After a year's sabbatical, we start classes today. It feels simultaneously familiar and strange. The same can be said for the horrific rite of passage for America's school children: another shooting. What's becoming especially tragic is that law enforcement are being tipped off about these kids who ring alarm bells among peers and teachers. There's this graph from the Post:
Police identified the suspect as Colt Gray, a student who attracted the attention of federal investigators more than a year ago, when they began receiving anonymous tips about someone threatening a school shooting.
The FBI referred the reports to local authorities, whose investigations led them to interview Gray and his father. The father told police that he had hunting guns in the house, but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them. Gray denied making the online threats, the FBI said, but officials still alerted area schools about him.
The problem these LEOs have is that Republicans - both in the courts and in the legislature - have stripped them of the ability to actually do anything about the easy access to guns Americans have, even emotionally disturbed ones. The father said he had "hunting guns" which in the twisted world of modern gun ownership includes AR-style weapons of war. Even if the local LEOs had known about the AR style guns, there's nothing they could have likely done about it.
I'm weirdly more optimistic about the world than a lot of people I know. I think Harris wins and it might not be close. I think Democrats win the House. The Senate is tough, but I'm not giving up hope yet.
I am not optimistic about guns. I see no reason to be. After Sandy Hook, why should I be?
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