Lucas
INDIANAPOLIS — State District 69 Rep. Jim Lucas took to Facebook on Wednesday to ask questions about the Uvalde school shooting that occurred May 24 and has suggested to The Statehouse File that it may have been a false flag operation.
Speaking to The Tribune on Friday, the Seymour Republican said he does not believe the shooting was a false flag.
Lucas’ post began with, “Was the Uvalde school shooting allowed to happen?” and questioned how the shooter afforded the weapons, why law enforcement waited to engage the shooter and why people were stopped from entering the building.
“I stand by my post when I said, ‘Was it allowed to happen?’ based on the evidence I presented,” Lucas said. “I was not saying that it was a false flag.”
Lucas called for the federal government to have an independent panel of people from all sides of the aisle.
“Let it be an open investigation,” he told The Statehouse File.
The shooting at Robb Elementary School left 21 dead, including 19 students, and many have deemed the police’s response too slow. The gunman spent more than an hour inside the school, yet the director of the state’s Department of Public Safety, Steve McCraw, said it should have been over in three minutes.
According to The New York Times, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating, and the school district’s police department chief, Pete Arredondo, is on administrative leave.
A possible explanation for what happened, Lucas said, is “a false flag was allowed to happen to use that as an excuse to come after our gun rights.”
False flag is defined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as “a hostile or harmful action (such as an attack) that is designed to look like it was perpetrated by someone other than the person or group responsible for it.”
Lucas said the Uvalde school shooting could have been orchestrated by the federal government and “a possibility that has to be considered, given the circumstances” is that police were detaining people to prevent them from stopping the gunman.
“The gross level of incompetence by so many people gives a reason for reasonable suspicion to consider other alternatives, up to and including intentionally allowing this shooter to carry out his act,” Lucas said.
Lucas told The Tribune he does not believe the Uvalde school shooting was a false flag, but it’s a theory worth considering.
He said he made the Facebook post because he was suspicious of the circumstances of the shooting and wanted to call for an open and transparent investigation into the shooting to learn more about what happened.
“I’m saying it needs to be investigated,” Lucas said. “Everything needs to be on the table. We can’t automatically take (the Uvalde school shooting being a false flag) off the table because it sounds too preposterous to be true.”
While Lucas was critical about the police response to the Uvalde school shooting, he wanted to say he was not “slamming cops” and he is supportive of law enforcement.
“I am one of the biggest fans of police out there,” he said.
Lucas said training and arming teachers could have prevented the shooting, and Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves.
“Many people say, ‘We need to make guns impossible to get,’” Lucas said. “That’s a ludicrous argument. If it’s not guns, it’s going to be bombs or vehicles or something else. It is immoral and criminal to take away an individual’s best means of self-defense to protect themselves.”
House Speaker Rep. Todd Huston, R-Fishers, was unable to be reached for comment.
The Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action, a group that came out of the Sandy Hook shooting and is “for gun sense in America,” declined to comment, and so did House Minority Leader Rep. Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne.
Mitchell Banks, a reporter for The Tribune, contributed to this story.