Tag Archive: Assault Weapons Ban

Don’t give up on fighting gun violence

Good Democratic messaging here

The gun violence situation looks very bad in America right now. We’re averaging more than one mass shooting every day. One of the latest such shootings took place in Allen, Texas last Saturday, where a gunman wearing a tactical vest with an “RWDS” (“Right Wing Death Squad”) patch opened fire with an AR-15-style assault weapon at a shopping mall, killing at least eight people, including two young children, and injuring approximately nine others. Meanwhile, Republican-run states are going the wrong way on guns, with Florida passing a law allowing residents to carry concealed guns without a permit, and a 2015 tweet from Texas Governor Greg Abbott resurfacing again this week, in which he complains that Texas lags behind California in gun purchases, and that Texans therefore need to buy more guns. To top it off, Republican Megyn Kelly, who should know better about toxic harmful behavior, tweeted the following last Saturday:

Serious q for gun control advocates: you’ve failed to effect change. Pls face it. You can’t do it, thx to the 2A. We’re all well aware you don’t like that fact, but fact it is. What’s next? Must we just stay here sad, concerned, lamenting? Could we possibly talk OTHER SOLUTIONS?

Then, after being reprimanded for her tweet, she doubled down with the following:

No YOU F off. I am sick and tired of nothing changing after mass shootings bc we get mired EVERY TIME IN THE DAMN GUN DEBATE. You have LOST. It’s DONE. For the love of God what else can be done? You are ruining any chance at change by not admitting that the gun debate is lost.

But giving up on fighting gun violence is the last thing we should do. First of all, let’s take a lesson from the Republicans, as we suggested back in 2011, and go on offense. Specifically, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that the Constitution provides for the right to an abortion, did the anti-choice Republicans give up? Quite the opposite! They embarked on an effort lasting nearly 50 years to fight that ruling, and they made steady progress at the federal level and in various states (waiting periods, parental consent, protests, closing clinics, late-term abortion bans, etc.), until, with the right combination of Republicans in the White House and the U.S. Senate to confirm enough right-wing justices, the Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling. Along the way, outlawing abortion became one of the Republicans’ chief unifying issues and rallying cries.

The Republican myth of “politicizing gun violence”

Political process in action

Once again, the cycle continues of a mass shooting in America, followed by a public outcry to do something, followed by Republican charges that Democrats are “politicizing gun violence.” It happened again this week, in the aftermath of the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, which involved an AR-style assault weapon and an AR-style pistol, and claimed the lives of three young school children and three adults. Reaction to the shooting included one mother who took over a Fox “News” live stream following a press conference at the scene, saying that she and her son had survived the shooting, and that:

How is this still happening? How are our children still dying and why are we failing them?

These shootings… will continue to happen until our lawmakers step up and pass gun safety legislation.

Democrats support and propose such gun safety legislation, and indeed, President Joe Biden and other Democrats called for a renewed Assault Weapons Ban after Monday’s Nashville school shooting. But the only response to the shooting from Republicans is to avoid talking about guns. On Monday, for example, Republican U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan postponed a committee meeting at which he and his Republican colleagues planned to nullify a recent rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which defined firearms with stabilizing braces (allowing firing from the shoulder) as “rifles” subject to registration and other requirements. In postponing their action, Jordan stated that “Democrats were going to turn this tragic event into a political thing.” That charge is another Republican myth, and we will show why.

Law enforcement failure in Uvalde shooting demonstrates need for Assault Weapons Ban

Protest by Teens for Gun Reform

Last Sunday, the Texas House of Representatives released an Investigative Committee Interim Report indicating that 376 law enforcement officers arrived at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX to confront an active shooter on May 24, 2022, but none of them acted to rescue the students and teachers. As a result, 19 children and two teachers were killed. The report in particular faults a lack of leadership and command, especially by school district police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who claimed to be in charge on the scene but did not act or order his officers to try to take down the gunman. Arredondo has since resigned.

The failure of so many officers in Uvalde to confront the shooter and try to save the children and teachers belies the Republicans’ frequently used “good guy with a gun” talking point, or the Republican idea that teachers should be armed in the classroom, as demonstrated by this sampling of tweets on the subject:

With midterm elections coming up fast, do Democrats finally have a theme?

“Freedom” is just potatoes to Republicans

The 2022 midterm elections are just 124 days away, and the results will likely make or break Joe Biden‘s presidency and the Democratic Party’s agenda. All seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as approximately one-third of U.S. Senate seats, are up for grabs. If the Republicans gain a majority in either house of Congress, at minimum, the Biden/Democratic agenda will be stymied as they won’t be able to pass any meaningful legislation. Additionally, either house under Republican control will bog the government down in senseless hearings involving laptops and other shiny object distractions, in order for the GOP to try to score political points. Moreover, many state and local offices are up for election, which could determine how crucial matters ranging from abortion to elections themselves are handled. Suffice it to say that, if any Democrats claim “this is one of the most important elections of your lifetime,” they are not exaggerating.

Republicans, predictably, are bashing President Biden and Democrats over inflation and gasoline prices as their 2022 election theme. Fair enough, as the party out of power generally attacks on any economic front that it can, even though in this case, Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine, as well as leftover COVID-based supply chain problems, both of which can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump, are largely to blame. Indeed, inflation is a problem worldwide, and the United States is on the lower side of gasoline prices around the world.

Therefore, it would be really helpful if the Democratic Party would express a unifying and galvanizing theme for the upcoming elections, to counter the Republicans and drive all-important voter turnout. This has worked in the past, e.g., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi‘s healthcare message for the 2018 midterms, which led to a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House, catapulting Pelosi to House Speaker.

As it turns out, President Biden and Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, among others, seem to be leading the way with a theme that can succeed for the Democrats in this year’s elections. That theme can be seen in recent tweets from Biden and Rep. Swalwell:

Wading into the right wing comments section on YouTube

The popular Assault Weapons Ban

This past week, on a YouTube channel I watch regularly, a commenter from Australia asked an unrelated question about gun violence in America, and I was off to the races. Quite an animated discussion ensued.

Interestingly, the channel is not a YouTube politics channel. Rather, it’s a special interest channel that is not officially political. Think of a channel about sneaker collecting, for example, and you’ll get the idea. However, the host is conservative. Most of his guests are conservative. And most regular commenters on the channel are likewise conservative, and they all express their views frequently, such as when talking about markets and financial issues. Normally, I don’t respond to their many right wing statements and comments. And often, I don’t tune in at all, not wanting to reward the channel with more viewership. However, as the transcript below indicates, I spontaneously waded into a fast-moving political discussion on this particular stream, and I think the exchange provides insight into two things:

  1. The right wing talking points on gun violence
  2. Our ability to fight back, and even drive the conversation, with good Democratic talking points. I found that mine came quite naturally, after having absorbed and participated in so many discussions for years.

I am not naming the channel in order to further minimize its viewership, as well as to maintain the commenters’ privacy. Likewise, I used each commenter’s initial (or initials) instead of their names to differentiate them below, with mine being “MM.” I bolded my comments to make them easier to identify. Finally, in order to keep the spontaneity, I did not correct the comments for spelling, punctuation, grammar, content, etc.

Here is the bulk of the conversation that took place:

President Biden delivers powerful message, executive orders on gun violence

March For Our Lives rally, Columbus, Ohio, 2018

President Joe Biden took several significant executive actions yesterday to combat gun violence. In a White House Rose Garden ceremony, Biden, along with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, announced that he is:

    • Directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to propose regulations to stop the proliferation of deadly, untraceable “ghost guns”;
    • Modifying federal grant programs to increase available funding for community violence intervention programs;
    • Publishing a model state “red flag” law (which would permit families or law enforcement to petition courts to remove guns from someone who poses a threat to themself or others);
    • Directing DOJ to issue a new, annual comprehensive report on firearms trafficking;
    • Directing DOJ to propose a regulation ensuring the stabilizing arm braces that circumvent the law on dangerous short-barrel rifles are subject to the National Firearms Act;
    • Nominating David Chipman, a former special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and longtime gun owner and gun safety expert, to be the director of the ATF.

Effective phrases to use instead of ‘gun control’

March For Our Lives protester, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2018

Recently, in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shootings, we called upon advocates of universal gun background checks, a renewed Assault Weapons Ban and other such steps to apply a powerful label to their efforts. We pointed out that the traditional label “gun control” is outdated and inaccurate, because, for example, steps like universal background checks don’t literally “control” guns, and in any case, “gun control” sounds like a Big Government Nanny State that many people don’t like. We like to use the phrase “gun violence” to point out the problem America faces, and to include it in descriptions of the measures needed to solve it, such as “gun violence legislation.” However, there are plenty of other good terms to use. The following is an evergreen list of effective-sounding replacement phrases for “gun control” that are being used in the current debate, including our sources of such phrases where known. We will be adding new terms to the list as they come up, and we encourage commenters to provide suggestions:

Rallying at Ground Zero in Parkland

Protesters carrying signs at March For Our Lives rally in Parkland, FL

Today, Parkland, Florida was once again Ground Zero in the fight against gun violence. While the March For Our Lives protests took place around the country and, indeed, around the world, and the event in Washington, D.C. was the largest, Parkland (specifically, the February 14, 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School) is the reason why the marches happened. Moreover, Parkland is Ground Zero today because Donald Trump is hiding out at his Mar-a-Lago private club a mere 40 miles away in Palm Beach.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, the gun violence goat

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida

After the Parkland, Florida school shootings last Wednesday that left 17 dead, most of them schoolchildren, one of the people who comes off looking the worst is Florida’s Republican U.S. Senator, Marco Rubio. Let’s look at Rubio’s responses to the Parkland shooting:

First, Rubio offered prayers, as Republicans typically do. However, Rubio’s version was to admit that his previous prayers did not work:

When it comes to gun violence, think, pray, vote

Republicans’ dream? Lady Liberty holding a gun instead of a torch.

After another deadly school shooting involving an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, this time in Parkland, Florida, Republicans responded with their usual calls for “thoughts and prayers.” Perhaps the worst offender was Florida’s own U.S. Senator, Republican Marco Rubio, who proved that his previous prayers didn’t work:

However, when Rubio and other Republicans want something on any other issue, from tax cuts to taking away a woman’s freedom over her own body to military spending to taking away our affordable healthcare, they don’t pray, they vote. That’s just what Americans should do here.