Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com
Legitimate candidate saying perfectly reasonable things, in a news studio
Since last week’s massacre at a community in Oregon, right wing pundits and GOP Presidential candidates have been out in full force explaining why it happened. Naturally, “too easy availability of guns” does not figure as a cause in these all too frequent heinous acts of violence by wielders of guns in their explanations. Rather, they are attributed, coincidentally, to the very things in modern society that just so happen to provoke conservative ire. Lou Dobbs points to a direct line from decline in school prayer to school shootings. Mike Huckabee blames “sin” (nothing specific but we’ve heard enough of his thoughts on everything from swear words to Beyonce to catch his drift). Bobby Jindal cast a wide net of culpability in a screed on his Presidential campaign site railing against, as you might guess, “cultural decay”:
I’m going to start today by venting, and I will warn you in advance that this is going to be a sermon, but someone needs to speak the truth for a change:
Another week, another mass shooting, another press conference by the President lecturing us on the need for gun control, and now Hillary and Obama are in a race to see which of them can be the most extreme in trying to destroy the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Rinse and repeat.
But there is something missing from this discussion, and it’s a glaring omission that everyone knows deep down, but politicians are afraid to talk about.
I’m going to go ahead and talk about it, and I don’t care at all if some people don’t like it, the truth is important.
What is the root cause of all these evil acts? These people who go into classrooms and churches and murder innocent people? How did we get to this place?
These shootings are a symptom of deep and serious cultural decay in our society…
Followed by a list of evils and debaucheries that “we” are allowing, as if Jindal is implicating everyone, but:
…It’s the old computer axiom – garbage in, garbage out. We fill our culture with garbage, and we reap the result.
If anyone is at all serious about changing any of this, they must address the root problems, and those are cultural decay, the glorification of evil, the devaluation of human life, the breakdown of the family, and specifically the complete abdication of fathers.
Meanwhile, the shallow and simple minded liberals will continue to blame pieces of hardware for the problem, and they will long for the days before firearms were invented.
But the simple truth is, as long as we place no value on human life, as long as we glorify senseless violence and evil, we will get the exact same result.
Yeah, it’s really the fault of liberals (and he’s looking straight at you Hollyweird!), plus basically every Democratic constituency.
Traditional culture warriors like Jindal are not the only denizens of reactionaryism blaming whatever makes them personally seethe with rage for the gun massacres that cannot be blamed on guns. They’re being joined enthusiastically by libertarians and “Men’s Rights Activists” in this indictment. Here’s a handy list of some of their favorite culprits:
Ladies!
Obviously we belong at the top. See: Feminism, abortion, slut pills, and the breakdown of the nuclear family through lack of shotgun weddings and the obstinate refusal of many women to tolerate abuse. Conventionally “hot” looking young ladies directly cause “involuntarily celibate” men to go on shooting rampages by selfishly refusing to provide said bitter men with the sex, companionship, and domestic servitude which they’ve been promised they are entitled to by movies and TV. I’m probably only scratching the surface of the myriad ways that women are forcing the hands of would-be mass gun assailants but, since I am one of those treacherous female creatures, you should probably get all the facts straight from the many, many sources available on the internet.
Parents
This would seem like it should folded into the “ladies” category, since everyone knows that rearing children is the sole responsibility of mothers but, no, the father of the Oregon shooter had to go and ask outrageous questions, such as why was his son able to get so many guns and whatnot. This led Bobby Jindal (who knows everything about the family by osmosis) to denounce him as an absentee failure of a father who owes us all an apology. They’re not totally down on women, you see. When they remember to, conservatives also have plenty of blame to throw on pansy men who can’t seem to exert proper authority over their wives and children!
Cowardice of people being shot at
Sort of in keeping with their sneering at insufficiently domineering patriarchs, right wingers have shown themselves to be quite unsympathetic to those who find themselves at the wrong end of a firearm. Per Ben Carson:
And on Tuesday, Mr. Carson’s suggestion that he would have fought back in the face of an attack like the one in Roseburg, Ore., went viral, drawing widespread rebuke from his critics and reviving questions about his candidacy.
“I would not just stand there and let him shoot me,” Mr. Carson, who has been surging in recent polls, said on Fox News. “I would say: ‘Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.’”
See, the problem isn’t guns. It’s your inability to transform instantly into Ray Donovan when a gun is pointed at your head!
Entertainment
A total cesspool of violence* and rappers and Lena Dunham, so obviously a cause of the mass shootings that simply cannot be blamed on guns, ever ever ever.
*Except for good, Godly, righteous violence like that in American Sniper!
Obama
Because, of course. Something, something Chicago…
All joking aside, there is a subtext to this that feels invidious beyond the obvious protect-the-gun-industry racket. It’s as if right wingers are treating mass shooters as an inevitable vigilante force dealing us our just desserts for not living exactly as they demand.
Donna,
I did not speak to Jindal. He did not pick up.
Cheri,
ALEC does not get involved with 2nd as amendment issues. Please update your talking points.
Steve,
Thanks
Don’t you dare insult my intelligence, Mr. Kavanagh! Stand Your Ground Laws are ALL derived from ALEC! Try again. Would you like MORE examples?? I certainly would be more than happy to share them all on this forum for others to see who you REALLY work for…
When I started reading this, I was expecting the usual drivel about more gun control laws would eliminate gun violence and I wasn’t disappointed…either by the original posting or the responses to it. I have come to believe that for liberals it is less the violence they are opposed to than the simple existence of guns. It is an unreasoned fear usually held by people who have never held a gun and who believe the gun kills people. Of course that is stupid on the face of it, but it held as an article of faith by those who seek more gun control laws. You make fun of the saying that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, but show me where that saying incorrect? You can’t because it is the truth. The gun I carry does only I do with it. It does nothing on its own. It poses no threat to anyone who doesn’t pose a threat to me or others.
One of the stupidest articles of faith among gun controllers is this mindless belief that we can somehow create “Gun Free” zones. We post signs and, somehow, that creates an invisible barrier to all who might bring a firearm into the sacred zone. It is stupidity at it’s worst, but gun controllers give it absolute faith. They truly seem to believe that someone bent using a gun to commit violence is going to see the sign and say to themselves, “Oh no! I can’t bring a gun here so I can’t do what I wanted to do! Dang!”, and then quietly go back home. It never seems to occur to gun controllers that all the sign does is reassure the violence intent monster that they have a 99%+ likelihood of not encountering anyone else who is armed and might pose a risk to them. If these signs are so effective, why don’t we start posting signs that say “No Burglaries”, or “No Robberies”, or “No Rapes”? It is because we know that would be stupid. Yet gun controllers think “No Guns” signs stop crimes. Such stupidity is almost criminal.
Donna, you made fun of the idea that the people who were being executed should do anything to try and stop the shooter. I assume your preference is that just lay there and wait to be executed. Is that because he only killed Christians? Or was it because you think it is better to die than to defend yourself? What would you think is a better course of action under those circumstances? Fight back, wait to be killed, depend on the benevolence of the shooter, or what?
I know that there are always efforts to work around the 2nd Amendment, but it is there for a reason. And that reason is NOT the National Guard. It is written as an INDIVIDUAL right, like ALL the Amendments in the Bill of Rights. Efforts to further curtail it are worth fighting with every possible resource.
Sometimes I believe gun worshipers sit back and enjoy the chaos caused by their weapons of mass destruction. Then they run to their nearest gun store to load up on more guns and ammo. After the deaths of 20 young children at Sandy Hook, I thought that might be the wake up call for America. Nothing changed, because the right to own a gun is more important.
If you really do believe that gun owners enjoy the tragedies then you do so out of blindness for your anti-gun position. The response of the gun control crowd, however, are just plain stupid. It is illogical and irrational to believe that ANY of the gun control laws being offered up would change a thing. But changing things is not the primary purpose of gun control laws. Taking guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens is the primary purpose of gun control laws. And people don’t run out and buy guns and ammunition in large volumes after one of these tragedies because they “celebrating” (as you imply), it is because sometimes State Legislatures foolishly pass restrictive laws that make it difficult to buy guns and ammunition afterward. They did so after Sandy Hook and despite those greater restrictions, those States have seen no change in their crime stats.
Is your right to free speech important? Your right to attend the church (or not attend) of your choice important? Your right to free association with whomever you choose to associate? Your right to privacy? Then your right to own and possess firearms is EQUALLY important! You may choose not to exercise it, but it is your right. It that regard, it IS more important. Millions have died to protect tose rights.
In which part of my statement did I say that no one should be allowed to own a gun? I don’t put responsible gun owners in the same category as gun worshipers, so maybe YOU should take a long hard look in the mirror at who you’re defending.
You didn’t say you wanted to ban guns anywhere in your posting. If you are not one of the gun control types that want to ban guns entirely, then I apologize for making that assumption. I don’t think the assumption I made requires me to “look in the mirror” or to reassess my position. The truth is that the majority of gun controllers want to see us follow the lead of England and Australia and ban gun ownership entirely. If you don’t agree with them then I congratulate you on having better reasoning skills and more respect for the Constitution.
chuck todd asked on meet the press sunday can you name any politician who lost because he was not pro-gun control enough? they couldn’t but chuck todd said he could name plant who lost because they were to pro-gun control! also the best way to stop gun violence in places like chicago is mandatory minimum sentences for crimes committed with a gun five or ten years if gang related. the democratic party can not support this as black members of the democratic party are fighting mandatory minimum sentences to get black men out of prision not put them in, so democratic party has to oppose the gun control law that could be passed. sen. kavenaugh. as jesus said to judas do you really care so much for the poor or in republicans case the poor mentally ill?
All of the conservatives I have spoken to identified mental illness as the biggest problem. Yet few gun control advocates want to talk about that issue.
All of them did not include Governor Jindal, apparently, who cited several causes including the “absentee” father of the 26 year old shooter, none of which included mental illness and none that even implicated the shooter himself.
Don’t let facts get in the way of your meme. How much gun lobby and ALEC $$ do you get to repeat the bs?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/03/us/gun-deaths-united-states/
What is wrong with the gun lobby and other pro-gun forces contributing money to politicians to support their cause?
Senator, you are talking to frightened, deliberately ill informed and die hard gun control advocates who really don’t care what the cause of these tragedies are. Getting rid of guns is the goal. Nice effort, though!
Wrong. Aga
I respect your opinion, Cheri. Where am I wrong?