I am a limey brit, when I was at school there was another boy with some pretty serious mental health issues, social issues, issues at home. No one bullied him. But I remember watching him and realising there was a non-zero chance he would kill himself that week/month/year. It must be weird being in the US and doing the same sad calculation but adding a "maybe killing us too" factor. Watching him and wondering why he is wearing a long coat on such a warm day etc...

I went to high school in the US in the 1970s. I remember at least three incidents we heard about with students bringing guns to school. No shootings at my school, though. Another school in the same city did have a shooting incident at that time, pissed off student opened fire in shop class.

We (students) knew back then who was disturbed, who would likely carry a gun or knife to school, who might pull a weapon in a cafeteria argument. We all did that "sad calculation" you mention.

When it came time for my own kids to go to school we opted out and homeschooled. Not so much out of fear of mass shootings, but because schools are terrible environments for children in so many ways, and it's easy to do better than what passes for "education" in the US.

Law and Order in parts of the Southern USA is breaking down, due to the huge influx of illegal immigrants:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-s...

> The prevalence of police chases in the vicinity was a well-known problem in town before May. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told the National Review in March that the town was seeing two to three chases per day as more noncitizens crossed into the United States without permission.

> those inside received an alert but likely "assumed" it was about another border-related police chase than an active shooter

America should 'do something' about enforcing border security - and then police forces could deal with local issues and local shooters.

We’re talking about kids dying because we think that is a fair sacrifice for gun ownership in this country… and you’re arguing about immigration and promoting tired, old, disproven racist, stereotypes of immigrants?

Come on man. You white supremacists are so transparent at this point as to be comical. Where is the evil mustache, and diabolical laugh? If you’re going to commit to the trope then commit bro!

Lots of people who complain disproportionately about immigration are fed lies by Fox News.

And yet, illegal immigration is absolutely not a good thing and it should not be called racism to be concerned about the impact it has on the country or on border communities.

You are correct only in the narrow sense that it has nothing to do with the response to the Uvalde school shooting.

There were tons of well-armed police available to hang out in the halls of Robb Elementary listening to children and teachers being shot, and outside pushing the parents away - just not one willing to do what they're paid for and stop the US citizen murderer.

Can we please stop with this lazy take? “ID your child in case of bad things” kits and programs have been around since at least the early 90s[1] if not earlier. Blockbuster used to have a program where in addition to fingerprinting your kid, you’d make a video tape about them [2] and school based programs have been around since at least the 80s [3]. This sort of lazy “no one would ever worry about their kids safety if it wasn’t for guns” hot take doesn’t do anything at all to contribute to the general discourse.

[1] https://www.mcgruffsafekit.com/ [2] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-07-me-81-sto... [3] https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/22/us/fingerprinting-of-chil...

Looking at the bigger picture - would seem that the Texas state legislature's unwillingness to tackle the issue of overly permissive firearm access is the "lazy take" to be concerned about.