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You are here: Home / Politics / Gun Issues / Open Thread: Red Staters for Moloch

Open Thread: Red Staters for Moloch

by Anne Laurie|  March 30, 20237:18 pm| 36 Comments

This post is in: Gun Issues, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

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American obscenity.
My @smh cartoon. pic.twitter.com/YinVNYscIr

— The Cathy Wilcox (@cathywilcox1) March 28, 2023

"It's been three days since the tragic school shooting in Nashville and we've heard nothing from Republicans in Congress about what they will do to stop our kids from being murdered in our schools," White House @PressSec says.

— Joey Garrison (@joeygarrison) March 30, 2023

We are failing our children. Guns are now the leading cause of death for children in the U.S.

Michelle and I mourn with the students and families of the Covenant School today. pic.twitter.com/8X9qKKzB9d

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 27, 2023


Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Thomas Massie in a shouting match outside the House chamber on gun violence pic.twitter.com/dGmU25S3nz

— Ellis Kim (@elliskkim) March 29, 2023

There are no amount of dead kids that would make that man care. https://t.co/KbwMKkKljX

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) March 29, 2023

This tweet does the rounds every time there is a shooting and I fucking hate it so much. I hate the faux truth telling cynicism. And I hate it because it's inaccurate. pic.twitter.com/jsqkdh2YNQ

— Joel Wertheimer (@Wertwhile) March 27, 2023

Here is the number of state level laws passed doing gun legislation. Does Sandy Hook look like the end or the beginning? pic.twitter.com/qbATs7pseq

— Joel Wertheimer (@Wertwhile) March 27, 2023

2012 was also a meaningful break in the number of Americans saying they wanted gun laws to be more strict, the cohort that grew up in this world are unsurprisingly much more likely to support gun control. pic.twitter.com/tBhbTqq14y

— Joel Wertheimer (@Wertwhile) March 27, 2023

It would be like saying "wow people aren't doing anything to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic because more people are dying than ever" as activism surged around the issue, even as the Federal government failed and blocked efforts.

— Joel Wertheimer (@Wertwhile) March 27, 2023

I’m pessimistic about things getting better any time soon given our political institutions, namely short of some improvement at scotus, but the energy being put into making the world better on the issue has increased and shitting on that sucks.

— Joel Wertheimer (@Wertwhile) March 27, 2023

We had an assault weapons ban from 1994-2004 that prohibited the manufacture or sale for civilian use of certain semi-automatic weapons and banned magazines with 10 rounds or more.

Mass shootings dropped during that decade.

We did it once and should do it again.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 28, 2023

The red line is when Republicans ended the national assault weapons ban. pic.twitter.com/lIYa5xURsd

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 28, 2023

“American people need to be angry. This happens in the United States and hardly any other country in the world,” @RepStenyHoyer, at White House, says of Nashville school shooting that killed 6. “It is sad" that member of Congress from Tennessee “said we're not going to fix it." pic.twitter.com/lCCBZqtnJ6

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 30, 2023

At least its more honest than 'prayer in schools' or 'safety doors' or 'mental healthcare' or any other of the pointless non-answers they give. "Doesn't matter to me, I homeschool" https://t.co/UaVjueWkZ6

— Lord Businessman (@BusinessmanLego) March 28, 2023

So angry and tired and sad. I hate how much heartbreak this country has been forced to be accustomed to. https://t.co/z4Pu4d5Yl3

— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) March 29, 2023

I can think of nothing worse than children — in school, sitting at their desks, reading banned books. A horrible thought, all those children solemnly holding books in their hands and reading them and putting the thoughts in those books into their minds. Learning the wrong lessons and growing up — the wrong way. Growing all the way up. Getting to grow up and think thoughts about those improper things they read in unsanctioned books, their whole lives, maybe. Horrible. I can think of nothing worse. Children who get to be 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and beyond — children who get to grow and have children of their own, and call their mothers or forget to call them, children who get to see the places they always wanted to see and children who get to be the best aunts in the world, but one afternoon in 2023 they read a book I didn’t approve of. I can’t imagine anything more horrible. Something must be done. To protect the children, we must stop at nothing…

I can’t think of anything worse than children reading history and feeling bad. Imagine, children, going home alive to their parents and complaining that they were made to feel bad by reading about the horrible events of the past. Can you think of a worse thing? Imagine that happening to a child. Imagine being a parent, and seeing the door open, and your child come through it, unharmed, with a complaint about a textbook. Unthinkable. Awful. Frightening. We must pass legislation…

Can you think of something worse? Are you thinking of something worse? Don’t worry: I will not think of it. I will not legislate about it. I will not give it a moment’s concern. To protect the children, I will stop at nothing. At absolutely nothing.

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Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    March 30, 2023 at 7:27 pm

    Much on point in this post.

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2023 at 7:31 pm

    Good post, Anne Laurie.  Are you and spousal unit back to health, or most of the way?

    And good for Joel Wertheimer for calling out that asinine tweet by Dan Hodges.  It is cheap cynicism, it is not true,  and I cringe every time I see it.

  3. 3.

    Alison Rose

    March 30, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    Hell yes, Rep Bowman. Massie can fuck all the way off.

    And while I understand the dude’s point re: the Sandy Hook tweet, I think the original statement was about the fact that with the GOP as it is now, we’re never going to get meaningful federal reform, and that matters a lot. Yes, things happen at the state level in some places, and yes, activists and groups have made some big strides. And sure, people say they want these laws…and then some of those people elect GOPers who won’t do a fucking thing.

    Which is why electing more Democrats is crucial. Because at least we have one party that wants kids to live.

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2023 at 7:33 pm

    Alexandra Petri is a new mother.  She must be wondering how much can be improved in the four or five years before her firstborn goes to school.

  5. 5.

    kalakal

    March 30, 2023 at 7:33 pm

    I think it will change for the better but I am so sick and tired of all the blood and misery on the way.

    Fuck the NRA

  6. 6.

    Raoul Paste

    March 30, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    The parents of the children in the Uvalde shooting were asked for samples of their (the parents’) DNA after the incident.  They needed it to identify the blown-apart children.
    A.R. 15s are not like ordinary guns.  The preferred weapon of the mass shooter.  And apparently, the preferred lapel pin of some Republican congressmen

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2023 at 7:42 pm

    @Raoul Paste:  The WaPost has been running a series on AR 15s in America this week.  The day they put up their “this is what an AR 15 does to a human body” item, the Nashville AR 15 murders at a school knocked their story off top of the website.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    March 30, 2023 at 7:42 pm

    Time for WaterGirl to bake her cake. WaPo screaming headline:

    TRUMP INDICTED

     

    A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict former president Donald Trump, making him the first person in U.S. history to serve as commander in chief and then be charged with a crime — and setting the stage for a 2024 presidential contest unlike any other.

    The indictment was sealed, which means the specific charge or charges are not publicly known. But the grand jury had been hearing evidence about hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, allegedly to keep her from saying she’d had a sexual encounter with Trump years earlier. It comes after weeks of speculation about whether and when Bragg might take such a step, setting the stage for a courthouse showdown between one of the most combative politicians in modern American history and local prosecutors who have pursued him for years.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    March 30, 2023 at 7:44 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Oh wow.

  10. 10.

    Leto

    March 30, 2023 at 7:45 pm

    @dmsilev: yes, the five threads below all say the same thing.

  11. 11.

    SpaceUnit

    March 30, 2023 at 7:46 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Unfortunately the manufacturers of AR-15’s see such stories as free advertisement.

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    March 30, 2023 at 7:47 pm

    @Leto: Yeah, I’m not surprised… Been busy all afternoon with Real Work ™, so this was the only thread I’ve read here for most of the day.

  13. 13.

    Geminid

    March 30, 2023 at 7:47 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Fish! Family! Freedom!

  14. 14.

    Baud

    March 30, 2023 at 7:50 pm

    OT. The Catholic Church is woke.

    The Vatican on Thursday responded to Indigenous demands and formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property laws today.

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    March 30, 2023 at 7:51 pm

    @Leto: LOL

  16. 16.

    Mike S

    March 30, 2023 at 7:56 pm

    The Florida Legislature passed  a permitless, concealed carry law to honor those children today. A recent poll showed that the citizens of Florida were overwhelmingly against it, including 66% of republicans.

    Like Steve M said either yesterday or today, they can do this because they will never be punished by their voters. They can shoot children on Miami Beach without losing support.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    March 30, 2023 at 7:56 pm

    @Baud: 5 or 6 centuries to admit error and change course is roughly average for the Catholic Church.

  18. 18.

    scav

    March 30, 2023 at 8:01 pm

    Ah, as for home schooling?  Having a gun in the household means that child faces a substantially higher risk of being shot.  Still, I guess that’s another win for parental control.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2023 at 8:02 pm

    FWIW, Jair Bolsonaro winged it home to Brazil today.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    March 30, 2023 at 8:03 pm

    @Mike S: I think the only time I’ve seen a Republican politician take a pro-gun control stance was over permitless concealed carry. In 2019, a challenger to my state Senator, Emmet Hanger, advocated permitless concealed carry, and Hanger slammed her for it in his mailings. He won easily.

  21. 21.

    Dan B

    March 30, 2023 at 8:04 pm

    @dmsilev:  Maggie Haberman (yuk, but she has access) reports that former Trump employees are sending congratulatory emails to each other.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    March 30, 2023 at 8:06 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    That’s good. People were worried he’d stay.

  23. 23.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 30, 2023 at 8:14 pm

    @Mike S:

    they can do this because they will never be punished by their voters.

    Their voters want the kind of asshole who will pass the most horrible laws possible, and by and large they are getting what they wanted and happy about it.  The actual laws passed are a side issue of lesser importance.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2023 at 8:28 pm

    Meanwhile, in the UK, they are dealing with a “phantom cat shaver.”  WaPost:

    At least 80 pets have reportedly had chunks of their fur sliced out since last year, according to an animal charity that is mapping out the attacksto help warn concerned owners. The strange incidents have received national coverage, with British media dubbing the unknown perpetrator the “phantom cat shaver.”

    The vast majority of attacks have been reported in the southern county of Kent, although the organization has also recorded attacks in London and as far north as Aberdeen, Scotland.

    Aberdeen.  A copycat cat shaver, methinks.

  25. 25.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 30, 2023 at 8:34 pm

    @Dan B:

    Maggie Haberman (yuk, but she has access) reports that former Trump employees are sending congratulatory emails to each other.

    The sort who now appear on MSNBC?

  26. 26.

    dm

    March 30, 2023 at 8:51 pm

    Over on Mastodon I saw a photo of a classified ad that read:

    Perhaps it is a good time for all Patriotic Americans to donate their AR-15s to the Ukrainian army.

  27. 27.

    Sister Golden Bear

    March 30, 2023 at 8:55 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    He’s the hairy handed gent who ran amok in Kent
    Lately he’s been overheard in Mayfair
    You better stay away from him, he’ll rip your lungs out Jim
    Huh, I’d like to meet his tailor

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2023 at 8:58 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear:  I love that song.

    Drinkin’ a pina colada at Trader Vic’s … his hair was perfect.

  29. 29.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 30, 2023 at 9:12 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: ​@Elizabelle: ​
    First time in London (spring 2022) I went looking for (and found!) Lee Ho Fook’s. And when I walked in the first diner I saw had a distinctly, uh, lycanthropic air about him. Though he was chowing down, not on chow mein, but a bento box. Details, details… Aaaaaaooooooow!​

  30. 30.

    realbtl

    March 30, 2023 at 9:26 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: Thanks, had to play that again, been a long time.

  31. 31.

    kindness

    March 30, 2023 at 9:33 pm

    What will it take for Republicans to start listening to the majority of their voters?  I mean the majority of Republican voters that support some gun restrictions/control.  The elected ones, the party Republicans?  Nothing.  They could care less what their voters think because they think their voters will continue to vote Republican.  I’m sad because I think they’re right.  There isn’t an answer to the US’s gun problem that doesn’t involve important people being killed by the guns they currently shield.  It isn’t even karma but it’s still a bitch.

  32. 32.

    Tony G

    March 30, 2023 at 10:22 pm

    @SpaceUnit: I was working at an IBM office in a semi-rural area of upstate New York when the Sandy Hook massacre occurred.  Some of the guys — northern rednecks, in my opinion — in my office responded by purchasing more guns “before Obama grabbed them”.  Obviously the gun industry and the NRA have plenty of blood on their hands. But the real problem is a significant minority of the American people.

  33. 33.

    Kayla Rudbek

    March 30, 2023 at 11:19 pm

    @dmsilev: yes, Galileo got pardoned by the Catholic Church in the 1990s if I recall correctly…and the astronomy professor posted it on a physical bulletin board…

  34. 34.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    March 31, 2023 at 4:02 am

    Petri’s dispatch reminds me of what Neil Gaiman said about Terry Pratchett, how beneath the humor there was an undercurrent of rage. I couldn’t fault Pratchett for his rage, and I can’t fault Petri for hers.

    I mean, the GOP probably doesn’t realize it, but the path they want to put the US on leads to Borogravia: an insane country in an senseless eternal war, shackled by nonsensical rules and parroting empty faith to a dead god.

  35. 35.

    sab

    March 31, 2023 at 4:17 am

    @Elizabelle: If you don’t let your cats run loose then weird people will not have the opportunity to shave them.

  36. 36.

    Paul in KY

    March 31, 2023 at 8:52 am

    @Elizabelle: There’s always crazy shit going on in Kent.

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