Gov. Greg Abbott Calls Texas School Shooting A “Mental Health Challenge” But Slashed Millions In State Spending From Dept. That Oversees Mental Health Programs

You have GOT to be kidding me...


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651 points

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott has officially stuck his foot entirely down his throat and swallowed the damn thing.

The day after an 18-year-old high school student turned gunman, Salvador Ramo, opened fire on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where he managed to shoot and kill at least 21 innocent human beings — 19 children and two teachers in one fourth-grade classroom — the staunch GOP TX governor has now publicly stated that the Uvalde mass murderer had a “mental health challenge.” As a result, Abbott said that his state of Texas needs to “do a better job with mental health.”

What’s the catch here?

Back in April Governor Abbott personally slashed a staggering $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs in the state of Texas.

To make it that much worse, the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report shows that Texas ranked dead last out of all 50 US states and the District of Columbia when it comes to overall access to mental health care.

During a press conference at Robb Elementary School today, the science of the brutal mass murder shooting that claimed 21 innocent lives yesterday, Governor Abbott said, “We as a state, we as a society, need to do a better job with mental health.”

Abbott’s public remarks came hot on the heels of Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy’s impassioned, fiery speech on the Senate floor yesterday, demanding action on the gun violence epidemic in this country and bashing Republican lawmakers who oppose gun control and instead blame things like mental illness for this heinous school shooting and so many that came before it.

Abbott used today’s press conference, on the very same grounds where 21 people lost their lives yesterday, to push back against suggestions that gun control laws could have prevented this horrific massacre, and while he conceded that the deceased teen shooter wasn’t known to have had any mental health issues or criminal history, he insisted “Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge.”

Abbott unsurprisingly drew instant and intense backlash over his remarks.

His Democratic gubernatorial rival Beto O’Rourke went so far as to storm the stage at Abbott’s press conference to confront the Republican TX leader for “doing nothing” to staunch the deaths, ultimately getting himself ejected from the briefing.

Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at the Northwestern University School of Medicine said, “There is no evidence the shooter is mentally ill, just angry and hateful. While it is understandable that most people cannot fathom slaughtering small children and want to attribute it to mental health, it is very rare for a mass shooter to have a diagnosed mental health condition.”

“Overall, mass shooters are rational. They have a plan. It’s something that develops over months or years, and there’s a clear pathway to violence,” said founder of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s K-12 School Shooting Database, David Riedman.

The experts say it comes down to one thing, and one thing only at the end of the day — the guns.

“Texas has more guns per capita than any other state,” Post stated. “After the tragic 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, the governor signed several bills to curb mass shootings; unfortunately, most of those bills involved arming the public to stop mass shooters.”

We’re done with the mental health trope. And let’s be honest, Abbott, you don’t really give a shit about mental health either, do you?

Featured image via screen capture 

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