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Well, no question the shooter had in his mind to target Hispanics. He spoke of getting to "soft targets" representing this particular group. It would be much harder to get through security in a corporate office and do a Charlie Hebdo sort of thing. A Walmart teeming with families doing back to school shopping is a definition of a soft target rich environment for increasing the lethality of a terrorist act.
The shooter was clearly influenced by an anti-immigration ideology which isn't a problem until that ideology becomes imbued with violent methods to stop it. From there - and clearly violence has been advanced as a means of stopping the flow of immigrants from South America by the Alt Right - when one is sick enough to carry out a brutal assault with an easily available automatic weapon with the purpose of killing as many immigrants as possible, this happens.
I think you can make an argument that the Senate should bring HR 8 to the floor for a vote. This bill establishes new background check requirements for firearm transfers between private parties (i.e., unlicensed individuals). Specifically, it prohibits a firearm transfer between private parties unless a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer, or importer first takes possession of the firearm to conduct a background check. The NRA opposes it as an erosion of 2A rights. Mitch McConnell has blocked debate. He's under heavy pressure to back off.
Texas has some of the most relaxed gun laws in the nation - that becomes a problem not just for gun control advocates in Texas who seek to curtail the availability of certain kinds of weapons that are used in mass shootings but also for those same people in neighboring states. That was the case in the recent shootings in CA where the shooter obtained his assault weapon in Nevada and carried it across state lines to carryout his attack.
If voters want some measure of gun control that addresses private sales of assault weapons by unlicensed entities, it has to come from the Federal level and the Senate has the capacity to quickly pass HR 8 to achieve that goal. If the Senate even passes HR 8 - and the most recent studies indicate the probability of passage is low - will Trump veto that legislation? Probably although the political costs of not passing the bill in the Seantae and Trump vetoing would be high given the current circumstances and mood of the country.
The shooter was clearly influenced by an anti-immigration ideology which isn't a problem until that ideology becomes imbued with violent methods to stop it. From there - and clearly violence has been advanced as a means of stopping the flow of immigrants from South America by the Alt Right - when one is sick enough to carry out a brutal assault with an easily available automatic weapon with the purpose of killing as many immigrants as possible, this happens.
I think you can make an argument that the Senate should bring HR 8 to the floor for a vote. This bill establishes new background check requirements for firearm transfers between private parties (i.e., unlicensed individuals). Specifically, it prohibits a firearm transfer between private parties unless a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer, or importer first takes possession of the firearm to conduct a background check. The NRA opposes it as an erosion of 2A rights. Mitch McConnell has blocked debate. He's under heavy pressure to back off.
Texas has some of the most relaxed gun laws in the nation - that becomes a problem not just for gun control advocates in Texas who seek to curtail the availability of certain kinds of weapons that are used in mass shootings but also for those same people in neighboring states. That was the case in the recent shootings in CA where the shooter obtained his assault weapon in Nevada and carried it across state lines to carryout his attack.
If voters want some measure of gun control that addresses private sales of assault weapons by unlicensed entities, it has to come from the Federal level and the Senate has the capacity to quickly pass HR 8 to achieve that goal. If the Senate even passes HR 8 - and the most recent studies indicate the probability of passage is low - will Trump veto that legislation? Probably although the political costs of not passing the bill in the Seantae and Trump vetoing would be high given the current circumstances and mood of the country.
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