Last Call For Welcome To Gunmerica, Con't

Another school shooting, another seven dead, including the assailant, the place, a Nashville Christian private school, the shooter, a 28-year-old former student.

A shooter who killed three 9-year-old students and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville Monday had maps of the school, left behind writings and scouted a second possible attack location, police said.

Police identified the shooter as Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old former student at the school, and called the attack targeted. Hale was shot and killed by police during the attack, which was the deadliest school shooting in nearly a year.

Hale, armed with three firearms, entered the Covenant School by shooting through a side door, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at a news conference.

Hale fired multiple shots on the first and second floors of the school, police said. A five-member team of police officers heard the gunfire, went to the second floor and fatally shot the suspect, police spokesperson Don Aaron said earlier Monday.

The first call about the shooting came in at 10:13 a.m. and the shooter was dead 14 minutes later, Aaron said.

Nashville police identified the victims Monday afternoon as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9-year-old students at the school; Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61, who were all working at the school.

Koonce was the head of the school, according to Covenant’s website, which also lists she attended school in Nashville at Vanderbilt University and Trevecca Nazarene University, along with getting her master’s degree from Georgia State University.

Hill was a custodian at the school, according to Aaron. And Peak was working as a substitute teacher at the time of the attack, he said.

Police say the suspect was a student at the school at one point but didn’t elaborate. A vehicle located nearby gave clues as to the shooter’s identity, Drake said.

After the attack, authorities found Hale had “maps drawn of the school in detail, surveillance, entry points,” Drake said.

“We some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this day, the actual incident,” Drake said. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”

 

So, a targeted and planned attack with two rifles and a handgun, by someone who clearly wasn't afraid to die. Cops didn't hesitate to kill the shooter when they arrived on the scene, none of this Uvalde cops hiding in the halls bullshit, in Tennessee will kill our school shooters, goddammit.

 

Tennessee Republicans of course are in the process of making it easier to get two rifles and a handgun and ammo so that you could walk into a school and shoot up the place, making it legal to carry a rifle like an AR-15 with a concealed carry permit at age 18.

More guns, at a younger age. That's the solution, of course.  We have a generation of kids who will become adults in the age of active shooter drills and in some states, permitless open carry, and the expectation is they will become regular customers of the firearms industry for years to come.

Right up until a bullet end their lives, but that's everyone else's problem for not carrying.

Ron's Gone Wrong, Con't

Understand that Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis's "anti-woke" legislation governing what students are allowed to learn is working as intended, allowing a single parent to veto an entire school district's lessons.

 

The Disney movie “Ruby Bridges,” which tells the tale of a 6-year-old who integrated New Orleans schools in the 1960s, has been a staple of Pinellas County Black History Month lessons for years.

It never caused a stir until this year, as parents across Florida exert increased powers to question what children can see and read in schools.

A North Shore Elementary parent who would not allow her child to watch the film in early March later complained that it wasn’t appropriate for second graders. In a formal challenge dated March 6, Emily Conklin wrote that the use of racial slurs and scenes of white people threatening Ruby as she entered a school might result in students learning that white people hate Black people.

Pinellas school officials responded by removing the movie from use by all students at the St. Petersburg school until a review committee can assess it — a step that is drawing strong opposition

A countywide group that represents the interests of Black children in Pinellas public schools has sent an open letter to the community questioning why one parent’s complaint resulted in actions that affect all families at the school.

”Many from historically marginalized communities are asking whether this so-called integrated education system in Pinellas County can even serve the diverse community fairly and equitably,” wrote Ric Davis, president of Concerned Organization for Quality Education for Black Students. The group has been active for years, often working with school district officials and at times battling them in court.

The controversy follows a heated dispute earlier this year over the banning of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” from all district high schools after one parent complained about a two-page rape scene. District officials cited new state law and a rule telling them to “err on the side of caution” when considering whether books should be used in classrooms and libraries.

The state’s guidelines, which some have called vague, have led to book challenges and bans by the dozens throughout Florida.

“The (Pinellas) district’s leadership appears to fear the potential consequences of not acting in the way they have on these two decisions,” Davis wrote in the open letter. “This approach to challenging times in education in our state raises serious questions about Superintendent (Kevin) Hendrick’s leadership.”

Davis acknowledged the political climate in Florida has educators second-guessing themselves about what materials to use in classes. Lawmakers have made clear that they don’t want books, movies or lessons about race to create student discomfort, though they also have said they want facts presented honestly.

 

And of course, these are incompatible goals. American history *is* and *should be* uncomfortable, because American history is a bloody, ugly mess where people were hurt and killed over the subject of race and the color of their skin. The Civil Rights era is less than 70 years old. The struggle for those rights *is* American history.

 

But now we have Florida, making removal of discomfort for white kids more important than those same kids learning the truth about America, and worse, the new "truth" is a watered-down excuse for the continuation of America's default settings of white supremacy, where the feelings of white kids supercede the history of Black kids.

And once you get rid of history, you can rewrite it how you see fit.

Israeli A Problem Here, Con't

Meanwhile in Israel, PM Benjamin Netanyahu is not only back in power, but taking all the power for himself, in a breathtaking display of authoritarian rule. His plan to neuter the country's judicial branch so that they can never threaten him again with the bribery scandal that ousted him in the first place has now led to the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, nationwide protests, and the country on the brink of losing democracy.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on Sunday barely a day after Mr. Gallant became the first member of his cabinet to call for a halt to the government’s contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary.

Announced in a one-line statement by the prime minister’s office, the move intensified an already dramatic domestic crisis — one of the gravest in Israeli history — that was set off by the government’s proposal to give itself greater control over the selection of Supreme Court justices and to limit the court’s authority over Parliament.

The crisis has spurred mass protests, unrest in the military and now, after Mr. Gallant’s criticism and subsequent expulsion from government, rifts in the governing coalition.

Mr. Gallant was fired after urging that the legislation be postponed, warning that it had caused turmoil in the military and was therefore a threat to Israel’s security.

“The rift within our society is widening and penetrating the Israel Defense Forces,” Mr. Gallant said in a televised speech. The schisms, he said, have caused “a clear and immediate and tangible danger to the security of the state — I shall not be a party to this.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to fire Mr. Gallant appeared an unmistakable signal that the government intends to proceed with a final vote in Parliament early this week on the first part of its proposed overhaul: a law that would give the government greater control over who sits on the Supreme Court.

Mr. Gallant, 64, was appointed less than three months ago, fending off competition from a more extreme member of the coalition with far less military experience. His appointment had eased fears in Washington that Mr. Netanyahu might appoint a far-right lawmaker to oversee Israel’s powerful military, which receives considerable U.S. aid and technical assistance.

A former naval commando, Mr. Gallant had faced calls from former military colleagues to speak out against the judicial overhaul. In recent days, other former naval commandos held protests outside his home to persuade him to break ranks. And reserve pilots sent him text messages every time one of them decided to suspend their service in protest of the plan for the court.

In a chaotic Parliament on Sunday, lawmakers raced to finalize the text of the proposed law, while government leaders behind the scenes were scrambling to ensure they had enough votes to pass it.

Two moderate allies of Mr. Netanyahu announced their support on Sunday for the legislation, squashing rumors that they were about to break ranks. But two other coalition members have backed the call by Mr. Gallant to halt the process. If a third follows suit, the government could lose its majority.

If enacted, the law would complete the first step of a plan to limit judicial influence that has provoked unease among investors, the Jewish diaspora and the Biden administration, as well as in the military.

So many reservists have threatened to stand down from duty if the law goes ahead that the leaders of the Israel Defense Forces have warned of a threat to operational capacity, prompting Mr. Gallant’s intervention on Saturday.

 

Israel's Supreme Court is giving Netanyahu a week to respond to its petition on the judicial overhaul, meanwhile at least one member of Netanyahu's cabinet, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, is threatening to resign if Netanyahu doesn't overhaul the judiciary.

The situation in Israel is rapidly getting out of control as a general strike by thousands continues today, but far-right hardliner groups are threatening violence if Netanyahu steps back, or steps down.

Oh, and the irony of Netanyahu treating ordinary Israelis like, well, Palestinians isn't lost on anyone right now.