AGAINST THE TIDE: How Republican politicians are defending their gun regulation intransigence
Since the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas earlier this week — just like the periods after other mass killing sprees in Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, and Orlando — Republican politicians have been falling all over themselves to explain why the cause of the senseless violence is anything other than the pervasive availability of guns.
It’s an exercise designed to provide cover for these politicians — many of whom reap bountiful donations from the NRA and other weapons manufacturer interests — for their continued opposition to the passage of any meaningful, common-sense gun regulations, such as universal background checks and a renewed ban on the types of assault weapons typically used by these deranged mass murderers.
As GOP luminaries make the rounds of Sunday morning TV news talk shows and spread their lame excuses across social media, let’s examine what a few of them are claiming in order to protect their own deviant interpretations of the 2nd Amendment rights of American citizens.
Let’s start with Donald Trump Jr., who pins the blame for the Uvalde killings not on the fact that a clearly disturbed 18-year-old could purchase an assault weapon and a massive amount of ammunition without anyone batting an eyelash but on “crazy teachers” — two of whom were among the victims at the Robb Elementary School — who are indoctrinating their students.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1530724616574054401?s=20
It’s probably not a good idea to take behavioral advice from someone frequently observed to be amped up on what many people think could be illicit stimulants, but Junior’s lack of empathy for anyone but those persecuted gun aficionados is perfectly clear.
Perhaps you’d rather listen to the rantings of another of the most divisive right-wing extremists, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), as she blames what she claims to be the shooter’s transexual tendencies for his mental health issues and proposes militarizing America’s elementary schools.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1530749942297411584?s=20&t=TEoM0LoaMZI3RojFu0v3PA
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1530751307040100352?s=20&t=TEoM0LoaMZI3RojFu0v3PA
Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL), took a break from his campaign to be the Republican Senate nominee in his state, to reminisce about the good old days when he was a kid and he and his classmates brought their guns to school as habitually as bringing an apple to the teacher. Brooks really offered no solutions to “the decline in moral values” that he blames for the spate of gun violence in our country.
Mo Brooks notes on Fox News Sunday that when he was a kid it was common to bring weapons to school, yet there were no schools shootings, and attributes that to "the decline in the moral values." (Some might argue the wide availability of AR-15s today is a more pertinent factor.) pic.twitter.com/7xU5AuRXK1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2022
Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), a former Navy Seal, went on CNN‘s State of the Union this morning to explain why he opposes every proposed sensible solution to our nation’s gun crisis.
Dan Crenshaw went on CNN following a school shooting to basically explain why he doesn't support various measures to try to prevent them one by one pic.twitter.com/HWzMAtaWY7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2022
Dan Crenshaw went on CNN following a school shooting to basically explain why he doesn't support various measures to try to prevent them one by one pic.twitter.com/HWzMAtaWY7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2022
One of the most heartless takes by a Republican politician came from Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) who responded to a serious question about the necessity of civilian ownership of military-grade weapons from Occupy Democrats’ GOP-defector opinion columnist David Weissman with a wholly insulting answer.
Target sport
Self defense
Hog huntingJust to name a few… pic.twitter.com/jzsPnT0lel
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) May 29, 2022
The only Republican politician who seemed to have the slightest bit of empathy for the victims of the school massacre — and an interest in real solutions — was Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) who has infamously bucked his party on investigating the January 6th insurrection. In his appearance on CNN‘s State of the Union, Kinzinger rejected calls from fellow Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) to turn schools into armed fortresses and indicated a new openness to an assault weapons ban.
Adam Kinzinger: "I have opposed a ban [on AR-15s] fairly recently. I think I'm open to a ban now." pic.twitter.com/gF54DPW5Z6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2022
Hopefully, public pressure will convince at least a few of Kinzinger’s GOP colleagues to reverse their own stance on reinstituting the ban on assault weapons that was passed in the Clinton era and was allowed to lapse during the administration of George W. Bush.
With so many right-wing ideologues — with their dedication to expanding 2nd Amendment rights to their most illogically expansive interpretation — dominating the Republican Party, however, it seems that the only way sensible gun regulation legislation will be passed will be if Democrats gain a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in the midterms. That’s a long-shot prospect that perhaps this latest tragedy makes somewhat more plausible if voters still are as outraged in November as they are in the days following the Uvalde massacre.
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