Mass shootings are obviously tragic and clearly unpleasant, but the increasingly selfish and willfully blind and arrogant defense of the NRA by many Trump supporters in the wake of these tragedies is simply downright depressing. In the past six months, there have been three major mass shootings that rank as among the most deadly in modern American history. The first was the biggest, at the concert in Las Vegas, where 58 people were killed, and hundreds more wounded. The second was the biggest mass shooting in Texas history, as a man walked into a church in Sutherland Springs and killed 26 people. Then last month, Florida saw another mass shooting, this one in Parkland. It ranks as the third deadliest school shooting in the modern history of the United States.
So, perhaps it is not surprising that the gun debate has been raging like never before. After all, we have a big mouth that received the full endorsement of the NRA during the 2016 presidential campaign, and now he is in the Oval Office. He mocked a disabled reporter during the campaign, so should it really be a surprise that his gun loving supporters would make such a point of mocking kids?
No, it's worse than that, actually. They are bullying kids who survived one of the world school shootings in history. These kids saw their classmates killed on what was supposed to be a regular school day, but wound up anything but. A 19-year-old man, hardly more than a kid himself, somehow managed to get his hands on an AR-15, and decided to use it against defenseless kids.
This was not the first time, or the second time, or the third time that we have seen such massacres in American schools. In the past, some of the solutions offered up by pro-NRA advocates has been to have armed guards in every school. Despite tight budgets, this was seen as an emergency to help keep our kids safe. But there were armed guards in previous school shootings, and it did not help. It did not help at Columbine. And in Parkland, the guard refused to enter the building, refused to put his life on the line to either help prevent, or at the very least limit, a school massacre.
Do we really think that teachers, who surely would not get more training on guns and shooting, would fare better?
Also, there are plenty of mass shootings that happen outside of schools, as well. Are we going to hire armed guards, at taxpayer expense, for literally every kind of public gathering? Will we see them at post offices, at shopping malls and supermarkets? Are we going to hire them for churches, which have obviously seen quite a few mass shootings just in recent years, as well? Would it even help in these circumstances? How much would an armed guard have helped in Las Vegas, where the shooter was firing from 32 stories up?
Obviously, that solution has not always worked. Yet, conservatives and other NRA supporters, usually quite hawkish about being on a tight budget to the point that they continually try to cut school programs, like Trump did with after school programs, are now championing the idea of providing teachers with training and with guns themselves. Clearly, this will cost quite a lot of money, considering how many thousands of schools there are in the country, and presumably, there would be more than one teacher on average per school that would receive such training, because of absences and the possibility that a trained teacher at the far end of a school would not necessarily even be able to get to a shooting on time if it winds up being on the complete other end of the school. Plus, let's face it, if armed guards with proper training and equipment do not always, or even often, prevent mass shootings, why would teachers suddenly be the answer?
Of course, it is pointed out over and over again that the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world with such a massive problem with gun violence in general, and with the relentless regularity of mass shootings in particular. It is hard not to notice that the easy availability of guns in the United States might indeed be a decisive contributing factor for all of this.
So, despite how confident conservative gun lovers try to sound with their answers, history has not been on their side. And that's got to be frustrating.
But who knew that they could stoop so low as to outright mock kids in high school? Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham seemed to be absolutely gleeful that one of the Parkland teens turned activist was turned down from several colleges, despite an apparently strong GPA and other impressive credentials. FOr her lack of professionalism, numerous sponsors dropped her. And now, only after the fact, and seeing that there are indeed consequences for being an asshole, she seems to be apologizing and expressing regret at her own conduct.
How convenient.
Ingraham is hardly the only one, though. One of the NRA gun lovers slapped a Hitler mustache on the image of a Parkland kid, and a fake image of another Parkland survivor turned activist, Emma Gonzalez, tearing up the constitution, while another member of the Republican party from Maine referred to her as a "skinhead lesbian," before he was forced to drop his political campaign as a result of his mind-numbingly stupid and insensitive remarks.
But how low can we go as a nation? When is enough enough? Not just with gun violence, but also with the personal insults and, yes, the bullying. Not be kids,but by supposedly full grown, allegedly responsible adults. If this is how angry and irresponsible they get, how trustworthy will they possibly be with assault weapons?
This is getting absurd. Frankly, those sponsors should have dropped idiots like Ingraham and LaPierre and the NRA in general, and a long time ago.
No matter what political affiliation we may subscribe to, it seems that everyone agrees that we seem to have lost something as a nation.
The question that I have, is whether insulting children who want frankly reasonable measures for their own personal safety is the cause, or just a clear symptom of the larger problem plaguing us, clearly pointing to what is wrong with this country?
No, it's worse than that, actually. They are bullying kids who survived one of the world school shootings in history. These kids saw their classmates killed on what was supposed to be a regular school day, but wound up anything but. A 19-year-old man, hardly more than a kid himself, somehow managed to get his hands on an AR-15, and decided to use it against defenseless kids.
This was not the first time, or the second time, or the third time that we have seen such massacres in American schools. In the past, some of the solutions offered up by pro-NRA advocates has been to have armed guards in every school. Despite tight budgets, this was seen as an emergency to help keep our kids safe. But there were armed guards in previous school shootings, and it did not help. It did not help at Columbine. And in Parkland, the guard refused to enter the building, refused to put his life on the line to either help prevent, or at the very least limit, a school massacre.
Do we really think that teachers, who surely would not get more training on guns and shooting, would fare better?
Also, there are plenty of mass shootings that happen outside of schools, as well. Are we going to hire armed guards, at taxpayer expense, for literally every kind of public gathering? Will we see them at post offices, at shopping malls and supermarkets? Are we going to hire them for churches, which have obviously seen quite a few mass shootings just in recent years, as well? Would it even help in these circumstances? How much would an armed guard have helped in Las Vegas, where the shooter was firing from 32 stories up?
Obviously, that solution has not always worked. Yet, conservatives and other NRA supporters, usually quite hawkish about being on a tight budget to the point that they continually try to cut school programs, like Trump did with after school programs, are now championing the idea of providing teachers with training and with guns themselves. Clearly, this will cost quite a lot of money, considering how many thousands of schools there are in the country, and presumably, there would be more than one teacher on average per school that would receive such training, because of absences and the possibility that a trained teacher at the far end of a school would not necessarily even be able to get to a shooting on time if it winds up being on the complete other end of the school. Plus, let's face it, if armed guards with proper training and equipment do not always, or even often, prevent mass shootings, why would teachers suddenly be the answer?
Of course, it is pointed out over and over again that the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world with such a massive problem with gun violence in general, and with the relentless regularity of mass shootings in particular. It is hard not to notice that the easy availability of guns in the United States might indeed be a decisive contributing factor for all of this.
So, despite how confident conservative gun lovers try to sound with their answers, history has not been on their side. And that's got to be frustrating.
But who knew that they could stoop so low as to outright mock kids in high school? Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham seemed to be absolutely gleeful that one of the Parkland teens turned activist was turned down from several colleges, despite an apparently strong GPA and other impressive credentials. FOr her lack of professionalism, numerous sponsors dropped her. And now, only after the fact, and seeing that there are indeed consequences for being an asshole, she seems to be apologizing and expressing regret at her own conduct.
How convenient.
Ingraham is hardly the only one, though. One of the NRA gun lovers slapped a Hitler mustache on the image of a Parkland kid, and a fake image of another Parkland survivor turned activist, Emma Gonzalez, tearing up the constitution, while another member of the Republican party from Maine referred to her as a "skinhead lesbian," before he was forced to drop his political campaign as a result of his mind-numbingly stupid and insensitive remarks.
But how low can we go as a nation? When is enough enough? Not just with gun violence, but also with the personal insults and, yes, the bullying. Not be kids,but by supposedly full grown, allegedly responsible adults. If this is how angry and irresponsible they get, how trustworthy will they possibly be with assault weapons?
This is getting absurd. Frankly, those sponsors should have dropped idiots like Ingraham and LaPierre and the NRA in general, and a long time ago.
No matter what political affiliation we may subscribe to, it seems that everyone agrees that we seem to have lost something as a nation.
The question that I have, is whether insulting children who want frankly reasonable measures for their own personal safety is the cause, or just a clear symptom of the larger problem plaguing us, clearly pointing to what is wrong with this country?
Hogg Asks Melania for Comment After Ingraham Tweet Newsweek logo Newsweek Joe Difazio, March 29, 2018:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hogg-asks-melania-for-comment-after-ingraham-tweet/ar-AAvfIaz
Laura Ingraham, Facing Boycott, Apologizes for Taunting Parkland Survivor David Hogg By DANIEL VICTORMARCH 29, 2018:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/business/media/laura-ingraham-david-hogg.html
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