THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM)
In a town hall Thursday evening, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) rejected a constituent’s suggestion that stricter background checks for gun sales could have kept a mentally disturbed young man from threatening a Georgia elementary school Tuesday with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. To explain his opposition to background checks, Pearce argued, “They don’t have guns in Rwanda, yet (more than 500,000) people died by machetes.”…. According to Las Cruces Sun-News, Pearce offered the vague suggestion that “America’s heart” needed to change, not gun laws. The claim that the 1994 Rwandan genocide was carried out with machetes, despite strict gun laws, is a favorite talking point of the gun lobby. Pearce’s colleague, Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) even compared President Obama’s push for stricter background checks to a Rwandan government registry used to round people up for slaughter.
I can handle the fact that Conservatives love them some guns. I understand their conviction and devotion to doing whatever it takes to support 2nd Amendment rights, which they view (incorrectly) as sacrosanct and inviolable. What I refuse to accept is Republicans lying and blowing past the facts to make their argument. Besides being lazy and intellectually dishonest, they’re ignoring the reality of history.
The facts are what they are, stubborn and unalterable, which is a real pain when you’re a Republican trying to stick to your talking points. Then again, when you’re preaching to the choir, lying in the service of telling people what they want to hear is no vice, knowhutimean? The truth is merely an inconvenience that people who care about honesty and integrity (i.e.- losers and Liberals) get their panties all wound up in.
Regardless of the inconvenience factor, the truth is that Rwandans- quite a large number of them, actually- were killed by guns. Facts really are stubborn things.
Then again, facts are for losers and Liberals, right??
If the gun nuts, the NRA, and their lapdogs are so convinced they’re right, then why resort to such blatant, easily disprovable dishonesty? Why lie about something that anyone with a laptop and and an internet connection can fact-check in 30 seconds? Why demonstrate yourself to be completely, utterly devoid of integrity? Worst of all, why lie about one of the worst genocides in modern history? Certainly, machetes were the preferred weapons of murderers during the madness, but guns killed thousands, and ignoring that historical fact defies rational explanation. Or understanding. Or are Pearce and his ilk really that dishonest and evil?
As if I even need to answer that question….
I think it says a lot- none of it good- that Conservatives like Pearce feel that they need to traffic in lies, propaganda, and Right-wing talking points in order to carry the day. Especially when you consider that Pearce’s lies were exposed almost as soon as they spewed forth from his lips. I could go on, but one of the comments on this piece- courtesy of Lee Slice, Scientific Review Officer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)- says it better than I could EVER hope to:
This jerk has never been to Rwanda. Last year I visited Rwanda and Kigali. I also visited Nyamata Church where 5000 people were murdered in 1995. Guns were used to kill these people. I could tell by all the bullet holes in the walls and the roof of the church. The blood stains are still there. The remains of the victims are in an adjacent ossuary. All those bones of the murdered people, so please forgive me for believing that Representative Pearce is an idiot that does not know what he is talking about.
Good night. Game over. Drive home safely. Rep. Pearce IS an idiot that doesn’t know what he’s talking about…but since when has the EVER stopped gun nuts from spewing the lies and disinformation?
Same as it ever was.
