Charles M. Blow: Republicans Have Turned America Into a Killing Field

[Nevilledog]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/opinion/uvalde-shooting-republicans.html

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https://archive.ph/BNXH0

The Republican Party has turned America into a killing field.

Republicans have allowed guns to proliferate while weakening barriers to ownership, lowering the age at which one can purchase a weapon and eliminating laws governing how, when and where guns can be carried.

They have done this in part with help from conservatives on the Supreme Court who have upheld a corrupt and bastardized interpretation of the Second Amendment.

But Republicans have also done so by promoting fear and paranoia. They tell people that criminals are coming to menace you, immigrants are coming to menace you, a race war (or racial replacement) is coming to menace you and the government itself may one day come to menace you.

The only defense you have against the menace is to be armed.

If you buy into this line of thinking, owning a gun is not only logical but prudent. It’s like living in a flood plain and buying flood insurance. Of course you should do it.

The propaganda has been incredibly, insidiously persuasive. As Vox pointed out last year, “Americans make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet they own roughly 45 percent of all the world’s privately held firearms,” according to 2018 data.

*snip*

[Trust_Reality]

1. Republican politicians are a bunch of greedy, self-serving bastards.

Any human being who owns an assault weapon and has either a heart or a brain should send their killing machine to Ukraine to help defend against Russian soldiers. Better yet, take it there yourself. You enjoy using a killing machine? Go use it there.

[poli-junkie]

2. Republicans are terrorizing America.

[Samrob]

3. He has always nit the nail on the head to me. nt

[BigmanPigman]

4. The TV news programs and

TV shows that feature real life cops nave brainwashed us for 25 years at least. Michael Moore brought this up a few years ago after the Las Vegas shooting. He said that when he made his Columbine film he didn't include this and wishes he had. The local and national news play up violence since it sells well and brings in the ratings.. Fear sells! Make everyone fearful and you can control them. The US has always had a lot of violent crimes but the media hypes it up. They make a few small crime stories into a huge deal and exaggerate the situation. People are fearful, run out and get a gun and the NRA makes big $$$$ from exploiting it.

[Stuart G]

5. K and R...Thanks for posting..

[bucolic_frolic]

6. He's got that right: fear, paranoia, control and money

Everything about the proliferation of assault rifles helps Republicans and feeds the coffers of campaigns and big business and industries and even conservative churches. The carnage makes money for funeral industry and even perpetuates religion's hold on society.

[Hekate]

7. KnR

[dalton99a]

8. Kick