We have tried nothing and nothing has worked. This is the general refrain from conservatives about gun violence in our country. It is also the refrain from conservatives about income inequality, housing, living wages, health care costs, social security, education, and just about any pressing issue our country has faced since Ronald Reagan rode his great head of hair into the White House.
The latest tragedy of gun violence, a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian private school that left three children and three staffers dead, has brought about the same cycle of anger and pleading with Republicans to do something to stop the No. 1 killer of children age 1 to 18 in the United States—gun violence. Tennessee’s Republican Party has not simply done nothing to stop gun violence; they have promoted it by loosening their already tepid gun safety laws.
Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, best known for recently working to pass legislation in Tennessee that would ban—through a law—drag shows, was stopped by reporters on the steps of the Volunteer State’s capitol building. Seeing as they legislated drag shows in what they characterized as an attempt to save children, they asked Burchett what he and other legislators might legislate to fix the country’s mass shooting problem.
Burchett’s response: "We're not gonna fix it."
Oh, but there’s so much more depth in the moral well for Burchett to sink to—watch as he claims to be impotent to do anything at all to help repair a country where being murdered by guns is the No. 1 killer of children.
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To give the entire context to the “We're not gonna fix it” line, Burchett started by repeating that three children, three adults, and the shooter were dead, and it was a tragedy, but, “We're not gonna fix it.” He then said, “Criminals are going to be criminals,” and then told a possibly true story of some guy who he called “my daddy,” who had been in World War II and told little Timmy Burchett: “’Buddy,’ he said, ‘if somebody wants to take you out and doesn’t mind losing their life, then there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.’”
After he finished telling war stories from dear ol’ dad, the reporter asked Burchett, the U.S. representative of Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, if the United States Congress could maybe legislate—like a legislature might—to try and mend this public health crisis.
“I don't see any real role that we could do other than mess things up, honestly.” He added that people can print guns “on the 3D printer” and that gun violence would only change if we “change people’s hearts.” Sort of like Rep. Lauren Boebert’s belief that if Jesus Christ were alive today, he would be big-time into owning an AR-15.
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Then another reporter asked Mr. Burchett how he’s going to help protect children—like, say, his own daughter. The first words out of the Tennessee Republican’s mouth: “Well, we home-school her.”
He followed that by bumbling through his talking point about home-schooling, it seems, “But, you know, that’s our decision, some people don’t have that option, and frankly, some people don’t need to do it. Um, it just suited our needs much better.”
Seriously? I don’t care why you want to home-school your kid, unless you’re arguing that all kids should be home-schooled because you believe it is the only way to protect them from gun violence.
Here is a three-weeks-younger Rep Tim Burchett, taking time away from telling Newsweek (literally on the same day) that he believes we have alien technology to talk about protecting the children from having an outrageously fun time.
I believe this response sums it up best.
Such ghoulish people.
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