We have excerpts from an op-ed article in this morning's Washington Post by the admirable Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), providing a manual for Republicans' responses following a mass shooting in the U.S. He ends with what they must not say for fear of losing the National Rifle Association's support and blood money:
"In the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting, you say:
“Prayer is appropriate in a time like this, that the evil can end and this senseless violence can stop.”
If the mass shooter uses an AR-15 to kill children in a public school, you say:
“We had AR-15s in the 1960s. [But] we didn’t have those mass school shootings. … We actually had prayer in school during those days.” [snip]
If the killer’s weapons were legally obtained, you say:
“I stand behind efforts to enforce our existing laws better.”
But if anyone suggests the existing laws are not sufficient, you say:
“Criminals and mass murderers will ignore any new gun-control law just as they ignore the strict gun control laws in our nation’s most violent cities.”
If you are asked why the United States is a global outlier in gun violence, you say:
“I’m sorry you think American exceptionalism is awful. You’ve got your political agenda.” [snip]
But after any firearm massacre, you never say:
America has more firearms than people, a gun homicide rate 26 times the rate of other high-income countries and notoriously weak gun laws that make us a global outlier. The United States stands alone among peer nations in the number of children dying by firearms, and guns are now the No. 1 leading cause of death of children under 18 in our country. Ninety-seven percent of Americans support a universal criminal background check on all gun purchases, a measure that could save a lot of lives.
It’s time to pass the universal background check and restore the expired ban on military-style assault rifles, which was constitutional and effective...."
Until NRA-controlled Republicans are voted out of office, their manual will continue to be used after each mass shooting event.
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