As usual, when a meme says “Let me get this straight” they, in fact, do not get it straight. This meme makes it appear like this is somehow a response to shootings like Uvalde, but it’s not. And the well meaning program goes back decades.
▪️The Texas Legislature passed this bill in Sept 2021, well before the Uvalde shooting. It provides DNA and fingerprinting kits to school districts to distribute to parents. The kits are totally optional, no parent is required to use them.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/SB02158F.pdf
▪️These kits from the Child ID Program were developed back in 1997, and more than 70 million have been distributed in North America. It began with kits given out at college and NFL football games, but has since expanded.
https://childidprogram.com/about-us/
▪️In fact, back in 1999 the Texas legislature passed a resolution supporting the program and outlined efforts offering every child in TX a kit. Other states as well as the US Congress have also passed resolutions praising the program.
https://journals.senate.texas.gov/sjrnl/76r/html/4-26.htm
▪️These kits are primarily used for missing children, although could be useful for other emergencies. The kid’s DNA isn’t sent to the government. Parents keep their child’s fingerprints/DNA at home in a secure envelope. If their child is ever missing, they then have it to give law enforcement.
▪️The whole thing is a non issue and seems to be a well meaning program unrelated to school shootings that somehow got turned into a political issue after media reports skewed its coverage and politicians like Gavin Newsome and Beto O’Rourke hyped it up.
It’s bizarre to see them seesaw back and forth that Trump is totally clueless and aloof, just golfing all day, then all of a sudden he’s a dangerous king/dictator who’s diligently plotting to seize absolute power.
▪️This one is frustrating because, while it’s nice to see the vigor and speed that DOGE is acting with, they’re also sloppy with some of their findings. This is not some bombshell, millions of dead people’s SS numbers aren’t being paid out to fraudsters.
▪️This problem has been known for some time, you can read an inspector general’s report from 2015 about millions of names on the SS “numident” not being correctly annotated for deaths, even though they were older than 112 (the oldest known American at the time).
https://oig-files.ssa.gov/audits/full/A-06-14-34030_0.pdf
▪️There are innocent explanations for some of these. Expatriates that died outside the country, for example. Or immigrants given temporary work permit who returned to their country, people issued new numbers for various reasons, etc. However, most are simply due to the govt not diligently keeping track of deaths.
▪️It’s embarrassing that the govt has millions of numbers on the numident that are ...
