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Many conservatives suffer from a compulsion to be photographed shooting, brandishing or fondling firearms.
It’s looney.
But it also contributes, in ways that don’t get enough attention, to the epidemic of gun violence in America.
Many conservatives suffer from a compulsion to be photographed shooting, brandishing or fondling firearms.
It’s looney.
But it also contributes, in ways that don’t get enough attention, to the epidemic of gun violence in America.
https://twitter.com/NewslineCO/status/1476570770159644679
On Monday, five people were killed as a result of the latest paroxysm of gun violence in Colorado. In a healthy society, such a heinous act of violence would be extraordinary. But our society is sick, and such violence is routine.
The Monday shooting in Denver might have been the worst single act of gun violence in America that day, but it was nowhere near the only one — there were victims in more than 20 other cities.
A major incident of gun violence is often accompanied, along with thoughts-and-prayers pablum, by calls for new laws. But we must also recognize how gun glorification on the right whets the country’s appetite for slaughter.
Rep. Boebert posted a Christmas-themed photo of herself with her four boys, who were brandishing assault weapons. The youngest is 8. Fetishization of guns is the main theme of Boebert’s political persona (not unrelated to sedition being the main theme of her political identity).
Boebert might take Second Amendment zeal to buffoonish extremes, but she typifies the childish proclivity of conservatives who are desperate for people to see them shooting things.
Ken Buck. Doug Lamborn. Ron Hanks. MTG. Madison Cawthorn. Ted Cruz. On and on and on.
Around the country there is no shortage of elected gun nuts gun-nutting for the camera.
Around the country there is no shortage of elected gun nuts gun-nutting for the camera.
What these extremists fail to grasp is how weak such posing makes them appear. People who are confident in their strength don’t need to peacock.
An elected official posing with a weapon is a micro version of a military parade — if you’re tempted to be impressed when a member of Congress showboats with a firearm, just think of Kim Jong-Un.
But as silly as these leaders make themselves look, the message they send is dangerous. When elected officials extol instruments of death, they reinforce strains of violence in the country’s political culture and encourage lethal aggression.
It’s easy for most Americans when they see gun cosplay from their leaders to laugh it off as the antics of children. But disturbed and aggrieved viewers will derive inspiration from such displays, with bloodshed too readily the result.
@Everytown @MomsDemand @StudentsDemand @shannonrwatts @rachelkfriend Initial indications are that the Denver shooter espoused far-right political hatred, and it’s reasonable to suppose that right-wing celebration of firearms helped clear space for his murderous rampage.
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