The massacre at Mandalay Bay’s outdoor country music concert in Las Vegas, where 59 people died and hundreds of others were seriously injured, is a clear manifestation of how much damage automatic and semi-automatic guns can do. Republicans have tried, once again, to go to their NRA crisis script: Step one, tell everybody that you have “thoughts and prayers.” Step two, tell everybody they shouldn’t talk about gun safety and legislation because we should all be telling everybody about our “thoughts and prayers.” Step three, say totally insane things after you’ve made sure the NRA’s checks have passed. Raw Story brings us news that Senator John Thune (R-SD)—who many may know as an opponent of net neutrality and affordable health care as well as just being a complete imbecile—had this to say about the events in Las Vegas.
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But Thune shied away from the topic of gun control, arguing, “[I]t’s an open society and it’s hard to prevent anything.”
Instead, the Republican senator offered advice to potential victims.
“I think people are going to have to take steps in their own lives to take precautions,” he opined. “To protect themselves. And in situations like that, you know, try to stay safe. As somebody said — get small.”
Domestic terrorist and mass murderer Stephen Paddock shot all of those people from a 32nd floor window in the Mandalay Bay hotel. The people he was shooting at could have been no “smaller,” to him at that moment. Maybe Sen. Thune can make himself so small he disappears from all of our consciousnesses forever?