#Allen outlet mall shooting

[beckywiththegoodhijab]

a teacher appreciation week question

a mass shooting occurred at a shopping mall right next to where I work (a high school).

my students live right next to this mall. They shop there, they work there. Hell, i shop there!

and I've started getting messages from them, telling me that they don't feel safe, that they're confused, they're shocked. I am looking up the best ways to respond to these messages, to validate their emotions, but...

I am an English teacher--when did responding to mass shootings and their emotional fallout become part of the job description? I do not feel equipped to do any of this, but my students trust me and are reaching out. What do I say? How do I help them find peace when I myself don't feel peace about this?

Anyways, words of encouragement would be appreciated. really, really appreciated.

[geezerwench]

tumblr(.)com/geezerwench/716668285803020288/well-regulated-militia-opens-fire-at-outlet-mall?source=share

I obviously want to stay anonymous, but I work there, and it was TERRIFYING. The (as the article put it) "militia" was pretty d*mn close to where I work...

I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been for you and everyone else there.

I've been around guns my whole life. My father was a state trooper when I was born, and he also hunted. I went hunting with him a few times. He taught me how to shoot. There were always guns in the house.

It never entered my mind to ever take one to school or a mall or a church.

The only way this is going to change is to get the damned hateful, NRA-owned Republicans out of office and enact gun control laws to try to protect people. Do real background checks, have waiting periods.

When someone is convicted of a felony, take their guns away! If a person is convicted of domestic violence, take their guns away!

Confiscated guns? Destroy them. Get them out of circulation.

Straw sales (sales from private person to private person) should be eliminated. You're never going to stop all of them, but it will help.

Automatic weapons are kept from the general public. Semi-automatic rifles with high capacity magazines should be also. People who hunt to feed their families don't need 30 rounds to take down a deer. They should only need one.

I am sorry this happened so close to you.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

TX State Rep Makes Emotional Plea for Gun Reform After Deadly Mall Shooting

"There is no safe place in America anymore" — This Texas state rep made an emotional plea for gun reform, two days after a massacre at an outlet mall that killed 8 people.

"There's no school that's safe, there's no shopping mall that's safe, there's no library that's safe," state Rep. Gene Wu (D) continued. "Not because of books. Not because of trans kids who want health care, but because of [guns] that people own."

Yesterday, Wu's colleagues in the TX state legislature voted to advance bill that would raise the legal age to purchase assault weapons from 18 to 21, in a win for several gun safety activists who protested at the Capitol that afternoon.

[tomorrowusa]

It’s another big “thoughts and prayers” weekend in Texas!

Gunman Kills 8, Injures 7 in Mass Shooting at Allen Outlets  

But wait, there’s more...

16-year-old killed in shooting altercation at Houston after-prom party

Those 2nd Amendment extremists can celebrate their free-dumb even more now.

The far right NRA governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, doesn’t want Texans to dwell on all those corpses that keep piling up in his state under his watch. So he’s creating a distraction by bussing more migrants to Chicago.

In letter to Chicago mayor, Gov. Abbott vows to keep busing migrants   

Texas Republicans only care about you if you’re a fetus. Once you’re born, you take second place to assault weapons in terms of affection.

If you’re moving to Texas, get ready for gun-crazy fascist hell.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

😢

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

“Potential extremist ties: Authorities are investigating whether the shooter was motivated by right-wing extremism, a senior law enforcement source said. Authorities have not zeroed in on a specific motive, but the source said the shooter was found with an insignia on his clothing that read "RWDS" — an acronym known to watch groups — potentially standing for "Right Wing Death Squad." He also had an extensive social media presence that included neo-Nazi and White supremacist-related posts, according to the official.”

Same RWDS logo that the Proud Boys wear on their tactical outfits.

[reality-detective]

Another Update Now That Information is Being Released: 👇

UPDATE: Fire chief confirms at least 9 victims following mass shooting at Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas; gunman shot dead by police.

Police were already at the outlet mall responding to a separate call before hearing rapid gunfire. Police worked quickly to ‘neutralize’ the gunman, likely saving countless lives.

The Allen Fire Department transported nine victims, but added that others might have been transported by other agencies or driven to a hospital by friends or family.

The victims' conditions have not yet been released.

A spokesperson for Medical City Healthcare said eight victims ranging from 5 to 61 years old are being treated at their facilities.

Witnesses said the shooter at the Allen outlet mall Saturday afternoon was dressed in all black and was carrying an assault rifle.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Wilfred Reilly

Published: May 18, 2023

There has been a good deal of talk in the US over the past few weeks about ‘Hispanic white supremacy’. The idea itself sounds darkly funny, but its widespread prominence says something serious about the mainstream media’s embrace of race essentialism.

The recent prompt for all this talk was the mass shooting at an upscale outlet mall in Allen, Texas, on 6 May. Nine people were killed, including the perpetrator, and another seven were badly injured. Almost immediately, the national media looked beyond the tragic reality of the murders themselves to focus on right-wing activism and, more specifically, on white supremacy.

The Washington Post’s first social-media post addressing the shooting read: ‘The gunman who opened fire on an outlet mall in a Dallas suburb… was a man in his early 30s who may have had white-supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs.’ Meanwhile, Salon seems to have simply assumed that the shooter was a white supremacist, asking in a headline: ‘When a mass shooter is a white supremacist. Does it even matter?’ The UK-based Independent similarly honed in on a potential white-supremacist motive, running a long piece on the gunman’s ‘white-supremacist social-media footprint’.

One important detail was rarely mentioned, however – namely, that the Allen mall shooter, Mauricio Martinez Garcia, was actually Hispanic.

Yes, it is true that Garcia displayed a fondness for elements of the radical right. He was active on 4chan-style websites, like the obscure Russian platform ok.ru, where he posted photographs of swastika tattoos, ‘praise for Adolf Hitler’, a range of incel gibberish, and – perhaps unsurprisingly – ‘complaints about the state of his mental health’.

However, Garcia does not seem to have dreamed of an all-white society (which he would presumably be excluded from). His rambling writings suggest that he actually believed Latin Americans to be the planet’s superior race. Nevertheless, several major publications tried to square the circle by running headlines like the Nation’s unforgettable ‘White supremacists don’t have to be white’.

The media line that this pro-Latino Hispanic lunatic was actually a white supremacist would simply be a curiosity if this were an isolated example. But it isn’t. In fact, a growing number of right-wing ethnic minorities are now finding themselves accused of believing in ‘white supremacy’. Take, for example, the attacks against Larry Elder, the popular black conservative radio personality. During Elder’s Californian gubernatorial campaign in 2021, the LA Times referred to him as ‘the black face of white supremacy’.

What do these accusations mean in practice? At the root of ideas like black or Hispanic white supremacy is an essentialist view of race. Many wokes and even liberals now believe that different races are immutably linked to specific cultural traits. Within this rather insidious framing, racism and conservatism are said to be ‘white’ traits, and so black racists or even just black conservatives must therefore be ‘white’, too.

This is no exaggeration. In 2020, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture published a list of what some prominent staffers considered to be distinctive ‘white’ traits. Among them were a stable ‘family structure’, ‘objective, rational… thinking’, the belief that ‘hard work is the key to success’ and showing up on time for work.

Similarly, more than a few American liberals appear to believe that academic performance is a proxy for whiteness. A past column of mine for spiked dealt with a novel technique devised by at least one major US school district. To explain the high academic performance of ‘oppressed’ Asian and West African students, the school district simply labelled these overachieving ethnic-minority students as ‘white’.

This sort of essentialism is remarkably racist. It implies, for example, that being hard-working, or being objective and rational, are natural predispositions for whites, but not for blacks. Such claims are nonsensical and dangerous. Believing that certain characteristics or traits automatically attach to members of any racial group is the very definition of racism. Some members of minority groups can be radicalised to the political right, but the fact that they are right-leaning criminals or terrorists does not make them white. Acts of violence committed by black or Hispanic people that have a racial component – the Waukesha Christmas parade attack comes to mind – must be understood for what they are. They should not be ignored or shoehorned into a box that does not fit them.

More broadly, it is important to recall that people do not behave as they do because of their race. Mass shooters kill people mostly because they, specifically, are disturbed. And immigrant kids do well in school not because they are acting ‘white’, but because they tend to study hard. When analysing people at either of these extremes or in between, it’s generally a good idea to put aside the labels and focus on that smallest of minorities – the individual. Otherwise, we risk reviving a very ugly and divisive form of racial thinking.

==

“Another aspect of the construction of whiteness is the way certain groups have moved into or out of that race. For example, early in our history Irish, Jews, and Italians were considered nonwhite—that is, on a par with African Americans. Over time, they earned the prerogatives and social standing of whites by a process that included joining labor unions, swearing fealty to the Democratic Party, and acquiring wealth, sometimes by illegal or underground means. Whiteness, it turns out, is not only valuable; it is shifting and malleable.”

-- Delgado/Stefancic, "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (Third Edition)"

“Reflecting on the social and economic advantages of Whiteness, critical race scholar Cheryl Harris (1993) coined the phrase “Whiteness as property.” This phrase captures the reality that being perceived as White carries more than a mere racial classification. It is a social and institutional status and identity imbued with legal, political, economic, and social rights and privileges that are denied to others.”

-- Sensoy/DiAngelo, "Is Everyone Really Equal?"

Critical Race Theory regards "whiteness" as property. Not simply in the "helium has the property of low density, high thermal conductivity" sense. But in the sense of an exclusive club you can be either born into or buy your way into, like a country club. In effect, it means someone can be disavowed as a "sellout" ("acting white," "race traitor," "internalized racism"), who sucked up to the members to gain their favor and admittance to the club. Because race essentialism, as Reilly touched upon.

[longwindedbore]

200 mass shooting in 126 days.

A mass shooting every 15 hours on average.

This country has a sociopathic anger crisis. Which is getting worse.

The rate of killing incidents has increased over the last decade while other violent crimes have decreased.

Other countries have crime, multi-ethnicities, declining church attendance, video games, rap music, multiple languages without the RAGE that leads to mass killings. We’re becoming like a war torn country.

This will only get worse until we address the triggers as well as determine which segment(s) of the population are fomenting the triggers for the Rage.

I’m asking, “are these mass shooters Conservatives, Moderates, Liberals? Are they male, female, heterosexual or LGBTQ+? Are they European descendant or not?

“Are their background white rural and white-flight suburbs or were they raised in diverse communities? Are their backgrounds Conservative Christian, Moderate/Progressive Christian, non-religious, other religions?

“What types x of victims do they target?”

We are way late in asking these questions. It is not “too soon” to address this.

[kp777]

Man who witnessed Allen outlet mall shooting describes carnage: 'It's just unfathomable'

CBS Texas

May 6, 2023

Steven Spainhouer said he found a child, who survived while covered by his protective mother who had been killed.

Shortly after a gunman opened fire at the Allen Premium Outlets Saturday afternoon, Steven Spainhouer jumped into action. Spainhouer rushed desperately to aid those wounded and dying after shots rang out a little after 3:30 p.m. May 6.

He said the victims had such horrific injuries that they had to be loaded into police cars because ambulances would not have gotten them to nearby trauma facilities fast enough.

When asked if he thought he saved any lives, Spainhouer said he's not sure, but knows he lost three people.

[geezerwench]

Well-regulated militia opens fire at outlet mall in Allen, Texas ...

[mitchipedia]

Steven Spainhouer’s son was working at Allen Premium Outlets when he received the phone call no father ever wants to hear.

“He said, ‘Dad, we have a shooting … I’m pulling people into the break room, and we’re going to lock the door,’” Spainhouer told CNN on Sunday.

The former Army and police officer raced to the scene, called 911 and “started counting the bodies on the ground … one, two, three, five, six, seven bodies.”

Spainhouer said he saw devastation unlike anything he had seen in the Army.

“I never imagined in 100 years I would be thrust into the position of being the first responder on the site to take care of people,” Spainhouer told CNN affiliate KTVT.

“The first girl I walked up to … I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side, and she had no face.”

He said one child survived after his mother shielded him from the bullets. But the mother was struck and killed.

“When I rolled the mother over, he came out,” Spainhouer told KTVT. “He was covered from head to toe, like somebody had poured blood on him.”

Texas mall massacre gunman identified as witnesses describe horror of the shooting spree that killed 8 people

[thymeandchai]

On Saturday, May 6th, Cindy, Kyu, William and James Cho visited the Allen outlet mall together in North Texas. William just celebrated his 6th birthday 4 days prior and James is 3. They were there to exchange clothes that William received for his birthday to a different size. An afternoon that should have been filled with light, love and celebration unfortunately was cut short by another mass shooting massacre that left 8 victims dead. Cindy, Kyu and three year old James were amongst those victims that tragically lost their lives and the family is in deep mourning. After being released from the ICU, their six year old son William is the only surviving member of this horrific event.

This GoFundMe is being created to help their family with the costs of their funerals and other expenses. Any donation, no matter how large or small, will be greatly appreciated. Please share this link with your family and friends.

[nerodiscord]

Not to doxx myself but I’m moving soon anyway so whatever

The shooting at the Allen Outlet mall feels so surreal to me. I’ve gone there hundreds of times over the years, it’s just on the other side of town

The mall I work at got evacuated because someone called about an armed person being there (I wasn’t at work and it seems like it was a false call)

It’s hard to love living in Texas when law-makers care more about guns than people

[shelli-jay-says]

6-year-old celebrating birthday at Allen mall now family’s lone survivor after mass shooting; Relatives raise over $1M

Just right up the street.. Lord Help these 👪🏾