You Own the Problem

Here is a letter I wrote to one of Senator Sullivan's staffers, regarding the mass shooting in Las Vegas.  I intend to communicate this message to other Republicans, including Senator Murkowski, in the near future.

In Las Vegas a single man shot nearly 600 people, killing 59 of them. The man was white, wealthy, middle-aged, previously law-abiding and showed no interest in politics or violence.  He used slightly modified assault rifles to create a rapid rate of fire like a machine gun.  There is an eyewitness video of the first two minutes of the attack, here: https://twitter.com/IzakPratt/status/914736465673965568

Please watch it.

AR15 with carry handle BCM, available for sale from Bravo Company for $125.  

Image from Google search. 

I recommend that you read stories and look at photos about the victims.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-las-vegas-shooting-friendship-20171003-story.html  

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/02/us/las-vegas-shooting-victims/index.html

For over twenty years, Democrats have advocated common-sense gun control, arguing to allow local option to prohibit the sale of Saturday-night specials, to improve background checks, and in particular, to prohibit the sale of assault rifles.  Republicans stymied those efforts.  Since the 1990s, Republicans politicized gun control, adopting a “no-compromise” strategy and used the issue to stir up millions in campaign contributions. In 2004, Republicans prevented the re-authorization of the ban on assault rifles. Republicans disrespected and denigrated Democrats who called for sensible limits on gun ownership and defeated them in elections.  Since 2004, roughly four million assault rifles have been purchased by the public, and may be owned by any lunatic on the streets.  And I guarantee that there are many, many unrecognized lunatics like the Las Vegas shooter among us.

Gun control has been a losing political issue for Democrats for over twenty years.  Democrats lost Congress over the issue of gun control in the 1990s; perhaps they lost the presidency in 2016 over the same issue.  I would not recommend that any Democrat mention gun control ever again.  Republicans won this debate; it’s a Republican problem now.

Very well.  You own this tragedy.  You own the deaths, the injuries, the lives shattered by this meaningless violence.  You own the problem of four million assault rifles sold since 2004, and you own the future mass slaughters which will be committed with those weapons.

Senator Sullivan, Senator Murkowski, Don Young and all the other Republicans who tout the Second Amendment for campaign contributions own this problem.

I have friends who are already afraid to go to concerts, sports events, or public gatherings.  They are afraid that a lunatic with an assault rifle will find that gathering an easy target, and so they curtail their lives to stay safe.  Thanks to Republicans, this is how Americans will now live, and how some of them will die.  It’s a Republican problem.  You own it.