Usually, it’s the GOP that has the upper hand when it comes to messaging. It’s always the GOP that manages to jump out and control the messaging on an issue before the Democrats even show up. But when it comes to fun rights, the GOP is dragging their feet like a 200 pounder running a marathon.
I have been following and writing about this for years, and so I’be been able to follow the progression. After that dung stomping Alfred E Neuman George W Bush refused to extend Clinton’s automatic weapons ban in 2004, the GOP went hard core. The 2nd Amendment was absolute. Basically meaning that any red blooded yahoo with a few grand in his pocket could buy a rocket launcher if it got him through the night.
When kids started getting killed, and when their own compatriot Antonin Scalia said that no amendment was absolute, and restrictions could be applied, the GOP followed the NRA mantra and kicked in with Only a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun.
But when repeated mass shootings showed that good guys with guns were no match for bad guys armed with AR-15’s, the GOP switched gears. They went with Thoughts and prayers, and slammed Democrats for trying to Politicize a mass tragedy.
But when that started falling flat, the GOP fell back in their last resort. They started avowing that the problem wasn’t that there were 200 million guns on the street for 320 million people, it was all about mental illness. The secret sauce was to manange to find a way to keep assault weapons out of the hands of cranial rejects that would actually use them!
Mitch McConnell himself parroted the official party line earlier this week, after the Highland Park massacre when, while decrying the violence, he lauded the fact that the bill that he just voted for increased money for mental health issues.
There’s just one problem. People are sick of this shit, and they’ve caught on. Sweden has mental health issues. So does Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal. But what none of them have is weekly mass massacres, because their citizenS don’t have access to weapons of war.
And unfortunately for the GOP, the majority of the country has caught on to this con. Recent polling shows that 72% want universal background checks, and 51% want an assault weapons ban. People have finally realized that the problem isn’t mental health, it’s the insane proliferation of military hardware available for sale on the streets of this country. And they’re sick of it.
The GOP is late getting the memo. The people have seen through their scam. The vast majority of Americans now support common sense gun legislation, including an assault weapons ban, and they don’t want to hear any more bullshit about mental health issues. They’ve finally boned up.
The GOP is going to have to come to the painful realization that the NRA gravy train days are over. There has been too much slaughter, too many victims, and too many grieving family members. As the mass killings increase, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find someone who hasn’t been touched by the violence. And they don’t want worthless platitudes, they want action.
The G.Q.P. has been on message with respect to guns for decades. We have had so many mass shootings, including those involving school children, one loses count. It has worked for them even so. I’m not sure anything will change. The G.Q.P. has held their positions in congress because foolish people put them in office and kept them there. The mass shootings continue and they keep getting re-elected; all of the sudden folks are going to do a 180? Wishful thinking.