After Las Vegas, the NRA goes on the Sunday shows to brush aside our latest human sacrifices

By Hunter  

Sunday Oct 08, 2017 · 12:23 PM PDT

RSS

REBLOGGED BY

• Daily Kos
• Rim Country Gazette Blog

One week ago, 59 Americans were killed and hundreds injured by a lone gunman shooting at a Las Vegas concert crowd from a 32nd floor Mandalay Bay hotel room.

Today, therefore, was the day for the National Rifle Association and their allies to take to the Sunday talk shows to defend the murders as human sacrifices necessary for their version of "freedom."

They did not bother to tweak their talking points in the slightest, from any of the previous worst mass shootings in history; the response is now rote. On Fox News, NRA lobbyist Chris Cox might has well have read his responses from the back of a Sorry For Your Loss NRA sympathy card.

“Well, we don't believe bans have ever worked on anything. [...] What we're concerned about is that we're having a conversation when people are grieving, there used to be a common decency in this country where people paused from talking about policy. Unfortunately, with Dianne Feinstein and Michael Bloomberg, they want to exploit a tragedy from day one. It's shameful, but apparently that's the new normal, and that's why we're here talking to you today.”

Chris Cox reckons a man could kill and injure hundreds with a few dozen of the weapons Chris Cox spends his career promoting as useful tools for would-be murderers and the only reason it's news the following Sunday is because someone like "Dianne Feinstein" has gotten upset about it. He seems to believe that America's new "worst" mass shooting by a single murder-minded gunman would have passed by unremarked-on on the Sunday Shows if it were not for those looking to "exploit" it by bringing it up.

On CBS, the role of Domestic Terrorism Apologist went to the NRA's Wayne LaPierre. He was dismissive of doing A Damn Thing to prevent would-be mass murderers from obtaining the best tools for the job because "Chicago." "Chicago" has become the cornerstone of all gun debate: we mustn't do anything because "Chicago." Because "gang members."

“There’s not a gang member in Chicago, who’s going ‘hey I’m going to get you, but first I have to go through Dianne Feinstein’s background checks.’ It’s nonsense,” he said.

Now that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is well enough to return to work, he also eagerly took to the cameras to let America's gun obsessives, including the "someday you may need to murder members of the United States Government"-arguing NRA, that there was no hard feelings and he wouldn't be doing the slightest thing to protect the next targeted House member. He, too, did not bother with anything more substantive than a terse round of talking point bingo.

"The problem is not that there are too many guns," Scalise, who was shot over the summer at a GOP baseball practice, said on NBC's "Meet The Press." "It's that there are people that will go out and break the law, whether it's a gun or some other weapon or a bomb."

Oddly enough, America does relatively well at regulating bombs. You cannot buy ready-made bombs off the shelf; we regulate many of the ingredients that could be used to make them. You cannot buy hand grenades at WalMart, and not coincidentally hand-grenade mass murders are vanishingly rare events here. You can buy assault rifles easily and with less regulation than certain kinds of fertilizer, and we very frequently have mass murders involving assault rifles.

So this remains a puzzling, to be charitable, “argument,” as it has been during every decade it has been used in gun talking point bingo.

"But you go to a city like Chicago, some of the toughest gun laws in the country are in the city of Chicago, and yet they have the worst gun violence," [Scalise] said.

This is no longer true, by the way. The NRA spent a great deal of time and money on carving up Chicago's gun laws. They did so because "freedom."

If you got "bingo" during that conversation, congratulations. Your prize is the same prize as the rest of us will get—another six or so mass murders between today and the next broadcast of the Sunday shows. Unless one of them, too, sets a new record for lives lost, they will likely not be mentioned.

We would explain again where so many of the guns used in "toughest gun laws in the country" Chicago come from, but at this point there is no need to. If you are interested, inquire with Vice President Mike Pence. He may have some ideas.