Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) argued Thursday that inadequate legislation on mental illness has led to mass shootings…. “I don’t think the country is headed in the right direction,” he lamented on “CBS This Morning.”…. “This is just a horrible event,” Ryan said. “My stomach turns like any American when they see this kind of violence.”…. “What we have seen is the theme of mental illness,” he added. Ryan said U.S. mental health laws are outdated and that people with mental illness should not be able to buy guns. Congress, Ryan said, is currently looking at whether there are gaps in enforcing laws that need to be filled…. “We have to think these things through before we just have knee-jerk reactions,” the speaker added, and noted that it was important for Congress not to infringe on the rights of citizens.
Man, it’s gotta be tough on hard-core ideologues like Ryan when they’re forced to face the reality that the world doesn’t dovetail with their preferred narrative and preconceived notions. I’m not going to argue with the Speaker that “[t]his is just a horrible event,” because it’s every bit of that. I do find it interesting that he chose to express these sentiments after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, CA. The police have now established the attack as terrorism, which seems logical for what was apparently an attack with no small amount of planning and preparation behind it.
Given what’s now known about the attack, it seems highly unlikely that a mental health crisis played any role at all…yet Speaker Ryan seems to see nothing amiss with assuming otherwise. Perhaps he has information not available to the rest of us mere mortals, but when a man and a woman stockpile weapons, ammunition, and tactical gear, along with explosives of various types, that doesn’t speak to an unbalanced loner who snapped and lashed out. Besides, when that happens, it’s a virtual certainty that the person responsible would be an angry Conserverative White Christian male.
Host Charlie Rose raised President Barack Obama’s concern that people who are suspected of terrorism and placed on the U.S.’s No Fly List can still purchase guns.
Ryan said he worries about people with links to the Islamic State or other jihadist groups coming to the U.S. and inspiring Americans to carry out attacks, but stressed that the country “needs to respect due process” and not mistakenly place people on the list.
“This is something that should be dealt with by law enforcement in a more pronounced position than maybe banning people on a No Fly List,” he said.
“We need to be big, we need to be bold, we need to be specific,” he added.
We also need to address the problem AS IT IS, not in a manner which supports the approved Right-wing narrative and has little if any basis in truth and reality.
As much as Speaker Ryan is carrying water for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the gun industry, which has spared no expense to purchase the complicity of Congress, “banning people on a No Fly List” is part of what this is about. This is about a country awash in guns, a country in which more than 2000 people on the government’s terrorism watch list have purchased guns since 2004. This is about a Republican-controlled Congress that refuses to close the loophole allowing these potential terrorists to buy guns. The Speaker doesn’t get to deflect attention from the collective Republican refusal to deal with the real and significant problems this country faces from guns and gun violence. He doesn’t get to ignore the problem by creating a false association. Those who recognize and acknowledge what the real problem is have the right- nay, the responsibility- to call bullshit on the Speaker when he’s attempting to direct focus away from the real problem.
The truth is that Speaker Ryan and the rest of the Republican caucus have a vested interest in deflecting attention from the real issue at hand, which is their refusal to address lax gun laws and the need for more robust and stringent background checks. You don’t solve problems by ignoring the root causes…yet this is exactly what Ryan is attempting to do. Given the reality that the NRA and the gun industry own Congress, his loyalty clearly isn’t to his constituents or even the country; it’s to his owners.
Ryan’s priorities are as clear as his lack of commitment to solving problems by non-ideologically safe means. As one of my Facebook friends eloquently put it, “He’s just another ‘good Christian’ with plastic faith and a hollow soul.”
A hollow and corrupt soul, I might add.
