June 26, 2016 6:49 AM

We need to talk about guns- NOW

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) asserted on Wednesday that the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando could have been prevented if people were not being “suppressed” by political correctness. During an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, King argued that Donald Trump had “laid out some good policies” to address mass shootings…. “One of them is his immigration policy,” he explained. “Let’s suspend immigration from terrorist-sponsoring countries at least until we get a handle on this. I think that’s a prudent statement. And yet, the crossfire is coming back as anti-gun.”…. “We want to have a prudent immigration policy, and the Democrats want to take away our guns!” King continued. “The very thing we need to defend ourselves from people like that shooter in Orlando.”…. King also said that he did not agree with people who said that the FBI, which investigated the shooter for ties to terrorism, should have been able to prevent his gun purchases.

It’s as predictable as it is dishonest- a Congressman who’s a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association (NRA) belittling the desire to have an honest discussion about common sense gun control. Why would ANY Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foe © acquiesce to having an honest, reasonable, rational conversation about our national gun problem when he can chastise gun control advocates for being “suppressed” by “political correctness.” Why discuss a problem when you can deflect and dissemble?

Why consider something a pronounced majority of Americans feel to be a legitimate problem today? Innocent Americans continue to be mowed down en masse by madmen wielding assault weapons…and those who want to change the status quo are hostage to “political correctness?” Since when do only Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © get to determine the only acceptable topic of conversation? Why are they the ones determining what (nothing) and when (never) we get to have a serious exchange of ideas? Why is anything that falls outside the bounds of what Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © are willing to discuss derided as an addiction to “political correctness?”

Even as Rep. King is falsely and disingenuously claiming the moral high ground, innocent Americans continue to die from senseless gun violence. Orlando, Sandy Hook, Aurora, San Bernardino…the list goes on and on, like a ghoulish road trip where the timing and destination are completely random and impossible to predict. Rep. King demeans those who support common sense gun control as being controlled by “political correctness.” The implication, of course, is that this clouds our judgment and renders us too emotional to rationally discuss the issue, as if we’re too stupidly distracted by tragedy and bloodshed to clearly see what needs to be done. If by “distracted,” he means “angry and tired of the status quo condemning yet more innocent Americans to senseless deaths,” he might be correct.

To me, Rep. King’s condescension, corruption, and valuing of gun “rights” over human life speak to a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NRA trying to stifle meaningful discussion. I’ll leave it to my gentle readers to arrive at their own evaluation regarding his words and intent. There’s one thing that seems clear: It’s time we talked- REALLY talked about guns in America.

It’s time we stopped allowed monsters more committed to “gun rights” than the preservation of human life from setting the agenda and determining when and/or if we get to discuss common sense gun control.

There is no singular narrative of a mass shooting; there is no singular fix. But there’s an obvious place to start.

If the shooter had been white? If the shooter had been Christian? If the shooter had a mental illness?

He would still be a shooter.

With a gun.

So start with the guns.

Ah, you might say, someone determined to kill masses of people will find a way. This is probably true. You can make explosives. You can go on a rampage with a pair of scissors. But it is far too easy to go on a rampage with a gun, in particular with an AR-15-style rifle. There’s a reason it’s the weapon of choice among mass murderers.

Orlando was NOT an immigration issue. Omar Mateen and Donald Trump were born just a few miles apart in Queens, New York. Mateen was every bit as American as Trump. “Fixing” immigration would not have prevented the tragedy in Orlando, nor would blocking immigration from Muslim countries. Mateen was born and raised in America.

Orlando may (or may not) have been a religion issue. While early reports indicate that Mateen seems to have self-radicalized, the question remains: Was it political, moral and/or theological Or combinations of the former?

It may (or may not) have been a mental health issue. Clearly, Mateen had significant pre-existing anger management issues and had for quite some time…but he’d been able to hold down a job as a security guard. What role his mental state played in the attack is still being investigated.

The one thing we do know is that Orlando was a GUN issue. As it was at Sandy Hook, Aurora, San Bernardino, and so many other mass shootings, the common denominator is the easy availability of guns and ammunition. There’s no reason why an American civilian would ever need to possess an assault rifle and/or a high-capacity magazine.

If we don’t talk about guns, if we can’t have an honest, open, and frank conversation about one of our biggest public health crises, we have no hope of ever arriving at a solution. Innocent people will continue to die, we’ll see more #thoughtsandprayers and moments of silence, and the death toll will rise as the traveling mass shootings road show moves from town to town with no warning or explanation.

We should be better than this.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 26, 2016 6:49 AM.

Twenty minutes later, he was offered a job as Donald Trump's campaign manager was the previous entry in this blog.

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