The Politics Of Diversion, Again

On Tuesday evening, Senator Marco Rubio (R-NRA) tweeted "we shouldn't 'jump to conclusions' that gun control laws would've prevented Florida school shooting." Further

Rubio said that "people still don't know how" the shooting occurred, or how the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, obtained the weapon he used to kill 17 people in the Broward County school. 

"I think it's important to know all of that before you jump to conclusions that there was some law that we could have passed that would have prevented it. And there may be, but shouldn't we at least know the facts?" Rubio said on Fox News.

Maybe he should talk to the Ayatollah of his own party, who predictably has jumped to a conclusion and, predictably, to a wrong one, opting for the mental health dodge when at 7:12 Thursday morning, he tweeted

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

But Nikolas Cruz evidently realized there was a "problem." for as CNN reports, Broward County Sheriff Scott

Israel also alluded to Cruz's mental fitness during a news conference, while Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said the teen "had been dealing with mental health issues."

"He had been undergoing some treatment. We can't go into detail on that," Furr said. "I don't know if he was exactly on law enforcement's radar, but it wasn't like there wasn't concern for him. He had not been back to the clinic for over a year, so there's been a time where he was receiving treatment and then stopped."

Cruz evidently had either sought, or been forced into, some sort of mental health and/or psychological counseling, contrary to Trump's inference. For whatever reason(s), treatment obviously failed, as it usually does.

Politico notes

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to visit Florida after a gunman opened fire in a high school there, and he said he will push for action on mental health issues and making schools more secure.

Trump said he would push for steps to make “our schools and our children safer" in the wake of the latest high-profile mass shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 17 people. He made no direct mention of the contentious gun control debate, even as activists and Democrats in Congress renewed calls for tougher measures.

“It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference," the president said in a nationally televised address from the White House Diplomatic Room. "We must actually make that difference.”

And what is the #1 thing which can "make us feel like we are making a difference without actually making a difference?" If you believed it is the one step Trump illogically would advocate, you win the award, for the President would actually add “We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health."

If it's too early to consider what we know contributes to the regular practice of school shootings in America, it's too early to assume that all troubled youth respond to their difficulties by murdering seventeen people.

Nikolas Cruz had an AR-15; most young adults do not. That's our starting point, notwithstanding Donald Trump's most recent foray into the politics of diversion.








Share |