78 Minutes. 19 Little Caskets.

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty                             

Elizabeth Bruenig, the Atlantic, May 27, 2022:

We were told today, in the latest version of events offered by authorities in Texas, that police left children locked in a classroom with a gunman for 78 minutes as they repeatedly called 911 begging for help, not knowing that their would-be rescuers were standing idly by. If there is a more poignant and more savage allegory for a country with a clear and urgent reason to solve an obvious policy problem that lacks either the will or courage to do so, it couldn't be imagined by a vengeful god.

Henry Grabar, Slate, May 26, 2022:

Robb Elementary School's vaunted security plan didn't stop the killing. Nor did the presence of a guard, who has given conflicting stories about his actions that day. Above all it was the inability of the police force to take down the shooter that should show once and for all that a "good guy with a gun" is not an effective strategy to stop school shootings when a police force with guns can't even do it.

The tiny Uvalde school district has its own seven-person force; the 15,000-person city spends 40 percent of its budget on policing, and in 2020, the Uvalde Police Department proudly touted its nine-person SWAT team that was getting to know the layouts of local schools. . . .

If the town SWAT team can't stop a school shooter before 19 children are dead, what's the point? Republicans have since moved on to other innovative proposals, like building schools with only one door, or giving up on schools altogether.

Matt Lewis, The Daily Beast, May 27, 2022: 

The new story is that "he walked in unobstructed initially" after roaming around outside for 12 minutes and firing shots. But the most infuriating new development is this: the Chief of the Uvalde Police Department says officers "responded within minutes," but it took police an hour for a tactical unit to move in on the mass school shooter. I guess it depends on your definition of "responded."

The reason the police didn't go in sooner? According to a Texas Department of Public Safety official, it was because "they could've been shot."

Well, yes, that's true—police officers could have been shot if they confronted a heavily armed madman. But that's the paramount reason we have armed agents of the state in the first place, to defend the defenseless from murderous predators.

The official went on to rationalize the decision, saying that police were able to "contain" the gunman inside one classroom. This is great news, provided your kids weren't barricaded in there with him. Calling 911 and begging for help. For at least a full 40 minutes. . . .

It's bad enough that officers failed to even attempt to confront the Uvalde shooter. What's arguably worse is that police reportedly threw parents to the ground and pepper sprayed one parent. One woman told The Wall Street Journal she saw police use a taser on a father who wanted to go into the school and save his child. "They didn't do that to the shooter, but they did that to us," she said.

Benjamin F. Miller, Slate, May 27, 2022:

I have been working in the mental health field for two decades. I am trained as a clinical psychologist, and currently lead a national foundation focused on mental health and addiction. . . .

The evidence does not suggest that mental illness causes gun violence. Full stop. And paradoxically enough, it's these same elected officials who have also chosen to not do anything to help mental health even as they point their finger at it as the problem.

In the wake of the shooting at Robb Elementary, Texas Gov. Greg Abbot has used mental health as his dominant explanatory model for why the shooting occurred. Ironically, Texas is one of the 12 states that has not chosen to expand Medicaid, largely under Abbot's watch. And when you look at the data and see how Medicaid is the largest payer for mental health and addiction services, it seems that if the governor really cared about the issue, he would have done something about that long ago.

Michael Daly, The Daily Beast, May 27, 2022:

The nation's only manufacturer of children's coffins received 19 urgent orders in the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

"When we had Sandy Hook, that was another crazy day," Mike Mims, CEO of Cherokee Caskets of Georgia, told The Daily Beast. "So we're tired. We're tired of doing these things."

The Cherokee factory in Griffin, Georgia, ran full-tilt for 20 straight hours from Wednesday into Thursday. . . . 

Ganem had managed to handle most of the coffins for the 26 killed in the Sutherlands Spring church mass shooting in 2017. He was now asked to furnish caskets for the 21 who died at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, including the two teachers. . . .

Ganem began consulting with the Uvalde families on Wednesday at the Civic Center and on Thursday at their homes. He sought to determine what individual touches they might want.

"I'll sit down with them and they tell me all the stories about their loved one . . ." Ganem told The Daily Beast. "I can see them light up on very specific things." . . .

"They sent us pictures of her hiking and in the mountains," he reported. "And we're actually putting them in with the wrap and we'll incorporate the colors on the exterior to go with that. So it'll look like a giant photo across the top of the casket. And it's gonna be beautiful."