Texas Governor Greg Abbott is an enabler of mass shooters. Of course, that is exactly what we would expect the governor of the regressive cowboy state to be, a mouthpiece for the NRA who labels anyone who dares suggest even the most flaccid gun control measure a threat to freedom. Please note: In Texas, as in a lot of other states in this fractured nation, "freedom" means the freedom to assemble a military grade arsenal and/or walk around pretending that you're a sheriff.
In the old westerns, only an idiot or a woman would be seen in a saloon without a gun. The booze flowed freely as tough guys played poker and smoked cigarettes. What could possibly go wrong? Fist fights turned into gun fights. "I don't want any trouble here tonight," the bartender would say, usually a scene or two before all his whiskey glasses were shot up and his brains were blown out.
To Greg Abbott the entire world is a saloon, which is exactly why he defeated his Democratic opponent, Wendy Davis, by over 20 percentage points in the most recent Texas gubernatorial election. The majority of Texas voters think they live in a saloon and, in fact, they kind of do. Over 3,500 gun-related deaths take place in Texas every year. How's that for freedom? Over a third of Texans, about 10 million people, own guns. The average gun owner in America owns eight guns, which means there are likely 80 millions guns circulating in Texas. I'll ask again: What can go wrong?
Who wouldn't wanted to be armed in Texas? Greg Abbott has proclaimed, "I will sign any gun rights bill that reaches my desk." In his recent speech to the NRA, he boasted about the bill he signed allowing guns to be carried in holsters, ya know, just like a real cowboy! He waxed poetic about the bill he signed allowing concealed firearms to be carried on colleges campuses. He called attention to his tireless work to assist other states in expanding their gun rights.
It makes perfect sense then that Greg Abbott is leading a statewide discussion about protecting Texas children from mass shootings. Who better to lead such an important conversation than a hack with an "A" rating from the NRA, who once tweeted a photo of himself at a shooting range in celebration of his signing a law that lowered the state's license-to-carry fee?
Greg Abbott, who has built his entire political persona as a gun rights whore, now says he wants to "step up" to stop school shootings. He wants to hear from students, teachers, concerned citizens, and "those who hold the second amendment in high esteem," by which he means Texans who blame mass shootings on video games, mental illness, removing God from the public square, having too many doors in schools (the harebrained theory of his Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick), or anything else, as long as there is absolutely no mention of gun control.
In America, it always comes back to the second amendment. It is that, more than anything else, that now makes us exceptional among modern nations in the ugliest and most horrifying of ways. More specifically, it is the ultra-conservative interpretation of the second amendment as decided by the Supreme Court in the Heller case that has led us to this current state of terror. America's sick gun culture now has federal law on its side.
Greg Abbott's meaningless response to the mass shooting was to declare a statewide moment of silence. While his policies continue to enable mass shooters, he never apologies or plays defense. In his shallow mind, Greg Abbott is the one under assault, not traumatized teenagers. It is understandable then that his top priority is to protect himself from the liberals who want to take his precious guns away, something that could happen only in his paranoid daydreams.
Reality check: No one is coming for Greg Abbott's guns, and if anyone actually did, he would just start shooting at them.