The horrific mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, yesterday where the death toll is estimated at 22 with dozens more injured, should be another wake up call for the need to ban assault rifles and to expand background checks, especially for people who are disturbed, as is the alleged shooter, purportedly. But you can expect the Republican / Christofascist right to jump to the defense of the gun industry, as in this "we need more guns" response on Fox "News" from the despicable villain Newt Gingrich:
"Frankly, in states that have conceal carry and other permits, constitutional carry permits, you have a much more rapid response to these kind of people who are crazy.
And we have no idea what this person’s motivation was, but I think we have to assume, as we move forward, that people... and by the way, this also applies to what happened in Israel when Hamas attacked... we have to have a greater ability for our citizens to protect themselves, because it’s clear that law enforcement comes in after the massacre. But law enforcement’s almost never there to stop the massacre.
This has been true in Europe. It's been true here. It's been true in Israel. So I think we have to think about a whole new strategy, because these kind of people are extraordinarily dangerous, are willing to kill others, have no sense of decency, and frankly, you have to stop them as early as possible to minimize the loss of individual lives."
He's lying as usual. The proliferation of military style assault rifles over the past two decades has been followed by an increase in mass shootings, which are rarely stopped by "good guys with guns" on site. His suggestion that Europe also experiences mass shootings on the scale approaching the U.S. because people don't go around armed is another fable, as research has shown. European nations don't have the permissive gun laws that the U.S. does, and therefore not the level of gun violence. Same with Japan and Canada.
Gingrich won't be the only right-wing purveyor of lies claiming that if more citizens were allowed to open carry firearms, we'd be safer. He and his right-wing cohort never wonder how police arriving on the chaotic scene of a shootout with a multiple "good guys with guns" could sort out the situation quickly enough to avoid even more mass casualties. Finally, who would be surprised if the alleged shooter were part of the same political movement as Gingrich? Not us.
UPDATE: Not surprised at all:
... Liam Kent, who appeared on NBC News, grew up in Bowdoin, Maine, where [suspected shooter Robert] Card lived, and said Card and his family are “gun fanatics.”
“It’s known in the town to stay away from them and to not approach them,” Kent said. “If you see them, just turn around and walk away.” [snip]
On X, formerly Twitter, Card often liked posts from former President Donald Trump, conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson, and a professor who taught about terrorism, according to Heavy. Card had liked a March post from Donald Trump Jr. following a mass shooting in Nashville that read, “rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bulls**t on our kids?” Card’s X account was suspended after the shooting...
Fits the profile of so many of these mass murderers.
