Protection From Gun Violence

There are several points to take from the shooting yesterday in Alexandria and it’s time to rant.

There are several calls to end hateful rhetoric. Republicans are screaming the loudest about this. OK, Republicans. You go first.

Do you see who is leading your party? This is a man who called Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman.” He started the birther campaign against Obama. He’s created mean nicknames for his political opponents, including “Lyin’ Ted,” “Crooked Hillary,” “Little Marco,” etc. He has called the media “fake news” and described journalists as “enemies of the American people.” That’s not loving rhetoric.

It was a Republican who screamed “you lie” at Obama during a State of the Union address. Conservatives referred to him as a Kenyan-born Muslim socialist and many of them still believe he is. Sure, the shooter was another hateful idiot on the internet but have you seen conservatives online? Can you have a discussion with one of them without someone planting an “Odummer” or a “libtard” comment?

I’ll ask rhetorically: Have I contributed to hateful rhetoric? Yes, I have. I have called Trump everything from a “Cheeto potentate,” “shit weasel,” “Cheeto Hitler,” “dumbass” to an “ass clown.” Actually, I don’t know if I’ve used “ass clown yet.” I’ll get around to it. I will continue to use humor and satire to ridicule politicians, especially if that politician is an ass clown (told you I’d get around to it).

There is hateful rhetoric and there is calling out the facts. Donald Trump is a narcissist. He’s a bully. He’s a racist. He’s corrupt. He’s a liar. He’s dangerous for our nation. He is stupid and he is uniquely unqualified for the job. The man is insanely obsessed with perceived slights to his person, which distracts him from focusing on the nation’s business. The guy is not interested in actually doing the job. That’s not hateful rhetoric. That’s honesty.

I will continue to insert negativity into our political discourse because I practice a negative art form. Political cartooning, at it’s very best exposes our very worst. I think I’m pretty good at it. The shooter posted several political cartoons and quite honesty, I’m lucky one of them wasn’t mine. Being critical is not an endorsement or encouragement to violence. Some people obviously don’t get that.

Newt Gingrich has made this shooting of Republicans out to be something exclusive to angry liberals. I’ve already seen three cartoons (from Branco, Steve Kelley, and Glenn McCoy) blaming liberal rhetoric and critics of Trump. Ben Shapiro from National Review quoted Bernie Sanders with “You should be angry. Take your anger out on the right people.” He left out the next line which was “Our job is to take that anger and transform it into a constructive role, to take on the ruling class of this country that has done us so much harm.” Manipulating quotes to exploit a tragedy to advance your political agenda, is in itself hateful rhetoric.

Ben Shapiro could have brought up the time Donald Trump suggested gun advocates could take care of Hillary Clinton if she won the election when he said “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.” Maybe Mr. Shapiro could have brought up U.S. Senator Rand Paul’s tweet from June 2016 which said “Why do we have a Second Amendment? It’s not to shoot deer. It’s to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!” Rand Paul, a member of the government was at the baseball field during the attack. I’m pretty sure Paul noticed the gunman wasn’t shooting at deer.

These morons with short memories don’t remember Charleston when a Dylann Roof walked into a black church with the stated goal of shooting black people and killed nine.

These conservative hypocrites have totally forgotten Robert Dear. Robert Dear shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, killing three people and injuring nine more, while screaming “no more dead babies.” Dear was encouraged by fake videos accusing PP of selling dead baby parts. These videos have been debunked time and time again. Conservatives and the “pro-life” movement still haven’t admitted they’re fake. They have not taken any responsibility for Dear’s violence or the deaths he caused. Breitbart, Daily Caller, InfoWars, Fox News, your crazy uncle, none of them has owned it yet. Until you do that, I, nor Bernie Sanders, or Kathy Griffin, own what happened in Alexandria. I haven’t told or encouraged any lies. Your movement has.

Some people have used what happened in Alexandria as a further argument that more people should be packing. They point out how Capitol Police took the gunman down, and probably saved many lives. Yes, they did. But by this argument, if everyone is armed then future mass shooters will only hit five people before they’re taken down. How about we start with preventing lunatics from having guns in the first place?

There were several heroes yesterday. From the Capitol Police to the Republicans present who worked to save their friends’ and colleagues’ lives. Now they’re talking about more protection for our lawmakers from gun violence. They haven’t talked enough about protection for people going to the movies, or a nightclub, or children simply going to school.

How Congress, and our inept president, work on more protection for all of us from gun violence. This was the 154th mass shooting of 2017. Our representatives start talking about protection from guns after one of them is shot? The bleeding and carnage didn’t just begin, fuckers.

What’s really ridiculous is that I didn’t have to research to recall each of the mass shootings in the cartoon above. All of that is very fresh in my memory.

There are several heroes from yesterday. We need heroes tomorrow. We need a Congress that will work for our interests, not just those of the National Rifle Association. Our representatives can be real heroes by enacting legislation that will prevent future gun violence.

And maybe I can stop drawing so many tombstones.

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