After the tragic events in Parkland in 2018, many Democrats politicized the tragedy and blamed Republicans and President Donald Trump.
Following the tragic Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018, many Democrats, including 11 members of Bend the Arc — a liberal Jewish political action committee — and others immediately politicized the tragedy by blaming President Trump.
After the terrible and senseless stabbing attack in New York in 2019, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo politicized the tragedy and blamed President Trump.
After the terrible shootings in El Paso and in Dayton, many Democrats politicized the tragedies and, once again, blamed the former president.
Following the senseless and tragic shooting in Buffalo earlier this month, some Democrats were quick to point fingers at Republicans, Fox News, and/or Tucker Carlson for publicizing the “great replacement theory.”
Finally, after yesterday’s tragic and despicable school shooting in Texas that claimed the lives of many innocent people, Joe Biden once again immediately politicized the tragedy during an address to the nation. While Biden could have used the speech as an opportunity to bring the nation together during this difficult and somber time, he chose to utilize it as an opportunity to place blame, stating, “As a nation we have to ask when are we going to stand up to the gun lobby — when in God’s name are we going to do what we know needs to be done?”
While the blame game could earn Democrats brownie points with their loyal supporters, its effectiveness ends there. While it is easy to blame Republicans who support the Second Amendment or the nation’s gun laws for these despicable tragedies, those who do so have failed to provide one solution that would have prevented such tragedies.
For example, some have proposed restrictions to the Second Amendment. As reported by Fox News, during a recent episode of Hannity, Geraldo Rivera stated that he had previously spoken to President Trump about a “juvenile assault weapons ban.” In response, Sean Hannity noted that restrictions of this nature are “predicated on a false notion” that evil people with intent will respect such laws. Dan Bongino, who also appeared on the show, agreed and noted that criminals would welcome tougher gun laws, which would only make it harder for the average American to access weapons. When speaking about the recent shooting in Texas, Bongino stated, “You’re talking about an obviously psychologically-disturbed young man here who walked into a school and shot a bunch of schoolkids. You really believe like he was sitting there reading a law book beforehand?”
Hannity and Bongino raise legitimate points. While all Americans mourn the loss of innocent lives due to these senseless and cruel acts of violence, the solution is not to blame Republicans or the gun laws, or to seek to gut the Second Amendment. President Trump didn’t put the knife in the hands of the stabbing suspect in New York nor did he arm the shooting suspects in El Paso or Dayton. President Biden didn’t arm the perpetrators in Buffalo or in Texas, nor was the gun lobby responsible for the horrific events.
Rather, these individuals made their own decisions, just as others did during previous administrations. This is not to say that Congress should not have serious discussions about how to make the country safer. Doing so does not mean pointing fingers at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other senators while pounding on the table and yelling “Enough!” Rather, it means offering solutions that have the potential to realistically make a difference. As Bongino recently noted:
We should expand [police’s] footprint. We have a number of retired law enforcement who have the skills, who may not be able to engage in foot pursuits, but are perfectly capable of securing a two- or three-acre school somewhere. So I think we have to start to think outside the box.
Bongino could very well be on to something! As a matter of fact, a recent article in Townhall includes various examples where armed police officers were used for this exact purpose.
Congress just approved billions of dollars to aide Ukraine. Perhaps that money could have been spent to address this and other problems in America.
