Today in Santa Fe, Texas at Santa Fe High School. A shooter entered the school around 0730, gun fire was heard outside the school. The shooter than moved into the school, reports from fellow students state that he started with an Arts class and moved on from there. Later reports stated that the shooter was also using pipe bombs, these bombs were found in the school, around the school and in the trailer that he and his mother lived in. The shooter killed 10 people wounding others including the school resource officer. He was taken into custody and one other student has been detained to determine if they were part of the shooting.
During the shooting a student pulled the fire alarm in an attempt to get the students out of the building and away from the shooter. Students ran away from the school and were eventually escorted by the police to a staging area where they could be reunited with their families.
The shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis who is 17 years old is the alleged shooter. He has been detained and has been charged with capital murder. He used a shotgun and a .38 revolver that were legally owned by his father, it is unclear how he gained access to the firearms at this time. All social media accounts related to the shooter have been shut down, but it has been showed and confirmed by fellow students that Dimitrios used to wear a black trench coat which had the Russian communist symbol of the red star with sickle and hammer, the German Iron cross and a symbol related to the devil. He wore this coat and a shirt that said “Born to kill” on it while shooting in the school.
As of right now the calls for gun control are already being passed around. The Governor of Texas is calling on state legislatures to prevent this issue from happening again, democrats attacking the GOP and NRA. Lets break some facts down:
1: The shooter was not legally allowed to own the firearms as he is under the age of 18.
18 for a long gun and 21 for a handgun
2: The shooter took the guns from his father who owned them legally, there by breaking the law again.
3: There is no law that would have prevented this shooting (depending on the previous history of the student and any potential red flags that could have prevented this under existing laws)
4: This student (although not justifying his actions) has a very similar background to other high school shooters. He was relentlessly bullied by fellow students and even the coaches on the soccer ball team he was considered a valued member of. These are eerily similarities to the Parkland shooter and the columbine shooter.
Preventing school shooting starts at home with the parents, after that it needs to fall on the school’s teachers spend hours and days with students getting to know them and many notice when their students change in attitudes or personalities, a mention to councilers or school administration could go farther than just ignoring the problem. After that schools need to be changed, it has been proven time and time again that gun free zones do nothing to help but leave our kids vulnerable. We need to start locking schools down during the day, leaving only one guarded entrance for visitors and students to come through. This will cost money, so maybe congress will donate their annual salary increases, and overspending on foreign governments needs to be refocused into our schools and hardening them to prevent this from happening again.
