2 Viral Tweets About the Texas School Shooter Show Why You Never Go Full Liberal
A Twitter user was forced to quickly correct her woke take on a Texas school shooting Wednesday in a pair of tweets that have gone viral.
SO WHAT
Facts don’t care about your feelings.
THE TWEETS
No. 1: @SchittHead4022, aka “Erica” suggested the Arlington police were “making excuses for the shooter” — who she assumed was a problematic white male — when they announced the the suspect opened fire following a fight between two students at Timberview High School.
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) October 6, 2021
No. 2: But, within minutes, Erica apparently saw the mugshot of the suspect, 18-year-old Timothy Simpkins, and adjusted her view.
- “Oh f*ck. He’s a POC…,” she said, using the woke initialism for “person of color.”
We are looking for a shooting suspect in today’s incident at @mansfieldisd Timberview School. Please call 911 if you know the whereabouts of 18-year old Timothy George Simpkins who may be driving a 2018 Silver Dodge Charger with license plate PFY-6260. pic.twitter.com/npaNVBDXRp
— Arlington Police, TX (@ArlingtonPD) October 6, 2021
Erica’s self-own was highlighted by the popular “Defiant L’s” Twitter account and subsequently liked and shared thousands of times.
Not just two tweets: Conservative commentators, like Dinesh D’Souza, saw a similar racial double-standard in the media’s coverage of the school shooting — suggesting it would have made headlines if the suspect had been white.
When a white teen does a school shooting, WHITE always makes its way into the headlines. When it’s a black shooter, almost never! I guess in the bad old days it used to be the reverse. A double standard in both cases—but if it was wrong in the past, why is it right today?
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 6, 2021
MORE DEFIANT L’S
A number of liberal activists and journalists on Twitter, meanwhile, blamed the Arlington school shooting on Texas’ relatively accommodating gun laws.
- “Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers further weakened the state’s gun laws by passing permitless carry to allow people to carry hidden, loaded handguns in public with no background check or safety training,” said Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts.
- “Is THIS the time I mention that Texas ended its gun licensing laws making it immeasurably easier for a student to get access to a gun… or is that not information people are supposed to ever bring up again?”asked The Nation reporter Elie Mystal.
OK, but: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news briefing Wednesday, “The gun that was possessed by the shooter was possessed illegally.”
- Under Texas’ “constitutional carry” law, which went into effect last month, only persons 21 or older are allowed to possess firearms without a permit, and Simpkins apparently did not have a permit.
- With few exceptions, it is also illegal to carry a gun on school grounds in Texas.
MEANWHILE
Simpkins turned himself into police hours after Wednesday’s shooting, and was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
- Three of the four people wounded in the shooting remained hospitalized Thursday, two with gunshot wounds; they have not yet been publicly identified.
- One, a 15-year-old male student, was in critical condition.