reflectivepundit

Anti-Gun-Control Hardliners are Accomplices in Gun Violence

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Gun violence in the United States is as American as apple pie. The same is true for mass shootings in schools and other public places. As the growing number of mass shootings in elementary and secondary schools attests to, young children and teenagers are increasingly victims of this sort of violence. According to the Gun Violence Archive, so far this year 59 children (up to 11-years old) and 344 teenagers (12- to 17-years old) were killed in such incidents this year; the number of injured was 130 for children and 827 for teenagers. The latest mass shooting in an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, was merely another of the frequent mass shootings across the country.

In the Nashville case, the shooter was a 28-year-old woman armed with an AR-15-style rifle, an AR-style pistol and another handgun. The military style assault weapons could have killed far more children and adults in record time, if law enforcement officers had not responded as quickly as they did.

The fact that anyone in this country can acquire weapons designed for soldiers fighting in wars is scandalous and only possible in the United States. Leaving all other gun-control issues aside, those politicians in Congress and in Republican-controlled state governments who refuse to outlaw military style assault weapons are in my book accomplices in all incidents in which Americans are killed by assault weapons in the hands of perpetrators.

Even when the victims are their neighbors, these Second Amendment fanatics in the political class will not vote for life-saving measures that a strong majority of the American public approves.

Last year, after the mass shootings in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) noted,  

To be clear: using this horror to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens—before we even know what might have prevented this tragedy—and accusing anyone who disagrees of being complicit in this abhorrent crime is not a solution that will make us safer.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R. Tennessee) said at the same time,

Schools should have secured, limited entry points, and increased funding for school resource officers. School officials with prior military or law enforcement experience should be allowed to carry firearms. Finally, mental health must be taken seriously.

Well, the Nashville perpetrator shot the glass out of doors and climbed easily through a seemingly secure entrance.

 Senator Blackburn reacted with a tweet: “Chuck & I are heartbroken to hear about the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville…” Her colleague Senator Hagerty wrote, “Devastated and heartbroken about the tragic news at Covenant School

Always the same, unhelpful phrases.

                                                                       

Congressman Andy Ogles (R-Tennessee), who represents the district that includes Nashville and the Covenant School, posted last year a Christmas card on Facebook depicting his family posing with guns. That’s how deeply ingrained the gun culture is in the United States of America and why it still seems impossible to defeat it.  

2020 and 2024: Trump, his MAGA Crowd, and FOX News

By Brigitte L. Nacos

In 2015, before and after Donald J. Trump declared his presidential candidacy, there were few, if any, so-called experts who gave the New York entrepreneur and TV reality show star a chance.

Like them, I, too, considered his candidacy not more than a public relations stunt to strengthen the Trump brand.

This time around, eight years later, nobody should underestimate the disgraced ex-president’s chances next year. To begin with, he has an excellent chance to become the GOP’s presidential nominee once again, especially, if he has a bunch of primary competitors. Like in 2016, Trump will not need the support of a majority of Republican primary voters in 2024. A plurality will do. And the core MAGA crowd will deliver that.

Even if Ron DeSantis, who as governor of Florida makes great efforts to show Americans his illiberal qualities, and some other presidential hopefuls do not enter the race, Trump remains the favorite to become once again the Republican nominee.

To be sure, much can change in the political climate before and during the primary season. But in spite of a recent burst of news articles and opinion pieces about the alleged fading of Trump’s support among Republican leaders and followers, there are equally compelling signs for his staying power.

I was taken aback by a recent Emerson College poll that found Trump leading DeSantis by 41 percentage points in a hypothetical primary race in New Hampshire with Trump winning 58 percent of the vote and DeSantis merely 17 percent. More surprising was that Chris Sununu, the highly popular governor of New Hampshire, received only 7 percent of the vote—even though he, unlike Maryland’s ex-governor Larry Hogan, has not excluded a presidential run. I found equally stunning that Trump was the preferred candidate of two-thirds of respondents under 35-years old. That was certainly doing away with the assumption that Trump’s support comes primarily from the older generations.  

And then there is the question of what role FOX News might be playing during the primary season and the general campaign.

Based on released documents from the Dominion Voting Systems vs. FOX News defamation lawsuit, Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan along with the network’s management and prime time stars were all along in bed with Trump and acted as the president’s propaganda arm.

In exchange, they raked in record advertising profits because they were the media of record for the Trumpian MAGA movement that guaranteed day-in and day-out the highest audience ratings, especially during prime time.

When everyone at FOX knew that Biden won the 2020 election and that there was no man-made or machine-made voting fraud, the network echoed Trump’s and his clique’s BIG LIE relentlessly and gave ample air time to the wacko line-up of Trump’s conspiratorial advisers.

While the old Murdoch claimed last year that his media would not support another Trump campaign, I, for one, do not believe that. Murdoch and his crew will not risk to lose their most lucrative audience: the hard-core MAGA and QAnon members along with other reactionary groupings. And do not forget the removal of all Twitter boundaries since Elon Musk took over that social media platform.

While not writing off the likelihood of President Biden’s reelection in 2024 (or, unlikely, another Democrat’s election), I believe that Donald Trump has by far the best chance to become the GOP nominee and a chance to win the presidency for the second time--contrary to what certain politicians, pundits, and election experts tell us.