By Josh Moon
Alabama Political Reporter
This will not be nice.
We’ve tried nice. I’ve tried nice.
Nice doesn’t work. Neither does common sense or facts.
I’ve tried all of those too. A bunch of us have.
And still, 59 people were slaughtered, nearly 600 shot or otherwise severely injured by a man using weapons that are stone cold legal for him to carry around the Vegas strip any day of the week.
Because that’s how far down gun-nut road we’ve traveled.
It’s legal in a major American city for a person to strap a machine gun to his back and stroll around. Just as the founders intended.
Because that’s important to us – what the founders of the country intended. Well, it is until it’s not.
We’re ready to build a wall and ban religions, and none of the constitutional purists seem to recognize the hypocrisy.
And it doesn’t stop there for the conservative snowflakes. In the name of fear, they’ve also turned away desperate refugee women and children from the Middle East and turned away desperate children at our borders.
Because a group of brown kids with problems is the scariest thing since a 50-percent top marginal tax rate, apparently.
And all the while, no one seems to notice that the terrorism so often killing us is that of the white, male, American variety.
For all of the fear and vitriol pointed towards Islamic terror, it was a white, American kid who slaughtered 20 kindergarteners in their classrooms.
Remember that?
We didn’t do anything about guns then either.
Why? Because the gun manufacturers and their well-paid lobbyists and their even more well-paid politicians (almost all of them conservative Republicans) fought tooth and nail against sensible gun regulation.
Expanded background checks. No.
Preventing people on the no-fly list to obtain guns. No.
Ensuring that people with mental illnesses don’t get guns. No.
We couldn’t pass any of those because conservative voters in this country are morons.
That’s right. Morons.
I told you this wouldn’t be nice, and to be fair, you’ve had it coming for a long time. At least since last November.
Honestly, I don’t know a nicer way to describe a group of people who can’t differentiate between the gun regulations I listed above – the ones that are overwhelmingly popular nationwide – and an outright gun ban.
But each time this gun discussion pops up – usually in the wake of America’s next “most deadly mass shooting ever” – that’s what happens. One minute we’re talking about fair regulations that could make us all a lot safer, the next we’re discussing an outright gun ban and how guns don’t kill people.
And then, here come the same old talking points.
Only criminals would have guns if liberals had their way; CHICAGO!; the constitution says shall not be infringed.
I wish that a founder could see the way the 2nd amendment has been misused and twisted. He’d beat some of y’all senseless with the butt of an assault rifle.
But never mind that, because that’s not part of the discussion we’re having. Because to have that discussion, someone would have to be proposing a gun confiscation or rules that would limit gun ownership for legal owners.
The fact is this column and all the rest of the handwringing and outrage over the latest mass shooting in Las Vegas won’t change anything. We’ll talk and complain and make promises, but when it comes down to it, there’s one simple fact: there’s no political downside for GOP congressmen voting for guns.
How bad is it?
In the coming days, Congress is set to take up a bill that would make purchasing a silencer legal. You know, for when you want to kill people from a 32nd floor hotel window, but don’t want to make all of that noise.
The awfulness of such a bill should be crystal clear to everyone. The potential for an even more deadly shooting is readily apparent.
But the bill will pass. Because not passing it will hurt GOP congressmen more than passing it.
And weapons meant to kill dozens of people at a time in a war zone will continue to legally flood our streets.
You know, that’s not OK.
This is not a difference of political opinion. It’s not a topic that can be debated.
It’s one side trying desperately to save human lives and avoid scenarios like the one in Vegas on Sunday, while the other side clings to their penis extensions and pretends that their collection of assault rifles is a match for the tyrannical government’s tomahawk missiles.
It’s all so dumb that it would be comical if not for the loss of life.
And I’m done being nice about it.
