At least three people are dead and multiple people are injured following a shooting at the Natalie Building at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, according to police.
"We know there are multiple injuries, and potentially multiple casualties," The Tulsa Police Department said in a statement.
We all know the drill by now.
Details will come trickling out. The shooter is reported dead so we may never know why —unless he posted something somewhere, or friends/family knew something.
We also know Republicans and right wing media will do everything to block any kind of effective action. They will delay and distract, lie and attack.
And this will continue to happen until we muster the determination to reject them and everything they stand for.
They are the party of death. Even if this turns out to be some individual with a private non-political grievance or mental health issues, they still bear the responsibility for enabling the culture of gun violence that makes this a feature of life in America, the blood stained.
The tree of Liberty is drowning in blood.
UPDATE, via The NY Times
Live Updates: Five Dead, Including Gunman, in Tulsa Shooting
The police said the gunman was believed to have killed himself. The shooting came just eight days after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and 18 days after a massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.
A man carrying a rifle and a handgun opened fire in a medical office building in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday afternoon, killing four people before apparently taking his own life in the latest mass shooting to shock the country, the authorities said.
At a news conference on Wednesday night, Eric Dalgleish, deputy chief of the Tulsa Police Department, said it was unclear whether the gunman had been targeting someone in particular….
And right on cue:
Mayor G.T. Bynum, a Republican, was asked for his response to Tulsa joining the list of American cities that have experienced mass shootings. “Right now my thoughts are with the victims in here, many of whose families don’t know even know about this yet,” he said, referring to the medical facility. “If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight, not tonight.”
emphasis added
The only thing he left out was prayers. I’m sure somebody will cover that.
Also this:
The Muskogee Police Department said that it was alerted by the Tulsa Police Department that the gunman may have left a bomb at a residence in Muskogee, about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa. A bomb squad was on its way to the home, and the Muskogee police were working to obtain a search warrant to search the home.
Meanwhile, let’s connect some dots. Republican Second Amendment fans are always warning that citizens need to be armed to resist government tyranny. Of course, the shoe is on the other foot when the government is in their hands. Here’s a couple of relevant news stories.
Hat Tip to Charlie Pierce at Esquire for pointing to both of these items.
Axios reports Republicans already have an agenda if they take back Congress in 2023, and if you think it’s about doing anything to solve problems like gun violence, guess again.
Scoop: GOP plots '23 probes
...Details: The retreat was hosted by the Heritage Foundation, the Conservative Partnership Institute and the American Accountability Foundation, a nonprofit run by Trump administration alumni that's dogged Biden nominees with independent investigative work.
- In attendance were aides to the top Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Ways and Means and Oversight committees, as well as a senior aide to Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is considered a leadership contender.
- Aides to Senate Banking Committee ranking member Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) also attended.
The big picture: With unified Democratic control in D.C., Republicans have been limited in their efforts to wield Congress' probative powers around high-profile issues such as a southern border immigration surge, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and economic shocks that threaten a U.S. recession.
- If they win congressional majorities, Republicans plan to use that power in retrospective fashion to dig into Biden administration conduct going back to his inauguration.
- That will mean a congressional microscope on Biden administration policies and spending. It will also bring stepped-up GOP scrutiny of private sector actors such as tech companies that Republicans see as politically adversarial.
Behind the scenes: Over two days, congressional aides at the retreat got briefings from prominent conservative activists and organizations on a host of investigative tactics.
Meanwhile, if you think we’ll be able to vote to keep that from happening, Republicans have a plan to prevent that as well. From Politico:
‘It’s going to be an army’: Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections
Placing operatives as poll workers and building a "hotline" to friendly attorneys are among the strategies to be deployed in Michigan and other swing states.
...The plan, as outlined by a Republican National Committee staffer in Michigan, includes utilizing rules designed to provide political balance among poll workers to install party-trained volunteers prepared to challenge voters at Democratic-majority polling places, developing a website to connect those workers to local lawyers and establishing a network of party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts...
Democracy is under attack in America. What Republicans can’t get by cheating, it increasingly looks like they will be ready to take by force. They haven’t just been promoting culture war; they’ve been creating culture warriors.