It was only in June of this year that some heavily armed a–hole shot up the Congressional baseball practice. Shooter/terrorist James T. Hodgkinson shot more than 50 rounds at congressmen and DC police officers. Several people were injured. Rep. Steve Scalise suffered some of the most critical injuries, like a pelvis shattered by a bullet. Scalise eventually recovered, for the most part, but I think he still uses crutches or a motorized scooter to get around. Scalise is a Republican and a long-time pro-gun person, a big NRA supporter, all of that. Getting shot didn’t change that. Neither did the Las Vegas massacre.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise says that getting shot and nearly killed at a GOP baseball practice in June has not swayed his stance against gun control. Fox News‘ Martha MacCallum asked Scalise in an interview that aired Tuesday night if his experience and Sunday night’s deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas have changed his support for gun rights.
“I think it’s fortified it,” said the Republican congressman, who returned to the House last week for the first time since he was shot. “Because first of all you’ve got to recognize that when there’s a tragedy like this, the first thing we should be thinking about is praying for the people who were injured and doing whatever we can to help them, to help law enforcement. We shouldn’t first be thinking of promoting our political agenda.”
His comments echoed those made by some fellow Republicans and the White House itself. President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will “be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”
Yeah, this is why people are jaded. As I said earlier this week, after Sandy Hook, there’s little left in my “let’s believe in the inherent goodness of our elected leaders to do the right thing” tank. Barack Obama tried, post-Sandy Hook. And very little was done, because the NRA bought Congress long ago. If dead first graders didn’t change anything, why would a massacre of mostly white, mostly Republican country fans? Someone could shoot up an NRA meeting and these people would still be saying the same thing: Guns, ‘Murica, Freedom, Prayers. If someone I loved died in the Vegas Massacre, or Newtown, or Aurora, or Orlando, or Virginia Tech, I wouldn’t want Steve Scalise’s f–king prayers. F-ck his prayers.
.@SteveScalise on Second Amendment: "When there was a shooter, luckily we had Capitol Police there with their own guns." #TheStory pic.twitter.com/Ve3H3hb9k7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 3, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Let’s do this all over again (and again and again) the next time some crazed person decides to end the lives of the innocent.
Pathos defined.
The fact that Scalise believes promoting sane gun regulation is a “political agenda” says all I need to know. He’ll never change and the GOP will never change. This country is owned by the NRA and gun manufacturers.
Over and over again. Can you say, a$$hole, a$$hole, a$$hole, a$$hole, a$$hole?
Lucky you, that you are still alive to tout your 2nd amendment rights. Thousands aren’t. And no, the dollar signs are not accidental. I have NO sympathy for this man.
The only job of the NRA is to increase gun industry profits. They don’t give a damn about your rights. <-The only conversation I'm having with gun nuts.
I got into a back-and-forth with two gun nutters yesterday on social media and it was just too damn easy. Their arguments are so completely flawed and so easy to debunk. But one of the funniest moment in the exchange was when he pasted a link to the NRA website to back up his assertion that guns actually make all of us safer. I was like “forgive me if I don’t trust the NRA website to have unbiased statistical data on gun control.” LOL
Yeah I’m sure he got a visit from one of the gun lobbyists reminding him who pays his bills
I asked the question on a FB post why someone, other than the military, need an automated weapon and the response I received from one poster was “because of tyrannical government”. I wanted to say “where do you live” (he lives in US). Just can’t.
@swak I love that argument. Even playing devil’s advocate that average citizens need automated weapons to rise against the government, do they really think that is enough? Our government has way more than just automated weapons. Tanks, missiles, drones, bio-weapons, the list goes on and on. The argument just doesn’t hold water.
Ha! Awesome
Exactly hence why they were utterly silent after Vegas. They will talk again once the collective apathy emerges yet again.
Also I want to know what gun could’ve stopped this guy who was not visible from the ground
No one could have stopped this. No “good guy with a gun”, no one. I was reading somewhere that had someone tried, they may have been shot themselves because no one knew who was doing the shooting and most likely the attitude “shoot first, ask questions later” would have been employed.
No one. Snipers are impossible to eliminate in these situations. They know it too.
“We shouldn’t first be thinking of promoting our political agenda.”
except that’s exactly what you just did.
Is it really just all about money? We need an anti-NRA to start throwing around money then?
Well, quite.
We can all remember how, when it transpired that Scalise was shot by a man who had once worked for the Bernie Sanders campaign, the right wing media absolutely didn’t leap on the chance to scream and shout about the “Violent Left”. No politicising to see here, people.
But sure, the most important thing is to start praying to a deity that saw a man armed with 40 guns point an assault rifle at a crowd of innocent civililians and just shrugged.
I am SO glad I live in a country where healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a hard-earned privilege.
Exactly. I want to throw up. I just read that the shooter had booked two hotel rooms in Chicago overlooking the park during Lollapalooza. But he didn’t show up. My son and his friends were there, along with a good percentage of the city’s teenagers. And tons of families with small children. It will happen again and I don’t want to imagine it. I can’t.
I didn’t hear about Chicago. Horrifying. What a completely evil psychopath. But yeah, let’s not take away his rights to amass an arsenal. Who else is doing that right this very moment? I’m despairing a bit like I did after 9/11. It’s bad.
And when it does, if I were a victim I’d hope that people would politicize the hell out of it. This idea that we’re respecting the victims by not questioning the method of their death is ridiculous.
Who is the anti-NRA? Americans for Sensible Solutions? Everytown for Gun Safety? Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence? Which of these organizations have most Americans even heard of? What money is pouring into gun control PACs?
The NRA is a powerful entity in part because there is no meaningful opposition.
Unbelievable!
“We shouldn’t first be thinking of promoting our political agenda.”
Unless the shooter is brown, in which case let’s build a wall, enact a travel ban etc etc. What a bunch of a-holes.
@amy
Exactly!!! I’m just so disheartened lately. If twenty dead first graders didn’t do it what will? As Jim Jeffries said, the only rational argument these people have left is: “I like guns!” Everything else like the mythical good guy with a gun has been debunked.
@amy, as I keep reading articles, I feel like they are trying to find any excuse to exonerate this person. So many theories around out there. Meds are the blame, he couldn’t have done this by himself, etc. Some days I just can’t with it.
At what point do we decide that these thought processes are delusional? Delusion meaning fixed false belief? This man is either lying, or delusional.
RIght on Kaiser. This is so frustrating. No civilian citizen needs to own a machine gun. Just makes no sense to me how these people justify this.
How corrupt do you have to be to not want to anything about our gun violence ? We’re the only westernized country that has this kind of gun violence . It’s mind blowing to me that an elected official can be ok with the amount of violence and death caused by gun. Nobody should have the type of weapons that the shooter had in Vegas .
All of it is disgusting too me . However Sandy Hook was the absolute final straw for me. If seeing babies getting shot at didn’t want you to change the gun laws here, nothing will. These guns that are available for the public are weapons of war. Nobody should ever own these things.
It’s so heartbreaking , because this will happen again by some nut. People will be outraged for a time, then forget until the next round of violence happens.
Yes-if Sandy Hook didn’t do anything-it’s over.
That was when I knew DC is home to politicians with no souls. They are so disgusting it boggles the mind.
In the Las Vegas shooting, nobody knew where the shooter was. Does ScalIse things would have been better if everyone there had guns shooting in every direction to protect themselves? If more people there were armed with weapons, the amount of deaths and injuries would be in the thousands
My sentiments exactly, Beth. No one in this situation would have been better off if they were carrying a gun.
One of my biggest problem’s with the pro-gun stance is the assumption that owning/carrying a gun makes the owner a potential hero in these types of situations. It doesn’t.
Yes. I cannot for the life of me understand how people think more guns in this situation would have been helpful and not more harmful.
Scalise says he’s grateful for capitol police and their guns — NO ONE is proposing to take guns away from police, ffs!
Everybody with guns shooting up in the air. Bullets come back down. More carnage. And they would start shooting at one another. There were people with guns in Las Vegas. One of them explained to a reporter that he didn’t pull his gun because he realized police arriving on the scene would think he was the shooter and kill him.
There WERE people in LV who were armed. It was a concert: they had armed security and armed police officers there. There were also off-duty police officers there some of whom were shot. I don’t know if they were carrying but they may have been. But even so, a f*cking .45 or whatever isn’t gonna do shit against a 600-rounds-per-minute assault weapon.
That is what these gun nuts fail to understand every single time. People a the event having guns was useless in this case because didn’t know where the shots were coming from, could never have reached where the shooter was anyway, and didn’t want to be mistaken for being the shooter or with the shooter by the police.
Scalise isn’t saying guns would have made a difference in this situation. He is saying that shootings are scary and having a gun makes some people (like his base) feel safe. They have bought into the idea that if government takes away their guns, they will be defenseless against the bad guys who will always have guns.
We had dinner with friends the other day. My husband and my friend and her husband all work in federal facilities. You are not allowed to have a weapon on government property. However, they were all talking about the training they receive, like fire drills, except these are active shooter drills. And they are told to always comply with police and submit to search. My point being, if police are searching for a shooter, and you’re waiving your gun around trying to be a hero, they’re going to shoot you. Plain and simple. I mean jesus, look at situations where innocent, unarmed people have been shot by police. The fact of the matter is, in a situation like that, even the police are going to panic and not take the time to differentiate a civilian trying to “help” from an actual threat. So the good guy with a gun argument is bullshit.
Also, ironically, my husband worked with a man who was fired from his job. He was known to mentally unstable. A few months later, we were at a bazaar in a shopping center with a gun shop. That guy walked into the gun shop. My husband hustled us out.
They think in the situation that people immediately realize what is happening and jump to act as if they are trained professionals for mass shootings. We know the shock paralyzes people and this guy made sure no one could retaliate.
He is a massive racist, so whatever it takes to keep the racist agendas going he is willing to do. He doesn’t care.
No soul
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Aren’t we all glad we worried for his safety when the guns came for him?
Some people choose to never learn or evolve.
I wonder how much 💰 💰 💰 the NRA is slipping in Scalise’s pockets. What a POS.
This is exactly what I came to say. I’d like someone to file a FOIA about NRA contributions to his campaign funds and/or personal accounts. What a disgusting sell-out, as they all are.
Ban assault style weapons, bump stocks, and hand guns for civilians- or in the case for a push for civilian handgun ownership, stop the NRA from suppressing Smart-Gun technology.
If civilians want a weapon for hunting ( a shotgun or a rifle), that is reasonable. You want to do some target practice? You must be a registered user of a range- owned firearm that uses & stocks only have non-lethal ammunition.
End. Of. Story. Common fn sense.
I really have come to believe that politicians are supporting this fear stoking to stay installed in their positions long term, with the added bonus of free money from the NRA.
Wayne LaPierre should be lynched (metaphorically speaking, of course).
And since none of the above is likely to happen any time soon, let’s make a lot of noise about how congress should in turn, allow guns in Capitol Hill, so they can all live in the same environment that we are forced to live in via their cowardice and avarice.
Don’t forget to vent your spleens at your reps and senators, people. It feels goooood.
Campaign contribtuions are public record. The NRA gave Scalise $4,950 in 2016.
I did see that same article, and apologize that my wording was ineffective. I should have specifically stated his personal accounts. Thanks!
It would be illegal for the NRA to pay him directly. I don’t think he is taking bribes from the NRA. I think he drank the kool-aid and went back for a second helping.
It’s not really even about paying him directly, imo. If a politician suddenly grows a conscience, turns their back on the NRA, and decides to support gun control, the NRA would simply say okey-dokey, and rustle up a candidate to run against that politician in the next election. Chances are the incumbent would lose in the primary and we’re back where we started.
Among the House Republicans, he’s in the Top 25 for most money from the NRA in 2016.
You can find more info here. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/recips.php?id=D000000082&chamber=H&party=R&cycle=2016&state=&sort=A
or here
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/nra-donations/
There’s also someone on Twitter who replies to every politician that offers “thoughts and prayers” with the exact amount of the money the NRA has given them over the years.
Twitter link, please! It would do my heart some good. It’s breaking.
Just ban them already. If a few Ted Nugent types cause trouble so be it. A bit of short term pain for long term gain would be better than what we currently have.
The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004 and Congress declined to renew it. It wasn’t the Ted Nuggent types who convinced them it was a political loser, it was the millions of gun owners who see a ban in any type of weapon as an infringement of their rights.
I just don’t get that because there are already bans on weapons. You can’t own a tank. You can’t own a nuclear warhead. I’m sure there are others, but I’m not exactly up on my weaponry. It’s just a bizarre argument because there are already limitations in place, so what’s the problem with saying, “The average citizen doesn’t need access to armor piercing bullets.”?
In 2013 Diane Feinstein introduced an assault weapons ban that was defeated 40 – 60 because 15 Democratic senators voted against it. Why do people want to possess these guns? I have no idea, but they have convinced enough otherwise reasonable lawmakers to keep them available.
If someone I loved died in the Vegas Massacre, or Newtown, or Aurora, or Orlando, or Virginia Tech, I wouldn’t want Steve Scalise’s f–king prayers. F-ck his prayers.
PREACH. All these fools who take NRA blood money or espouse the religion of GUNS ALL THE TIME, and yet come put with these weak “thoughts and prayers” bullshit when these massacres occur should just f*ck off, seriously. They have have helped create the atmosphere that brings all this about and they are doing NOTHING to change it.
He was praying for the people who got hurt in the shootings. Why that is wrong? Just because the person saying it is believing I something stupid like supporting guns it’s very odd to say “fuck his prayers”. It’s not like he was praying for people to get guns.
I think the point posters are trying to make is that they’d rather have no massacres at all, than have the prayers after massacres. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with prayer, but wouldn’t you rather not have the horrific situation that necessitated the prayers and condolences in the first place?
It isn’t sincere because they say this over and over but do nothing about it.
After every shooting there is a bunch of outrage and then the issue recedes. The last mass demonstration for gun control was 17 years ago, and, arguably, was the issue that cost Al Gore the 2000 election. It’s not just that the NRA owns Congress, it is that there is not the sustained public support for change that makes it worthwhile for members of Congress to spend political capital on the issue.
Saving lives isn’t political. F–k the NRA for making the gun conversation toxic in our country.
I truly don’t understand his comment regarding the Capitol police having guns…of course they do, they’re the police. I am from a family full of vets and yes, a few hunters. They all agree these types of guns (semi-automatics, etc.) are weapons of war and no civilian should have them.
he’s just spouting the NRA GOP party line and stoking the base with that talk – which is 100% political. he can shove it. they want people to fear guns will be completely abolished instead of the reality which is that most people just want different regulations. imagine being so morally bankrupt that after getting your dick blown off, almost dying you still wake up repeating the NRA slogans like a robot. its sickening. my husband is from a family of hard line, gun toting, racist, government hating, bible belt evangelist republicans and none of them think assault weapons, semi-automatic pistols or being allowed to stockpile guns and ammunition is necessary or a right under the 2nd amendment.
I liked whoever suggested that every black and brown person go out and buy a handgun and machine gun today. Why not several? Then start yammering on about concealed carry and protecting themselves. Tunes would change.
Are you serious ? I hate that Eric Benet said that and people are agreeing.
Why? It’s true, though.
I too am curious as to why you feel like that, Tiffany.
Honestly Kitten, I have a problem with white people being way to comfortable with agreeing and talking this up. The tone deafness of their responses to it on social media is staggering.
Because you feel like white people are encouraging POC to basically be used as pawns in the fight for stricter gun control laws?
Because if that’s what you’re getting at, I completely agree.
And I feel stupid for not recognizing how problematic it is to essentially ask POC to be foot soldiers for a political cause; for them to endanger their safety when POC already have their safety endangered on a daily basis and that’s WITHOUT being armed.
@ Kitten. Yes, to all of what you wrote.
Tiffany, I was only thinking of the hypocrisy of the notion that it would get laws to change, and failed to see your really excellent point. Thanks for mentioning it.
Tiffany you make a good point, thanks. I didn’t see the responses to his tweet so I was just thinking he was making cynical, rhetorical statement. I didn’t know people were actually encouraging this.
Honestly, it makes me think of Philando Castile. White people who carry guns are treated MUCH differently than POC who carry guns.
Also, that strategy works right into the hands of the gun industry (NRA + gun manufacturers). They use their power to make our communities more dangerous, and this would only line their pockets so they can continue to do more of the same.
Overall, though, I think his point was to demonstrate the double standard. That if POC did start buying guns in large numbers, then bigoted politicians would start thinking of the issue differently.
The Panthers did this in the 70s and 80s and the NRA lobbied for tougher gun control.
Oh, yeah, things would change real quick then. Sad
The NRA bought the souls of so many of our politicians through campaign contributions and other money gifts. The politicians think nothing about children and other innocent people dying and their empty words of condolences and fake grief make me sick. A special place in hell for them.
Please, just shove your prayers up your ass, Steve. That’s about all the good they’ll do. Why don’t you ‘pray’ about abortion instead of passing laws to restrict it? Why pass laws against LBGQT people instead of just ‘praying’ about it? Hypocrites!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/10/03/why-thoughts-and-prayers-is-starting-to-sound-so-profane/
exactly! an LGBTQ woman saved his life and he will spend the rest of his career legislating against her rights. a psycho shoots him and almost kills him and he goes on tv and doubles down on loosening gun laws. it is just SO WRONG.
That op ed piece was fantastic. Thanks for sharing, Jerusha.
The GOP has repeatedly made it clear that they care more about money from the NRA than people being able to go about their lives without being shot.
Eric Benet knows exactly how to get stringent gun control laws passed.
http://twitter.com/ebenet/status/915076212199874560
I keep thinking of what Jimmy Kimmel said, something like “a window to hell has been open” and it’s felt like that for almost a year. The ‘new normal’ is a nightmare. This is just one more example.
F*ck his prayers
A**hole
Okay. The Sandy Hook shooting will be 5 years ago this December!
Is 5 years not enough time that went by, to be “talking about gun laws as time goes by.” ?
An outsider’s point of view (I’m Canadian) – your gun control debate ended after Sandy Hook, and the wrong side won. America, or at least the people in charge of it, looked at dead babies and said that’s a price we’re willing to pay to look as cool as Stallone in First Blood.
I’ve actually never met an American person I didn’t like. You have a wonderful country full of awesome people and it makes me so sad to see how a nutty fringe is ruining it.
I saw a doc years ago that simulated what would happen if civilians were armed and a mass shooter opened fire. It was devastating – people drew their weapons, loaded with sound blanks, but were unsure who the shooter was. If anyone thought he was sure and opened fire then subsequent civilians shot at him thinking he was the original gunman. Uniformed officers arrived as part of the enactment and were absolutely unsure who the real gunman was. It was terrifying and eye-opening.
Do you remember the name of the doc? Sounds fascinating (and scary AF).
*facepalm*
I don’t remember and it’s killing me. Google searches and pestering hubby haven’t helped. I was gobsmacked though and it changed my views on guns. Additionally, the people most often hurt or killed by guns reside with gun owners.
*edit*
This isn’t the doc but I think this reenactment (Charlie Hebdo shootings) speaks to the same fallacies about out-gunning the bad guys, although I don’t agree with the author’s conclusion.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/a-gun-rights-organization-staged-a-re-enactment-of-the-charlie-hebdo-shooting/
There was an article about one of the guitarist for some band that played at the Rt 91 festival, who had been a staunch gun rights advocate who completely changed his tune about gun rights after living through the mass murder. Interestingly, he said that band and crew had handguns on their bus, but decided not to use them because of the additional chaos it would cause. I’d like to see him speak in front of congress regarding his harrowing experience, and what he has learned. I don’t twitter, but if I did I would open a discussion with him urging him to do so. Maybe one of you CBers will?
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/03/555309426/las-vegas-massacre-prompts-musician-to-call-for-gun-control-enough-is-enough
Oh! I saw that, too! Was it on youtube? Perps all dressed in black in a office complex scenario?
http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/counterterrorism/gun-group-reenacts-charlie-hebdo-massacre/4002508642001
NotSoSocialButterfly
Thank you! Husband is sending a tweet to that bandmember.
Thank you! Emailed to myself so I can watch it when I get home tonight.
I guess GOP thought 2017 was a great year to let all the USA’s dirty, disgusting laundry air globally.
And then the US voted yes to countries being allowed to put people who are gay to death. They voted that countries should be allowed to kill people who are gay.
To kill people for being gay. Haley voted that’s OK with the current administration, in a vote at the UN.
I really do not know if the US can recover it’s reputation at this point. Just google that, above, and read the list of the other countries who voted that killing gay people is acceptable. That’s who the USA aligns with now.
I’m so disgusted, so terrified, so sick of this, and I don’t even have to physically reside in the US. 🙁
The Trump shitbags are all saying that it doesn’t matter because the measure was going to pass by majority anyway. They’re completely unconcerned about the terrifying optics of the US uniting ideologically with countries like Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia.
It is all so appalling and exhausting I don’t know where to start.
My BF and I were talking angrily about Las Vegas and the subsequent gun control debate and I had to stop abruptly like “I need time to still be angry about Puerto Rico before I start yelling about our gun violence problem” then there’s this UN vote that you’re talking about.
Like, there’s just SO much to be angry and upset about it, it’s overwhelming.
US sided with those nations for the same reason it’s pro-guns: MONEY. Those are very powerful economic allies. US makes a lot of money selling weapons to them. That’s what it’s all about here.
That vote on the resolution was so disgusting. They claim that they voted against because the resolution disparages the death penalty in general, but from what I have read, that isn’t accurate.
Steve Scalise and his Republican cohorts, bought and paid for by the NRA, is a major part of the evil plaguing America. No civil society is truly “civil” when it allows random citizens to arm themselves with weaponry that kills hundreds in seconds. It’s criminal, it’s evil, it’s insanity, it’s inexplicable. If I were to believe in such things, it would be clear that Satan, not God, is in charge of the USA.
Three percent of adults own half of America’s guns. Nineteen percent own the other half. Seventy-eight percent of us own zero guns. Why are we being held hostage by 22% of Americans and nearly 100% of Repub politicians?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/19/just-three-percent-of-adults-own-half-of-americas-guns/
Thanks for that statistical info. It’s really interesting, and I didn’t know it before.
Conservatives lack simple logic. To say it is a good thing Capital police had guns is part of the arguments we progressives make. Police should be the people WITH the guns. Not every nutbag who can afford to stockpile them. Also, it’s off topic. But never forget: a gay woman of color saved this man. Because he will.
He probably already has forgotten.
She was conspicuously absent when he made his triumphal return to the Capitol. The other police officer was there, but she wasn’t.
When there’s a vote taken concerning gun laws, the $ they took from the nra should be shown by each vote..then we would know what they think life is worth..every person who gives to the nra enables this
Here are some of them.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/04/opinion/thoughts-prayers-nra-funding-senators.html?smid=tw-share
@Jerusha, that is disgusting – thank you for posting.
What I don’t understand is how the NRA gives them so much money. Is it all campaign contributions? How would it be legal for them to accept it in any other way?
And what I really don’t get is why they think they need this money to hold their positions. I (and most people in the US) would be much MORE likely to vote for someone who came out publicly and said they declined any $ from the NRA. I feel like they would win in a landslide. Especially considering the stats you posted above: how 3% of Americans own half of the guns.
Most Americans want this to stop. So why are the politicians so scared to break away from the NRA?
Thanks for the list!
And baby fists’ dreadful pretense in LV while awkwardly trying to appear all Godly with a fake call for prayers was hideous. He is thuggish through and through. Disgusting.
We can always count on him sending his “warmest condolences.” Dear God, our lost republic!!
“It was a sad day for *me*.”
– Preznit Butthurt Bigly
I will never understand this reasoning. This is not the movies-real people are dying and for what?? This is not a game, this is real life. No one needs assault rifles of any kind, period end of story. FFS this has got to stop.
I HATE this POS. He calls himself “David Duke without the baggage” – he is a truly awful person and I’m exhausted by everyone glorifying his trash self.
I’ll give him credit for sticking to his principles (I use that term lightly). It would actually be more obnoxious to me if he changed his tune after it affected him personally. If you’re going to state that people’s lives are expendable for freedom, at least own it.
I wonder how much he has invested in the making and selling of arms. Follow the money and you’ll find out why the gun legislation hasn’t or won’t change. It’s all about the money these days and the shareholders/bottom line. They may not even be American.
Right there with you, Kaiser.
I’ve seen beauty pageant contestants give a more coherent response to questions than that. He said he believes in no new gun control laws because he needs to pray for people. ???? That’s not an answer. That’s Sarah Palin level political scat. I’m pretty sure people on the ground had guns in Vegas, but I doubt anyone had anything that could have taken out that dude. And I really don’t want people walking around with whatever type of artillery would have finished him off.
So I’m seeing the argument that guns don’t prevent governmental tyranny. True, but disarmament would make it that much easier for “them” to come throw people in camps or firing squads. Some would argue that at least make “them” have to use their weapons, which would force the whole world to see their brutality, instead of secret night raids?
Ok but at what point do we recognize the utter absurdity of legislating gun laws based on fantastical, apocalyptic hypotheticals?
The whole world isn’t going to achieve anything in terms of assistance or intervention if the US military turns on the US population. You have way, way more weaponry and a way larger army than anyone else, and we don’t intervene as the international community when relatively small and powerless nations turn on their own as it is. Happens all the time, and there is UN handwringing as people are slaughtered. Peacekeepers are only sent in if all sides agree, and only if they can have a chance of taking control. How would that happen, in a US civil war or military coup?
And secondly, as Kitten says that’s a daft, Hunger Games style hypothetical, while your avoidable gun deaths are right here, right now. How many more toddlers are going to shoot people before you start thinking things should change? How many massacres need to occur?
It’s so divorced from reality, this line of argument. It’s gone way, way past illogical and straight into delusion.
If anyone thinks the government is coming to get them then that person needs mental help not guns.
Don’t know what delusions or even Hunger Games has to do with anything – I’ve never seen the movies or read the books.
He’s hopping on the NRA gravy train!
I mean, firstly most people don’t have protection from federal cops with guns, as Scalise did. And secondly, even that protection didn’t prevent his being shot.
Gun control works. Many, many fewer people die if the only weaponry the crazies can access are knives.
Exactly. Do you think that guy would have killed many people if all he had was a knife? He was able to kill and maim a ton of people because he was allowed to amass more guns than anyone would ever need and of a type that only people in the military need. I try to be fair in my thinking that maybe handguns or shotguns are okay, but tragic events like these push me further to the “get rid of them all” side. Gun owners, take note. If you can’t solve this problem on your own then we need more laws. We’ve been waiting for you all to step up but all we get are more body counts. Enough is enough.
It’s frankly ridicilous why anyone would need automatic or semi automatic guns if your a civilian. Hunting rifles if you hunt sure and possibly a sidearm. But then you should be licensed, do a test on a range to show you understand how to use the weapon and respect it. There should be a database that shows how many weapons you own so you can’t by a small armoury. I think all that sounds quite reasonable. Oh and no pink or baby blue weapons for kids cause that just makes them seem like toys. A gun is a gun don’t dress it up as something else for your kid.