Steven Spainhouer's son worked at one of the stores in an Allen, Texas mall chosen by America's latest mass murderer (as of Saturday: there wereseventhis weekend).
He arrived at the mall just after the neo-Nazi killer had slaughtered several people, sometimes ripping their bodies and faces into a huge mass of flesh with his .322 ammunition.
The killer moved into the mall, Stephen Spinhauer probably thought, when he saw the five-year-old.
"The first girl I approached was down with her head in the bushes, so I felt a pulse," said Spainhouer, who is trained in CPR.he saidCBS News, adding that she then "pulled her head to the side and had no face."
He then found a dead woman who appeared to be lying on top of the boy.
"When I flipped the mother over, she came out," Spainhouer told CBS reporter JD Miles. "I asked him if he was okay and he said, 'My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.' Rather than injure him further, I cornered him, sat him down, and he was covered from head to toe. .”
The child looked, Spinhauer said, "Like someone was bleeding him."
His mother's blood. His dead mother who would never again hold or comfort this little boy for the rest of his life.
All this because of a white supremacy with "The right wing of the death squadThe rag - usually worn by the Proud Boys - on his chest decided to shoot up a Texas mall with a mass-produced version of a rifle developed by the military in the 1960s for manhunts in Vietnam.
Thoughts and prayers will do nothing. Coming from these vile Republicans, they don't even comfort families. All they do is prepare Texas for the next massacre.
In response to the unimaginable horrors these weapons of war have inflicted on these people, Republican Congressman Keith Self — who represents Allen, Texas, in the US House of Representatives — took to the microphone and eloquentlydeniedsay he would do anything for american carnage:
"Our prayers are with the victims and their families and all law enforcement on the scene."
Other Texas Republicans expressed similar sentiments. Not one of these cowards mentioned the word "gun" or promised to do anything.
Republican Gov. Abbott played down the tragedy,saying, "Our hearts go out to the people of Allen, Texas tonight during this unspeakable tragedy."
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick may well have spat on the corpses,I am lookingTo Texans: "Please join me in mourning the victims of the unspeakable tragedy in Allen."
Republican Senator John Cornyn, as he has done many times in the past, ignored the AR15 that allowed for such quick and complete carnage,sayingrather, "Tonight I mourn with the Allen community..."
Republican Senator Ted Cruzit slippedin his usual hypocritical, NRA-friendly rant: “Heidi and I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific mall shooting in Allen, Texas. We are also praying for the greater Collin County community, which is shocked by this tragedy."
AccusedThe corrupt and crooked Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton also said that this massacre was the result of some kind of freak natural disaster,saying, “Pray for Allen, Texas. Please pray for these families and the police…”
Thoughts and prayers will do nothing. Coming from these vile Republicans, they don't even comfort families. All they do is prepare Texas for the next massacre.
Representing the rest of America, singer and songwriter Ricky Davilashe was chirpinglist of Republican politicians and the money they've taken from the NRA, adding:
"Damn their thoughts and prayers."
It turns out that this carnage isn't really that new or unique to the 21st century. America was once full of weapons of war, which sparked a national fashion for robbery and murder, much like today's trend of mass murder.
We still remember their names:
— Bonnie and Clyde killed civilians and police as they roamed the Midwestsmallthe .30-06 automatic rifles fire M1918 Browning automatic rifles, semi-automatic shotguns, and the .45 ACP cartridge from M1911 automatic rifles.
- Kelly machine gundesirableThompson machine gun to kill as many people as fast as possible.
— Like John Dillinger, whose famous "Tommy Gun" was recreated and isSold Outonline today.
— Baby Face Nelson loved killing FBI agentssmallhis .45 fully automatic pistol.
— Pretty Boy Floyd's famous weaponIt was himColt automatic pistol.
- Ma Barker, who as a child was devastated when Jesse James was her herohe was killedIn 1882 he could not hold a rifle (he was only 5' 4") so he also used an automatic pistol.
— Al Capone preferredto wear.38 Smith & Wesson pistol, leaving his gang to do the really bloody work with their automatic rifles and shotguns.
Together, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, they and hundreds of other lesser-known killers used weapons developed for the battlefield during the Civil War and World War I to spill blood across the America. A weapon that America's founders and framers of the constitution could not even dream of.
And then America said, "Enough!"
In 1934, Congress passed it and President Roosevelt signed itNational Firearms Act (NFA), which did not ban a single weapon. Instead, he imposed a tax on automatic weapons, shotguns, and various other weapons of war. That was all it took to stop the carnage.
None of the guns listed in the NFA are "illegal". But it's under control.
I legally held and fired the same fully automatic Thompson Machine Gun used by Machine Gun Kelly and John Dillinger among others.
Many ranges offer rentals if you want to try target practice with them: I shot them at a public range in Marietta, GA when I was working on my Georgia private detective license (which I had for 2 years) in the 1980s. while writing some very horribleromanio PI) and the operation of an advertising agency.
Most of the people who fired these fully automatic weapons were, in fact, average looking, generally middle class. there was even racial diversity and lots of women.
It was perfectly legal because the owner of the area paid the taxes to get a federal permit.
And we can do something about it today by simply expanding the scope of guns covered by the NFA.
To be eligible to pay the tax, you must first obtain a federal gun license.
The first step is yesfulfillapplication at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which can be foundhere. You pay a fee that can range from $30 to $3,000 (most are $200 for fully automatic weapons, a figure that hasn't changed since 1934), provide a photo and submit your fingerprints.
After check out, you will be invited for a personal interview with an ATF Industry Operations Investigator, who will verify that you have your own fully automatic machine gun.
In the 1930s, there were no gun buyback programs and no one went door to door confiscating guns.
But when everyone realized that it was illegal to sell or own automatic or sawed-off guns without first obtaining a license and paying taxes, they simply began to disappear from the American scene (except in licensed shooting ranges like today).
Which brings us to a simple proposition. When enough moral politicians are ready to pull it off (hopefully after the 2024 election), just amendNational Firearms Actto include semi-automatic weapons in addition to the existing category of fully automatic weapons and shotguns.
After all, most semi-automatic weapons were originally developed for war: they were, pure and simple, designed to kill as many people as possible, whether pistols or long guns. (There are several "types" of small bore semi-automatic rifles commonly used for hunting; these may be excluded.)
This would not be inconsistent with 2ndAmendment or even the Heller decision, as weird and twisted as I documentedThe Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment. It's completely legal.
And it could take us back in time to a less deadly America.
Fire up Netflix or Amazon Prime and watch some crime dramas from the 1970s and early 1980s.McMillian i supruga,Adam 12, Hill Street Blues,Cagney and Laceyetc.
Semi-automatic weapons were few and far between back then because they were hard to find and expensive: they were widely known to be for the battlefield only. Cops carried revolvers, and so did criminals. The rifles were mostly muzzleloaders.
And there have been almost no mass shootings.
Semi-automatic weapons are very profitable for their manufacturers and are the weapon of choice for mass and school shooters. Most are specifically designed to hunt and kill human beings.
That is why we should not allow them to stay on our streets without restrictions. Let's take them out of general political circulation, like machine guns used to.
If you are buying a gun to protect yourself or your home (bad idea: there are guns in the housemuch more likely to be used against residentsrather than a villain), a simple weapon is handy and works just fine.
And any idiot walking into the woods with an AR-style rifle will be laughed at by true backwoodsmen: there is nothing "sporting" about cutting down deer or rabbits with a huge magazine and .233 ammo. (Not to mention what it does to the flesh and skin.)
In fact, the groups calling for the continued anarchy of semi-automatic weapons of war are mostly made up of people who are actually planning an insurgency war against the United States.
Members of the so-called "militia movement" and other lunatics believe that the BS story the NRA began peddling in the mid-1970s that 2ndThe amendment was written so that average citizens could kill "tyrannical" politicians and the American police who enforce their laws.
The reality is quite the opposite: the Constitution itself contains numerous references to the government's request to quell rebellions and insurrections by people like today's Proud Boys and Three Percenters.
Every one of the 50 states today expressly prohibits uncontrolled militias, either by constitution or by law, or both. Virginia, home of Madison, Jefferson, Henry, Mason, Washington, etc., was the first, puttingin their constitutionin 1776:
“That a well-regulated militia, consisting of men trained in arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state. that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty. that tooin all cases the army must be under the strict subordination and command of the civil authority.” [emphasis mine]
Forty-eight of the 50 states have similar clauses in their constitutions that require any militia in the state to be subordinate to the political authorities: usually the governor, occasionally the legislature, or both. (Georgia and New York are exceptions.)
Twenty-nine states have specific laws prohibiting private militias (Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Sjeverna Carolina, sjerv Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, Forward Virginia and Wyoming).
Twenty-five states, vizBrennan Center for Justicenotes:
"Laws generally prohibit teaching, demonstrating, instructing, training, and practicing the use of firearms, explosives, or techniques likely to cause injury or death, for use during or to incite social disturbance."
(They includeArkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee , Virginia, Washington.)
As you can see from this story, the last thing the Founders - and politicians in every state for the last 200+ years - thought was that Americans should be armed with weapons of war to fight against a government they created.
And it's not like this is a new issue: in 1886, the US Supreme Court ruled,Presser v. Illinois(subject to state anti-militia laws), that:
"It cannot be successfully disputed that the state governments . . . have also power to control and regulate the organization, drill, and parade of military bodies and associations, unless such bodies or associations are authorized by the militia laws of the United States States.
“The exercise of this power by the States is necessary to the public peace, safety, and good order. Denial of the power would mean denying the right of the state to dissolve assemblies organized for rebellion and treason, and the right to suppress armed mobs prone to disorder and plunder.'
In 1907, when the Klan was the main white supremacist militia of the day (although it operated under many different names in different states), the Washington Supreme Courtruledand:
“Armed bodies of men are a threat to the public. Their very presence carries risks, and the state has wisely reserved itself to organize, maintain and employ them."
In other words, there is no legal reason to keep weapons of war on America's streets. If anything, it goes against our Constitution and over 200 years of law, both state and federal.
It's time to get these weapons of war off our streets and we have the tools to do itNational Firearms Act.
I have suggested for years that we treat guns like cars: require registration, shooting licenses and liability insurance. It's still a good idea, but we also need to figure out how to rid our towns and cities of these extremely deadly weapons of war. This can work.
We have already established the law and a sweeping change could happen to our nation with one change.
If we had done this a year ago, a little boy in Texas would still have his mother and a five-year-old girl would still have his face.
Notify your members of Congress.