept police response where they waited 45 whole minutes before finally entering the building from the school parking lot.
Add these up and tell me again how this situation of simultaneous failures is going to turn out to be anything but the tragedy it was – Not Possible! 🙁