Slaughtering 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas May 24, some 80 miles west of San Antonio, 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos showed all the same traits of school shooters, reclusive, temperamental and non-communicative, all the hallmarks found in teenage killers. While there are plenty of misanthropes that don’t commit mass shootings, Ramos fits the profile to a T, showing the kind a Autistic Spectrum disorder often overlooked and untreated by school officials. Whether Ramos was ever treated for autism or other behavior problems isn’t know but it’s clear he had all the features of a ballistic killer. Ramos was shot dead by an off-duty immigration and border inspection officer but only after he had gunned down 19 children and two adults. Ramos’ mass-shooting comes only 10 days after a racist teenager murdered 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket.
Before Ramos went on his rampage at Robb Elementary School, he shot his grandmother, who apparently remains in critical condition at an Uvalde hospital. Imitating the Dec. 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., Ramos, like 20-year-old Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, shot his grandmother before moving on to his rampage at Robb Elemenary. Lanza shot his mother between-the-eyes before going on to Sandy Hook where he killed 20 children and six adults. Law enforcement officials no doubt look for a motive or precipitating cause for Ramos’ shooting rampage but glaring similarities exist between most childhood shooters. Like 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron who shot 10 Black people May 24 at a Buffalo supermarket, Ramos followed the same script of a teenage killer equipped with AR-15 assault rifles and body armor.
Debate has started again over the Second Amendment and the need for better gun control legislation. When the National Rifle Association [NRA] meets in Houston May 27, speakers, including former President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.), will no doubt blame the Uvalde incident on mental illness or some other type of depravity. “He [Ramost] was kind of a weird one. I never got along with him. I never socialized with him. He doesn’t talk to nobody,” said Juan Alvarez, 62, boyfriend of Ramos’ biological mother. “When you try to talk to him he’d just sit there and walk a way,” speaking volumes about the reclusive, socially inept personality that often goes with child mass shooters. What’s disturbing is the fact that Uvalde police, two months earlier, came to the Ramos home for a domestic dispute when he left to live with his grandmother. Uvalde police did not assess Ramos for dangerousness.
Police and other mental health professionals often miss signs of dangerousness, failing to get appropriate treatment for suspicious individuals. With today’s medical insurance not covering all mental health, it’s difficult for law enforcement or school counselors to refer to appropriate treatment. Police cannot intervene early because it violates civil rights, unless a violent incident has already occurred. Ramos had no history with the Uvalde police or his high school with violent behavior. Reports of Ramos telling a friend that he might do “something” didn’t result in police notification. Ramos grandfather, Rolando Reyes, said they were not aware that Ramos possessed assault rifles and ammunition. But whatever the holes in the current mental health system, elected officials must pass some type of gun legislation to prevent teenagers from getting assault weapons.
Ramos apparently bough the assault rifles legally close to his 18th birthday. Where he got the cash for the purchases in anyone’s guess. Elected officials, including Second Amendment advocates, must accept existing research on brain development, knowing that the adult brain doesn’t mature until at least 25-year-of-age, maybe later. So when it comes to purchasing firearms at retail stores, elected officials can surely agree that teenagers aren’t ready to assume responsibilities of gun ownership. Much talk in the gun debate focuses of longer waiting periods to complete gun purchases or extending more comprehensive background checks. While all of that can’t hurt, elected officials must keep guns out of the hands of teenagers, no matter what. Until the teenage brain evolves by age 25 into a responsible adult, the government must prevent teens from buying lethal weapons.
Salvador Rolando Ramos was another teen killer, someone with a disturbed upbringing, but, more importantly, just not mature enough to buy lethal weapons. When 49-year-old Texas Democrat governor candidate Beto O’Rourke interrupted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at a press conference today in Uvalde’s central square, it said more about politics than any practical ways to prevent future mass shootings. “This one is on you,” O-Rourke screamed at Abbott, blaming the pro-Second Amendment governor for the horrific mass shooting. But instead of hurling insults, elected officials must work together across the aisle to come up with a fix that works. Since it’s impossible, at this point, to assure comprehensive mental health services, elected officials could still change the age at which lethal gun purchases take place. Raising the legal age to 25 would have saved at least 19 children and two adults.
