First: Hatred Pulls the Trigger
(I will assume that a ghost writer wrote this for Trump as it is the most eloquent line he has ever written)
Today Trump said that “hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun” He is saying this to let people know that these poor, misunderstood guns are innocent. But we know that “hatred” and “the gun” are joined together in these acts of mass violence. In these mass shootings there is a needed union of anger (person) and violence (gun). You don’t have one without the other. Hate loves the Gun and the Gun loves Hate.
I suggest every time Trump posts an attack on any Democrat, or group of people (immigrants, POC, etc), or just the random hate he might spew at a person, a city, a state, or even some random country he suddenly doesn’t like; that as many people as possible answer his tweet with a Twitter reply of:
“hatred pulls the trigger.” Trump 8/2019.
Please stop spreading hate that gets Americans killed.
If you want to be kind you can put, “Mr. President, please stop spreading hate that gets Americans killed.” If you want to be more direct you can just put, “Stop spreading hate that gets Americans killed!” That’s fine too.
Second: Video Games and Mental Health (or let’s blame everything but guns)
There is suddenly a large push to blame Video Games and Mental Health (likely NRA controlled Republicans aided by Russian bots...and Russian controlled Republicans).
I do think anybody who kills randomly like this is not completely sound of mind. And Mental Health is an area way WAY under served by our medical community. But I will also say this El Paso killer does not sound insane. He does sounds very angry. Now maybe hate is a mental condition? But hate is widespread and common in certain groups. It is almost the default emotion for Trump’s base.
To me the issue is more that this hate is coupled with easy access to weapons of war. Trump’s base wants you to believe that murders also happen with knives. And they can. And they do. Hell, I can murder a person using a pillow. What I can’t do with a pillow, or a knife, or even a rifle from when the Second Amendment was written centuries ago, is murder 9 people and wound 27 others in 1 freaking minute. Like the murders that happened in Dayton, Ohio. 1 minute and so many lives ended and so much grief for so many families and loved ones.
These semi-automatic weapons only have a single purpose: Killing Lots of People Very Fast (KLoPVF). Nobody needs that in real life…NOBODY. Don’t let the Republicans, the NRA, and the Russian bots convince you otherwise.
There is one other reason these people want an AK-47 or AR-15 and that is for all those scared, hateful anti-government types. To them weapons of war have another purpose; killing cops and soldiers they fear will “invade” their homes.
So ask people who support home ownership of these weapons: do you want to kill lots of people at malls, schools, and churches; or do you want to kill cops and soldiers? Because those are the only reasons to own these guns. Killing people, killing cops, or killing soldiers. Which are they aiming for?
Three: Video Games vs Mass Murder
Yes some video games are pretty awful. Some of the killing and violence is extreme. But do you know who has video games? Canada. Mexico. Great Britain. Sweden. Japan. Etc etc etc. And…Australia.
Now Australia is interesting and maybe not a perfect analogy…but they enacted some forms of gun control after a massacre similar to what we see multiple times a year.
“In the 18 years before Port Arthur (my edit: the massacre that started Australia’s gun control actions), Australia witnessed 13 mass shootings, defined as shootings in which five or more people were killed. In the 21 years since, there have been none.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/10/did-gun-control-stop-mass-shootings-in-australia-probably.html
Now has all killing stopped in Australia? Nope. Australia, like the United States, has lots of people with anger issues and a countrywide issue with racial inequality. What they don’t have is easy access to weapons of war. Because of that simple fact (difficult access to semi-automatic guns) and mass shootings of multiple people at one time has all but disappeared. Take away easy access to weapons that fire 45 bullets a minute (AR-15) and people full of hate cannot so easily kill a lot of people very fast. And that is the take away: KLoPVF is exactly why these weapons are made. Not hunting. Not home protection. They are made for ONE purpose: Killing Lots of People Very Fast.
So please remember that Trump himself admits “hatred pulls the trigger.” And remember that Trump is spreading hate every day. We have to remind him and his followers that hateful words and hate-filled tweets lead to the violent actions that happen in El Paso and Dayton. And Hate also needs those gun Triggers to KLoPVF. So let’s at least take away these semi-automatic weapons of war, those AK-47s and AR-15s. They only have one purpose and that is to take lives. Our country will be safer without them.
(and then lets also start working on funding for Mental Health…we can do both at the same time…we, as a country, are great at multi-tasking).
